While many corporations and Information Systems units recognize that environmental sustainability is an urgent problem to address, the IS academic community has been slow to acknowledge the problem and take action. We propose ways for the IS community to engage in the development of environmentally sustainable business practices. Specifically, as IS researchers, educators, journal editors, and association leaders, we need to demonstrate how the transformative power of IS can be leveraged to create an ecologically sustainable society. In this Issues and Opinions piece, we advocate a research agenda to establish a new subfield of energy informatics, which applies information systems thinking and skills to increase energy efficiency. We also articulate how IS scholars can incorporate environmental sustainability as an underlying foundation in their teaching, and how IS leaders can embrace environmental sustainability in their core principles and foster changes that reduce the environmental impact of our community.
The conduct of net-enabled business, known variously as electronic commerce (EC) or e-Business, has changed the landscape and opportunities for IS research by shifting the focus from internal to customer/partnering systems. The article examines the two primary dyadic net-enabled relationships in the marketplace: B2C and B2B. It also considers issues that extend beyond these two relationships. B2C practice and research are analyzed from: (1) consumer, (2) service, and (3) risk perspectives. Three central issues of B2B or supply chain practice and research are next considered: (1) beyond simple efficiencies, (2) innovations in B2B technology, and (3) information visibility. Finally, four overarching research issues are examined: (1) strategy, (2) organizational design, (3) metrics, and (4) managing IS. Not all research on the net-enabled organization (NEO) is IS research, and it is critical that IS journals maintain their distinctive focus. Within the bounds of the net-enabled revolution, though, the IS field has an opportunity to shape the phenomenon with timely, theory-based work that will disseminate beyond the IS academic and practitioner communities.
Matching laboratory experiments were conducted in two distinct national cultures to investigate whether computer-mediated communication (CMC) can reduce status effects during group communication in both national cultures. Three independent variables were studied: national culture (Singapore versus U.S.), task type (intellective versus preference), and communication medium (unsupported versus CMC). Three different facets of status effects were measured as dependent variables: status influence, sustained influence, and perceived influence. Singapore groups reported higher sustained influence than U.S. groups. Preference task groups experienced higher status influence and sustained influence than intellective task groups. Unsupported groups also had higher status influence and sustained influence compared to CMC groups. In addition, Singapore groups that completed the preference task in the unsupported setting reported higher perceived influence than groups under other treatments. These results demonstrate that CMC appears to be able to reduce status effects during group communication, both in Singapore and in the United States. This is especially true when groups are working on a preference task. Moreover, status influence appears to be more sustainable in Singapore groups, where group members appear to be more conscious of its presence, than in U.S. groups.
This article presents an executive overview of the article "Measuring Information Systems Service Quality: Lessons From Two Longitudinal Case Studies," by Richard T. Watson, Leyland F. Pitt and C. Bruce Kavan.
This study compares and contrasts the findings of recent information systems (IS) management studies in ten nations or regions as well as one U.S. multinational study. It examines the key concerns of IS executives in these areas, focusing on identifying and explaining regional similarities and differences. Internationally, there are substantial differences in key issues. Possible reasons for these differences cultural, economic development, political/legal environment, and technological status are discussed. The analysis suggests that national culture and economic development can explain differences in key issues. The paper concludes with a revised framework for key issues studies that will more readily support comparison across time and nations.
This paper responds to the research note in this issue by Van Dyke et al. concerning the use of SERVQUAL, an instrument to measure service quality, and its use in the IS domain. This paper attempts to balance some of the arguments they raise from the marketing literature on the topic with the well-documented counterarguments of SERVQUAL'S developers, as well as our own research evidence and observations in an IS-specific environment. Specifically, evidence is provided to show that the service quality perceptions-expectations subtraction in SERVQUAL is far more rigorously grounded than Van Dyke et al. suggest; that the expectations construct, while potentially ambiguous, is generally a vector in the case of an IS department; and that the dimensions of service quality seem to be as applicable to the IS department as to any other organizational setting. Then, the paper demonstrates that the problems of reliability of difference score calculations in SERVQUAL are not nearly as serious as Van Dyke et al. suggest; that while perceptions-only measurement of service quality might have marginally better predictive and convergent validity, this comes at considerable expense to managerial diagnostics; and reiterate some of the problems of dimensional instability found in our previous research, highlighted by Van Dyke et al. and discussed in many other studies of SERVQUAL. across a range of settings. Finally, four areas for further research in this area are identified.
The IS function now includes a significant service component. However, commonly used measures of IS effectiveness focus on the products, rather than the services, of the IS function. Thus, there is the danger that IS researchers will mismeasure IS effectiveness if they do not include in their assessment package a measure of IS service quality. SERVQUAL, an instrument developed by the marketing area, is offered as a possible measure of IS service quality. SERVQUAL measures service dimensions of tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy. The suitability of SERVQUAL was assessed in three different types of organizations in three countries. After examination of content validity, reliability, convergent validity, nomological validity, and discriminant validity, the study concludes that SERVQUAL is an appropriate instrument for researchers seeking a measure of IS service quality.
The article discusses some factors that may influence the information systems (IS) manager's perceptions of key issues. The article features a study based on data collected from 43 Australian IS managers and describes the information scanning behavior of IS executives. The study found that IS managers who have two-way communication with the chief executive officer (CEO) rate IS strategic planning as less critical and IS managers tend to scan sources that are close to the industry, and they are most influenced by their peers. The findings suggest that IS managers need to be more aware of the necessity to match the ambiguity of a message with its method of transmission and they should broaden their scanning if they wish to find new opportunities for exploiting information systems technology.
A cumulative body of experimental research is emerging that examines the ability of computer technology to support the processes and outcomes of small group meetings. For the most part the group decision support system effort has been concerned with demonstrating the usefulness of the technology in planning and decision-making situations where the quality of the meeting's outcomes can be objectively assessed. In many decision situations, however, there is no objective measure of decision quality available. Rather, the group must reconcile differences in opinion, personal preference, or judgment and achieve consensus about a particular mode of action. As a contribution to the accumulating research on GDSS, the current study examines the effects of a GDSS in resolving conflicts of personal preference. In a task requiring resolution of competing personal preferences, 82 groups--the largest sample size in the GDSS literature to date--were randomly assigned to one of three experiment conditions: (1) a computer-based support system (GDSS); (2) a manual, paper and pencil, support system; or (3) no support whatsoever. Groups were either of size 3 or 4 persons. Use of the GDSS was expected to facilitate democratic participation in group discussion, move group members toward agreement with one another, and result in a high level of satisfaction with the group decision process. While several of the intended effects of the technology were observed, the groups experienced some unintended consequences as a result of using the GDSS. In general, the GDSS technology appeared to offer some advantage over no support, but little advantage over the pencil and paper method of supporting group discussion.