[AISWorld] Contents of Volume 20, Issue 2 (February) Journal of the Association for Information Systems (JAIS)

[JAIS]

Contents of Volume 20, Issue 2 (February) 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

A Multi-Appeal Model of Persuasion for Online Petition Success: A Linguistic Cue-Based Approach

Yan Chen, Florida International University
Shuyuan Deng, Grand Valley State University
Dong-Heon Kwak, Kent State University
Ahmed Elnoshokaty, Northern Michigan University
Jiao Wu, Northern Illinois University

Abstract

Online petitions have become a powerful tool used by the public to affect change in society. Despite the increasing popularity of these petitions, it remains unclear how the public consumes and interprets their content and how this helps the creators of online petitions achieve their goals. This study investigates how linguistic factors present in online petition texts influence petition success. Specifically, drawing upon the dual-process theory of persuasion and the moral persuasion literature, this study examines cognitive, emotional, and moral linguistic factors in petition texts and identifies how they contribute to the success or failure of online petitions. The results, which are based on an analysis of 45,377 petitions from Change.org, show that petitions containing positive emotions and enlightening information are more likely to succeed. Contrary to popular belief, petitions containing heavy cognitive reasoning and those emphasizing moral judgment are less likely to succeed. This study also exemplifies the use of an analytical approach for examining crowd-sourced content involving online political phenomena related to policy-making, governance, political campaigns, and large social causes.

To obtain a copy of the entire article, click on the link below:
Available at: http://aisel.aisnet.org/jais/vol20/iss2/3


Paper

Appraisal of Email Use as A Source of Workplace Stress: A Person-Environment Fit Approach

Jean-Francois Stich, ICN Business School, CEREFIGE
Monideepa Tarafdar, Management Science Department, Lancaster University Management School
Patrick Stacey, Loughborough University
Sir Cary Cooper, Alliance Manchester Business School

Abstract

The paper develops and tests theory that explains under what conditions the extent of email use is appraised as a stressor. Integrating concepts from information acquisition and person-environment fit theories, we hypothesize that individuals appraise their extent of email use as stressful based on the mismatch between their current and desired extents of email use. We define the mismatch as email misfit and the match as email fit. We first develop a conceptual framework that associates email misfit with the individual’s experience of three key workplace stressors—work relationships stressor, job control stressor, and job conditions stressor. We then develop hypotheses framing the relationship between email fit and misfit, and these stressors. We test our hypotheses by applying quadratic polynomial regressions and surface-response analysis to survey data obtained from 118 working individuals. The paper makes three theoretical contributions. First, in reporting a theoretical and empirical construction of email fit and misfit and their relationship to workplace stressors, it shows that email misfit is appraised as stress-creating. That is, both too much email and too little, compared to what the individual desires, are associated with stressors. Secondly, it shows that IT use (in this case, email) is appraised as stressful both when it exceeds (i.e., associated with overload) and fails to meet (i.e., associated with underload), the user’s expectation and preference. Thirdly, this paper suggests the person-environment approach as a theoretically novel way to conceptualize the cognitive appraisal and judgement associated with information underacquisition and overacquisition and shows workplace stressors as potentially new effects associated with them.


To obtain a copy of the entire article, click on the link below:
Available at: http://aisel.aisnet.org/jais/vol20/iss2/2


Paper

Cross-Level Moderation of Team Cohesion in Individuals’ Utilitarian and Hedonic Information Processing: Evidence in the Context of Team-Based Gamified Training

Dong-Heon Kwak, Kent State University
Xiao Ma, University of Houston
Greta Polites, Kent State University
Mark Srite, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
Ross Hightower, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
William Haseman, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Abstract

Firms currently use teams extensively to accomplish organizational objectives. Furthermore, gamification has recently attracted much attention as a means of persuading employees and customers to engage in desired behaviors. Despite the importance of teams and the growing interest in gamification as a persuasion tool, past researchers have paid little attention to team-based gamification from a multilevel perspective. Based on motivational consistency theories, we hypothesize that at the team level, team performance has a positive effect on team cohesion. Drawing on the elaboration likelihood model (ELM), we further hypothesize two cross-level effects in the context of team-based gamified training: first, that team cohesion positively moderates the relationship between utilitarian perceptions (i.e., perceived quality of learning) and attitude; and second, that team cohesion negatively moderates the relationship between hedonic perceptions (i.e., perceived enjoyment of learning) and attitude. We tested our research model using an enterprise resource planning (ERP) simulation game involving 232 participants in 78 teams. The results of ordinary least squares and hierarchical linear modeling analysis support our hypotheses. This study makes three substantive contributions to the team literature and to the ELM in the context of team-based gamified training. First, it theorizes and empirically tests the effect of team performance on team cohesion at the team level. Second, it extends the ELM by examining the cross-level moderation of team cohesion on human information processing. Third, it demonstrates that the utilitarian and hedonic aspects of information technology do not influence user attitudes equally.


To obtain a copy of the entire article, click on the link below:
Available at: http://aisel.aisnet.org/jais/vol20/iss2/1


 
Elizabeth White Baker, PhD
Production Managing Editor, Journal of the AIS
jais at comm.virginia.edu