[AISWorld] Contents of Volume 19, Issue 11 (November) Journal of the Association for Information Systems (JAIS)

[JAIS]

Contents of Volume 19, Issue 11 (November) Journal of the Association for Information Systems (JAIS), Official Publication of the Association for Information Systems
Published: Monthly Electronically
ISSN: 1536-9323
Published by the Association for Information Systems, Atlanta, USA (http://aisel.aisnet.org/jais/)
 
Editor-in-Chief:  Professor Suprateek Sarker, University of Virginia, USA
 
Paper
 
Evidence-Based Information Systems: A New Perspective and a Road Map for Research-Informed Practice
 
David Wainwright, Northumbria University
Briony J. Oates, Teesside University
Helen M. Edwards, University of Sunderland
Sue Childs, Northumbria University
 
Abstract
 
Despite the increasing sophistication and quality of published work, the development of a cumulative body of knowledge and an evidence-base for information systems (IS) research still represents a major challenge. IS research is still predominantly undertaken by IS researchers for other IS researchers and not utilized to its full extent by IS practitioners or policy-makers. We focus on this problem and express the need for a new evidence-based research perspective. It is argued that it is time to refocus the efforts of IS academics (and practitioners) to develop a new evidence-base for IS research whereby it can more routinely inform, develop, improve and support IS practice. We contribute to this debate by defining evidence-based practice (EBP), its relevance to IS, and the need to develop an evidence-based approach. We look in particular at its brief history, and its subsequent evolution, development and widespread acceptance in Medicine; making reference to recent arguments and critiques of EBP in other disciplines such as software engineering and management. We espouse the need to develop a similar evidence-based movement and infrastructure within the IS research and practitioner communities and then put forward a possible road map for the development of Evidence-Based Information Systems (EBIS) that comprises 9 key initiatives. We conclude our argument by stating that the current extent, severity and impact of IS failures are unacceptable, emphasizing the need for a new perspective for IS research that encourages and incorporates EBP as a guiding principle to inform better IS practice.
 
To obtain a copy of the entire article, click on the link below:
Available at: http://aisel.aisnet.org/jais/vol19/iss11/4
 
 
Paper
 
“Unblackboxing” Decision Makers’ Interpretations of IS Certifications in the Context of Cloud Service Certifications
 
Jens Lansing, University of Cologne
Alexander Benlian, TU Darmstadt
Ali Sunyaev, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
 
Abstract
 
IS literature has predominantly taken a black box perspective on IS certifications and studied their diverse set of outcomes, such as signaling superior quality and increased customer trust. As a result, there is little understanding about the structure of certifications and its role in decision makers’ evaluations of certifications to achieve these outcomes. However, idiosyncrasies of novel IT services, such as cloud services, create a need for “unblackboxing” certifications and theorizing about their constituting structural building blocks and structural elements, as well as examining key features that might lead to a more favorable evaluation of a certification by decision makers. To advance theory building on certifications, this article develops an empirically grounded typology of certifications’ key structural building blocks and structural elements, and examines how they interpret substantive features within these elements. Using evidence from 20 interviews with decision makers from a wide range of industries in the context of cloud service certifications, we find that a decision maker’s aggregate evaluation of a certification is a function of their interpretations of its features guided by cognitive interpretive schemas along six key structural elements, contrasted with the decision makers’ expectations regarding the certification’s outcomes. This study contributes by conceptualizing the necessary and sufficient elements of certifications, constructing a nascent theory on decision makers’ evaluations of certifications, and illuminating the dynamics between certifications’ structural elements and outcomes as a coevolutionary process. We discuss implications for the certification literature and give managerial advice regarding the factors to consider when designing and evaluating certifications.
 
 
To obtain a copy of the entire article, click on the link below:
Available at: http://aisel.aisnet.org/jais/vol19/iss11/3
 
 
Paper
 
Theorizing the Multilevel Effects of Interruptions and the Role of Communication Technology
 
Shamel Addas, Queen’s University
Alain Pinsonneault, McGill University
 
Abstract
 
Our understanding of how interrupting the work of an individual affects group outcomes and the role of communication technologies (CT) in shaping these effects is limited. Drawing upon coordination theory and the literatures on computer-mediated communication and interruptions, this paper develops a multilevel theory of work interruptions. It suggests that interruptions that target individuals can also affect other group members through various ripple effects and a cross-level direct effect. We also discuss how the usage of five CT capabilities during interruption episodes can moderate the impact of interruptions at the individual and group levels. Our theoretical model draws attention to the importance of examining the individual-to-group processes to better understand the impact of interruptions in group environments. Additionally, by accounting for the role of the use of CT capabilities during interruption episodes, our work contributes to both the interruptions literature, which dedicates scant attention to the interrupting media, and to IS research on media use and media effects.
 
 
To obtain a copy of the entire article, click on the link below:
Available at: http://aisel.aisnet.org/jais/vol19/iss11/2
 
Paper
 
Is More Information Better? An Economic Analysis of Group-Buying Platforms
 
Hong Xu, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
 
Abstract
 
Group buying as a new form of e-commerce has experienced rapid development over the past few years. Group-buying platforms offer a new channel for local small- to medium-sized companies to promote themselves, and also provide consumers with the opportunity to experience new products and services at deep discounts. In this paper, we examine merchants’ pricing strategies and consumers’ purchasing decisions when different types of information are available on a group-buying platform. Consumers purchasing deals from group-buying platforms face a high level of quality uncertainty, due to lack of experience with the products and incomplete information about the products and merchants on group-buying platforms. The lack of face-to-face communication between customers and merchants before redeeming the deals also intensifies the uncertainty between the transacting parties. Group-buying platforms seek to alleviate such uncertainty by designing a rich user interface that contains various types of information about the merchants or the deals. We use a game-theoretic model to capture the interactions between merchants and consumers under three cases, contextualized by a simple, moderate, or complex information environment. We show that merchants benefit when the environment moves from a simple to moderate information environment, but further movement from a moderate to a complex information environment leads to a more intriguing effect on merchants’ discount strategies. In particular, very high-quality merchants or very low-quality merchants benefit from larger discounts in the context of complex information versus a moderate information environment; therefore, such merchants are disadvantaged when more than a moderate amount of information is provided. Our analysis shows that providing more information can harm merchants under certain conditions; we offer implications for merchants as well as for the group-buying platforms concerning their information strategies.
 
To obtain a copy of the entire article, click on the link below:
Available at: http://aisel.aisnet.org/jais/vol19/iss11/1
 
 
 
Elizabeth White Baker, PhD
Production Managing Editor, Journal of the AIS
jais at comm.virginia.edu