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Teaching Tip: Teaching Undergraduate IS Students Hands-on Generative AI Development Skills
No full textGenerative AI (GenAI) is increasingly essential in the professional workplace, making it crucial to equip students with the necessary GenAI skills. In information systems (IS) education, students often find themselves in a unique position: they may possess a solid knowledge of technology but tend to lack the deep programming expertise of computer science and engineering majors. To address this gap, we developed a series of labs designed to introduce IS undergraduate students to hands-on generative AI development. The labs aim to familiarize students with OpenAI API, teach students to create programs leveraging the API for tasks such text generation, image generation, and transcription, guide students in practicing prompt engineering techniques, and enable students to build web applications powered by OpenAI APIs. We implemented these labs in an upper-level undergraduate IS elective course in 2024 with 93 students. Students reported increased confidence in creating generative AI powered applications and a deeper understanding of the limitations of current models. This teaching tip explores the feasibility and adoption strategies for other instructors interested in incorporating the labs into their courses
A Blessing or a Curse? Uncovering the Impact of Biometrics on Humanitarian Response in Lebanon
No full textBiometric data, including unique identifiers such as fingerprints, iris scans, and facial images, have assumed a crucial role in international aid operations. Humanitarian organizations emphasize the potential of biometrics to prevent fraud, enhance identity management, and streamline aid delivery, while critical scholarship raises concerns about privacy violations and exclusionary outcomes. Yet empirical studies examining the impacts of biometric systems in humanitarian field practice remain limited. This paper addresses that gap by analyzing the use of biometrics in Lebanon, the country hosting the world’s highest number of refugees per capita and per square kilometer. Drawing on document analysis and 12 in-person interviews with humanitarian experts and human rights advocates, the paper explores how biometric systems shape outcomes, decision-making processes, and the distribution of risks and benefits across different actors. It does so by applying a data justice framework that distinguishes between instrumental, procedural, and distributive dimensions of justice. Findings indicate that while biometric systems offer operational advantages for humanitarian organizations, they also generate substantial challenges for refugees, including privacy breaches, misidentification, and exclusion. The paper calls for more critical and context-sensitive evaluations of biometric technologies, assessing not only their technical performance but also the sociotechnical and power dynamics through which they operate
Processes and Performance in Technology-Enabled Teams: The Mediating Role of Team Ambidexterity
No full textInformation systems (IS) usage by team members within organizational teams is crucial to organizational work. Research shows that in addition to IS use, teams work through a number of processes (e.g., coordination, communication, conflict management, knowledge sharing) and develop emergent states (e.g., cohesion, ambidexterity) that influence their effectiveness. This research theoretically explores the distinction between team processes and emergent states and how they affect team outcomes. Specifically, it focuses on how the emergent state of team ambidexterity mediates the relationship between the team processes of IS usage and coordination and team performance. We conducted an observational study and a quantitative study with 106 team members in 33 teams in an organization. The findings indicate that team ambidexterity mediates the relationship between team IS usage and performance, as well as team coordination and performance. This research contributes to a better understanding of the construct of team ambidexterity and the concepts of team processes and emergent states and their relative roles in affecting team performance in technology-enabled work. We discuss the theoretical implications and contributions of our work and provide avenues for future research
The Role of Information and Communication Technology in Self-assessed Health: Evidence from China
No full textThe development of information and communication technology (ICT) has significantly transformed various aspects of our daily lives, including health. This study aims to investigate the impact of ICT on self-assessed health (SAH) and explore the mechanisms through which this relationship operates. Based on data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) collected between 2004 and 2015, we employ ordinary least squares regression, an ordered probit model, and a structural equation model to examine the impact of ICT on SAH. The results show that ICT has a significant positive effect on SAH, particularly among high-income, rural, and younger to middle-aged individuals. On average, an additional one percentage point increase in ICT diffusion is associated with a 0.236 point improvement in SAH. Furthermore, the mechanism analysis reveals that approximately 17.50% of ICT’s impact on SAH can be attributed to improvements in physical activity (13.3%) and nutrition (4.2%). Additionally, a back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests that approximately 0.78 to 2.09 million Chinese individuals would benefit from greater access to ICT in terms of health. This study highlights the critical role of ICT in improving health outcomes, provides feasible policy recommendations for leveraging ICT for development (ICT4D), and contributes to achieving Sustainable Development Goal 3 (Good Health and Well-being) in emerging economies during the digital era
Advancing Cybersecurity Research in Information Systems Research: A Broader Perspective
No full textBackground: The rapidly evolving cybersecurity environment demands research that reflects the interconnected technical, organisational, and human factors shaping modern digital risk. IS, as a multidisciplinary discipline, is well positioned to address this complexity by integrating behavioural, managerial, economic, and technological perspectives. However, the current literature shows a tendency to rely on psychological theories and individual-level explanations, limiting the development of system-level insights that organisations require for effective cybersecurity governance and strategic decision-making.
Method: The study systematically reviewed 163 papers published in leading A and A* IS journals. Following established content-analysis procedures, articles were coded against CyBOK knowledge areas, theoretical foundations, and methodological approaches to ensure rigour, reliability, and transparency.
Results: The review indicates that IS cybersecurity research remains heavily weighted towards behavioural constructs, with comparatively little attention to organisational capabilities, governance structures, economic evaluation, or operational resilience. These gaps point to the need for theoretical expansion through lenses such as dynamic capabilities, institutional theory, and real-options reasoning. The findings also highlight the importance of methodological diversity, particularly qualitative studies, case research, and design science research, to produce knowledge that is both conceptually robust and directly applicable to practice.
