Australian Computer Society: ACS Digital Library
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Practitioners’ Attitudes and Intentions to Use Information Systems Research: A Mixed Method Study of the Research Format
No full textBalancing research relevance and rigour has been a long-standing concern in the Information Systems (IS) discipline, crucial for advancing academic understanding and disseminating knowledge to practitioners. This paper addresses the need for effective knowledge product translation and dissemination by proposing the use of animated research briefs with visual storytelling cues. Grounded in the cognitive theory of multimedia learning and critical narrative theory, these briefs aim to make research more accessible and engaging for IS practitioners. A mixed-method approach is deployed: (1) a survey-based experiment to assess how research format influences practitioners' attitudes, which in turn affect their intentions to use academic research to solve work-related problems in the near term, and (2) in-depth interviews to explore practitioners’ perceptions of different research formats and their impact on the intention to use academic research in the near term. The paper offers new insights into the effectiveness of multimedia formats in enhancing practitioner engagement and understanding, thereby fostering a more effective dissemination and translation of research knowledge for practitioner audiences
Supporting Organisational Agility through Boundary Spanning and Knowledge Brokering in a Dual Operating System: A Case from the Software Industry
No full textOne challenge that organisations face today is how to develop organisational agility to remain competitive within a constantly turbulent, dynamic, and potentially disruptive environment. In this paper, we examine how a software development company operationalises Kotter’s concept of a dual operating system to support organisational agility. The first operating system, the traditional hierarchical structure, enables the company to focus on providing efficiency and stability in its core operations. The second operating system prioritises flexibility. It is operationalised via boundary spanning and knowledge brokering activities rooted in a dedicated organisational unit that enables rapid response to environmental changes. We analyse the unit’s and its members’ approach and identify well-functioning activities and practices contributing to organisational agility as well as challenges and problems. As such we contribute to an improved understanding of how an intertwined strategy of boundary spanning and knowledge brokering, operating alongside a traditional hierarchical structure, forms a balancing mechanism between flexibility and stability, thus enabling organisational agility
Risks of e-commerce Recommender Systems: A Scoping Review
No full textWhile recommender systems (RS) used in e-commerce have improved significantly providing customers with a personalised shopping experience, scholars have constantly raised concerns over the risks associated with e-commerce RS. However, a lack of methodological synthesis of risk-generating events associated with e-commerce recommender systems has curtailed systematic investigation of the risks of e-commerce RS. This paper presents a scoping review aimed at addressing this gap by synthesising different risk-generating events involved with the use of e-commerce RS as reported in the literature that could affect the welfare of customers who use those systems. Accordingly, peer-reviewed research studies published from 2003-2023 were extracted from the SCOPUS database and EBSCOhost platform for review. Sixty-two publications with evidence on risk-generating events of e-commerce RS were considered for the review. Twenty risk-generating events were identified through the review. These events were mapped with the corresponding risks based on existing frameworks on risks of e-commerce. We were able to identify several risk-generating events that had not previously been considered in conceptualising the risks of e-commerce RS. Further, we identified the plurality of the outcomes of risk-generating events which could provide guidance for the evaluation of e-commerce recommender systems from a multistakeholder perspective
Doing Big Things in a Small Way: A Social Media Analytics Approach to Information Diffusion During Crisis Events in Digital Influencer Networks
Full text linkDigital influencers play an essential role in determining information diffusion during crisis events. This paper demonstrates that information diffusion (retweets) on the social media platform Twitter (now X) highly depends on digital influencers’ number of followers and influencers’ location within communication networks. We show (study 1) that there is significantly more information diffusion in regional (vs. national or international) crisis events when tweeted by micro-influencers (vs. meso- and macro-influencers). Further, study 2 demonstrates that this pattern holds when micro-influencers operate in a local location (are located local to the crisis). However, effects become attenuated when micro-influencers are situated in a global location (outside of the locality of the event). We term this effect ‘influencer network compression’ – the smaller in scope a crisis event geography (regional, national, or international) and influencer location (local or global) becomes, the more effective micro-influencers are at diffusing information. This shows that those who possess the most followers (meso- and macro-influencers) are less effective at attracting retweets than micro-influencers situated local to a crisis. As online information diffusion plays a critical role during public crisis events, this paper contributes to both practice and theory by exploring the role of digital influencers and their network geographies in different types of crisis events
Mobile Identity Protection: The Moderation Role of Self-Efficacy
Full text linkThe rapid growth of mobile applications and the associated increased dependency on digital identity raises the growing risk of identity theft and related fraud. Hence, protecting identity in a mobile environment is a problem. This study develops a model that examines the role of identity protection self-efficacy in increasing users’ motivation intentions to achieve actual mobile identity protection. Our research found that self-efficacy significantly affects the relationship between users’ perceived threat appraisal and their motivational intentions for identity protection. The relation between mobile users’ protection, motivational intentions, and actual mobile identity protection actions was also found to be significant. Additionally, the findings revealed the considerable impact of awareness in fully mediating between self-efficacy and actual identity protection. The model and its hypotheses are empirically tested through a survey of 383 mobile users, and the findings are validated through a panel of experts, thus confirming the impact of self-efficacy on an individual’s identity protection in the mobile context
Researcher-Practitioner Collaboration in Action Design Research
