[AISWorld] Journal of IT Case and Application Research 22.4 now published

[Bansal, Gaurav]

Dear AIS Community,

I am pleased to present the Vol 22 Issue 4 of Journal of IT Case and Application Research. The contents of this issue are an Editorial Preface article by Drs. Geoffrey Dick, Asli Yagmur Akbulut, and Vic Matta; Research Case article co-authored by Drs. Anand Prakash and Sudhir Ambekar; Teaching Case article co-authored by Drs. Nityesh Bhatt, Nishant Agarwal, and Sunita Guru; Expert Opinion report by Dr. Shana Ponelis; and Book Review by Dr. Don Heath. Summary information on these items is as follows.

In the editorial preface article titled, "Teaching and learning transformation in the time of the coronavirus crisis," the authors focus on how the education landscape has changed almost overnight from the in-person mode to online due to the onslaught of the ongoing pandemic, Covid-19. It discusses how the increased dependence on online platforms for course management and video conferencing requires these systems to be as seamless, user friendly, and inclusive as possible. The article calls for establishing a "gold-standard" for online classes, serving as a benchmark for fully or partially online classes.

The first research article is titled, "Digital transformation using blockchain technology in the construction industry." This article explores the construction industry's readiness towards adopting blockchain technology (BT) and discusses how this disruptive technology could deliver high productivity. This study uses phenomenology and analyses interview data with six experienced professionals to understand the construction industry's readiness to adopt BT. The study also identifies six sequential procedural steps required to implement blockchain solutions within the construction industry successfully. The article shows how BT could help the construction industry to achieve high productivity while relying on Payments in Project Management (PPM), Procurements in Supply Chain Management (PSCM), and Building Information Modelling (BIM) using Smart Asset Management (SAM). This study contributes to the designing of effective blockchain technology-based solutions for the construction industry.

A second research article is a teaching case titled, "Technological Transformation through Electronic Reverse Auction: A Case of GSCSC, India," The case narrates how a giant public sector organization Gujarat State Civil Supplies Corporation Ltd. (GSCSC), India, could achieve remarkable savings by successfully implementing electronic reverse auction (eRA). The case discusses the factors that paved the way for the successful implementation of the eRA technology. The GSCSC took several bold initiatives by extending the eRA from commodities purchase to services, which enabled significant quantitative and qualitative benefits to the organization, government, and other stakeholders.

The Expert Opinion report narrates an interview with Robert J. Beck, Associate Vice-Chancellor and Chief Information Officer at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Robert (Bob) J. Beck assumed his current role as University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's Associate Vice-Chancellor and Chief Information Officer (CIO) in January 2014. Founded in 1956, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) is one of only two doctoral-granting research institutions in the University of Wisconsin System. Bob provides insight into the IT challenges being faced by higher education, especially with the onset of COVID-19. He also provides his perspectives and guidance on the challenges facing CIOs in higher education.

The book review report by Dr. Don Heath provides a detailed critique of the 2016 book titled "Surveillance Capitalism," authored by Shoshana Zuboff and published in 2019 by PublicAffairs, NY. Dr. Heath believes that Zuboff presents a magnificent cautionary tome. She raises many issues surrounding the surveillance capabilities of today's IT that deserve the attention of ethicists, legislators, business leaders, politicians, educators, and society. She presents rich and compelling evidence to support her view that Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and a few others, have the resources, ability, and reach to shape an undemocratic world where they can freely mine the human experience to modify and manipulate human behavior to produce "guaranteed outcomes" and generate ever-larger rents. Dr. Heath suggests that unfettered and unregulated capitalism can give rise to kings. In the case of surveillance capitalism, human experience is the coin of the realm from which new kingdoms are being built. For IT researchers and academics, Zuboff's work raises several questions directly relevant to the way they might think about and teach the use of technology. What ethical boundaries are appropriate regarding the use of "surplus behavioral data"? How far should companies be allowed to go in their efforts to manipulate human behavior? How can organizations involved in reality mining negotiate meaningful informed consent? What should legislators do to respond to surveillance capitalism? Given the new learning division, Zuboff raises good questions: who should know and who should decide? Who decides who decides? These questions are beyond doubt relevant for IT research and teaching, and also for democracy and the current political environment as well.

I offer my sincere thanks to the reviewers and also the associate editors who worked diligently to maintain the high standards of the Journal. In particular, I would like to acknowledge the efforts of Yan Chen (Florida International Univ), Ron Kwok (City University of Hong Kong), Xiao Xiao (Copenhagen Business School, Denmark) for their tireless work in writing helpful and constructive AE reports. I would also acknowledge the following reviewers for their exceptional quality and timely work - Sooil Shin (Kennesaw State), Wenkai Zhou (Univ of Central Oklahoma), Nirankush Dutta (BITS, Pilani, India), and Mala Kaul (Univ of Nevada Reno).

I hope you will enjoy reading all the items in this issue.

With best regards,

Sincerely


Gaurav Bansal, Ph.D.
Editor-in-Chief, Journal of IT Case and Application Research (JITCAR)
Association for Information Systems (AIS) Distinguished Member
University of Wisconsin - Green Bay
www.uwgb.edu/bansalg