Conclusions: A more comprehensive sociotechnical approach to IS cybersecurity research can strengthen theoretical development and improve practical relevance by addressing organisational realities, informing governance and investment decisions, and supporting actionable, practice-aligned improvements in cybersecurity resilience
Structured Uncertainty as a Framework for Developing Analytical Capabilities: Evidence from Systems Analysis and Design Education
No full textMany analytic courses teach methods in settings where problems are already defined. Professional practice differs. Analysts must define problems, justify choices, and revise interpretations while working with stakeholders under uncertainty. This study examines how such capability develops through a three-year investigation of an undergraduate Systems Analysis and Design course. It introduces structured uncertainty as a course design approach that preserves instructional structure while requiring students to assume responsibility for defining and justifying problems. Using data from three cohorts taught between 2023 and 2025 (75 students, 481 reflections), the study compares learning trajectories under different instructional conditions. Drawing on Problem Framing Theory and Legitimate Peripheral Participation, the findings show that under structured uncertainty, when students assumed interpretive responsibility early, analytical capability persisted and integrated over time. When responsibility was largely limited to executing predefined analyses, early gains in problem framing weakened and integration did not occur. The results show that analytical capability develops through the interaction of professional identity, interpretive reasoning, and evaluation of value. While situated in Systems Analysis and Design, the findings offer a transferable design logic for analytic courses that prepare students for professional judgment under uncertainty
Better (Cyber) Insured than Sorry? Unraveling Cognitive Factors in the (Non)Adoption of Personal Cyber Insurance using fsQCA
No full textGiven the rising number of cyber security incidents worldwide, preventive cyber security measures no longer seem sufficient to protect the public and private spheres from existentially threatening losses. Although personal cyber insurance policies covering residual cyber risks already exist on the market, they have not yet been widely adopted by individuals. Therefore, we investigate which conditional configurations of cognitive factors lead private individuals to adopt (or not adopt) personal cyber insurance. Drawing on the Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) and Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), we analyze survey data from 301 individuals located in the United States using Fuzzy-Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA). Supported by 12 a priori propositions, our configurational results uncover asymmetric explanatory patterns for why individuals choose to adopt (or not to adopt) personal cyber insurance that go beyond prior adoption-focused and variance-based cyber insurance studies. We contribute to IS research by applying PMT and TPB from a configurational perspective, moving beyond traditional, symmetric models explaining insurance adoption behavior. Our study encourages IS researchers to move beyond well-studied preventive measures and explore cyber insurance as an understudied response to residual cyber risks. Moreover, we offer the cyber insurance industry customer segment-tailored strategies to increase personal cyber insurance adoption
The Only Constant is Change: CAIS and the Ever-Evolving World of IS Research and Practice
No full textIn this commentary I reflect on the twenty five-year history of the Communications of the Association for Information Systems (CAIS) to ask a question I do not intend to resolve: should CAIS as a publishing institution change—more and faster—given the transformations to IS research and practice brought on by digitalization and artificial intelligence, or should it remain a stable and traditional institution that preserves its tradition and serves as an anchor to the community of information systems scholars? I present arguments for the need to accelerate change as well as arguments for the need to maintain stability. Instead of offering a verdict, I then propose a middle path: keep the ends constant—CAIS’ ideals of community stewardship, pluralism of forms, and the free flow of ideas—while modernizing the means of implementing them. My hope with this reflection is to ignite a broader conversation about CAIS as a foundational pillar for our community and the role of publishing institutions in the future of our community
Analyzing Inclusion and Inequalities in ICT4D: A Critical Literature Review of Themes and Gaps
No full textEven though the field of ICT4D has had a long-standing interest in understanding the relationship between ICTs, inclusion, and inequalities, the topic has not yet been reviewed systematically till date. We lack a comprehensive understanding of how these concepts have evolved, the emerging contestations in this space, and the implications they have for future research and practice in the area of equitable digital futures. In response to this gap, this paper provides a critical review of the ICT4D literature on digital inclusion and inequalities, via a review of 77 articles on this topic. Our findings suggest that digital inclusion theorizations have matured beyond access-only, techno-determinist and universalist understandings of ICTs to embrace more socially embedded and human-centric approaches. However, important limitations remain, key among them being what we conceptualize as a “paradigm lag” in theorization, i.e., where the literature continues to predominantly engage with how to maximize the development benefits of ICTs, while the more complex and politicized dynamics associated with newer modalities of the ICT4D paradigm, such as digital enforcements, data extractivism, and surveillance, continue to be underexplored. Overall, the paper emphasizes the need to foster critical but also generative ICT4D scholarship that can strengthen evidence for positive structural transformation
Civic Engagement in the Digital Era: The Role of E-Participation in Anti-Corruption Efforts
No full textThe study investigates the role of e-participation in anti-corruption efforts, utilizing a large panel dataset and various linear and non-linear estimation techniques, including random and fixed effects, generalized method of moments, and Random Forest machine learning algorithms. The findings reveal that e-participation significantly reduces corruption, with this effect holding across all country-income groups. The largest impact is observed in lower-middle-income countries, while high-income nations experience diminishing returns beyond a higher threshold. The study also highlights the complementary relationship between e-participation and e-government, showing that the combined use of these digital tools strengthens anti-corruption efforts. E-information emerges as the most influential component, raising public awareness and enhancing transparency. Additionally, while early e-government adoption has minimal impact, its influence on reducing corruption strengthens over time, eventually surpasses that of e-participation. The results underscore the need for continuous innovation and institutional support to sustain the effectiveness of e-participation in combating corruption, especially in the face of evolving digital threats