Full text linkAction Design Research (ADR) is a well-known research method within Design Science Research (DSR). An essential characteristic of the ADR method is the need for researcher-practitioner collaboration (RPC). While there is abundant research on RPC regarding information systems projects in general concerning explanatory and normative knowledge, there is very limited prescriptive knowledge on how to execute RPC in ADR projects. Successful collaboration in ADR projects is imperative since the development of socio-technical IT artefacts requires frequent interaction in organisational contexts. However, RPC can be hard to manage due to competing interests. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to present prescriptive knowledge for how to manage RPC. We have analysed a collaborative ADR project consisting of several researchers and practitioners. Based on a grounded theory approach, we have developed theoretical models based on challenges identified in an ADR project. The models provide prescriptive knowledge regarding: shape the IT artefact based on organisational intervention, exploit the mutual dependency between developing design principles and IT artefacts, and contextualise and generalise learning. Each model involves logical relationships between: conditions for the challenges, actions taken to address the challenges and consequences of the actions taken. The guidelines were deducted from the models and consist of recommendations that could be considered in future ADR projects
“Use” as a Conscious Thought: Towards a Theory of “Use” in Autonomous Things
Full text linkThe way users perceive and use information systems artefacts has been mainly studied from the notion of behavioral beliefs, deliberate cognitive efforts, and physical actions performed by human actors to produce certain outcomes. The next generation of information systems, however, can sense, respond, and adapt to environments without necessitating similar cognitive efforts, physical contact, or explicit instructions to operate. Therefore, by leveraging theories of consciousness and technology use, this research aims to advance an alternative understanding of the "use" associated with the next generation of IS artefacts that do not require deliberate cognitive efforts, physical manipulation, or explicit instructions to yield outcomes. The theory and proposed model were refined and validated through the burst detection technique, IS expert involvement (n=10), a pilot study (n=130), and end-user surveys (n= 119). Structural equating modelling techniques were employed to test the theory. We show that unlike the manually operated IS artefacts, the “use” of a fully autonomous artefact is a conscious thought rather than a physical activity of operating a system to produce certain outcomes. We argue that, unlike the traditional notions of use associated with manually operated technologies, conscious use is not characterized solely by behavioral beliefs stemming from logical and reflective cognitive and physical efforts (e.g., effort expectancy). We propose the notion of conscious use within the context of fully autonomous entities and empirically validate its measure. Additionally, we offer recommendations for future research directions in this area. The conceptualization of this new theory for fully autonomous IS artefacts adds significant academic value to the literature given the convergence of AI-based machine learning systems and cognitive computing systems.
Robodebt: A Socio-Technical Case Study of Public Sector Information Systems Failure
Full text linkLarge-scale public sector information systems (PSIS) that administer social welfare payments face considerable challenges. Between 2014 and 2023, an Australian government agency conceived and implemented the Online Compliance Intervention (OCI) scheme, widely referred to as Robodebt. The scheme's primary purpose was to apply digital transformation in order to reduce labour costs and increase recovery of overpayments. Among its key features were a simplified, but inherently erroneous, estimation method called income averaging, and a new requirement that welfare recipients produce documentation for income earned years earlier. Failure by welfare recipients to comply with mandates resulted in the agency recovering what it asserted to be overpayments. This article presents a case study of Robodebt and its effects on over 1 million of its clients. The detailed case study relies on primary data through Senate and other government hearings and commissions, and secondary data, such as media reports, supplemented by academic sources. Relevant technical features include (1) the reliance on the digital persona that the agency maintains for each client, (2) computer-performed inferencing from client data, and (3) automated decision-making and subsequent action. This article employs a socio-technical systems approach to understanding the factors underlying a major PSIS project failure, by focusing on the system's political and public service sponsors; its participants (users); the people affected by it (usees); and the broader economic, social, and political context. Practical and theoretical insights are presented, with the intention of highlighting major practical lessons for PSIS, and the relevance of an articulated socio-technical frame for PSIS
Machine Learning Based Decision-Making: A Sensemaking Perspective
Full text linkThe integration of machine learning (ML), functioning as the core of various artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled systems in organizations, comes with the assertion that ML models offer automated decisions or assist domain experts in refining their decision-making. The current research presents substantial evidence of ML’s positive impact on business and organizational performance. Nonetheless, there is a limited understanding of how decision-makers participate in the process of generating ML-driven insights and enhancing their comprehension of business environments through ML outcomes. To enhance this engagement and understanding, this study examines the interactive process between decision-makers and ML experts as they strive to comprehend an environment and gather business insights for decision-making. It builds upon Weick’s sensemaking model by integrating ML’s pivotal role. By conducting interviews with 31 ML experts and ML end-users, we explore the dimensions of sensemaking in the context of ML utilization for decision-making. Consequently, this study proposes a process model which advances the organizational ML research by operationalizing Weick’s work into a structured ML-driven sensemaking model. This model charts a pragmatic pathway, outlining the interaction sequence between decision-makers and ML tools as they navigate through recognizing and utilizing ML, exploring opportunities, assessing ML model outcomes, and translating ML models into action, thereby advancing both the theoretical framework and its practical deployment in organizational contexts
Creating an immersive environment of Metaverse for businesses
No full textMetaverse is an immersive environment that shares online space with users to interact with an artificial world through avatars or other digital representations. By leveraging the immersive features of Metaverse, businesses can create new opportunities for revenue generation, customer engagement, collaboration, innovative products, services, or innovation. The development and governing of user interfaces and virtual environments are challenging. Since the metaverse concept is emerging, numerous questions remain about designing, executing, and benefiting from it in the business environment. This study identifies enablers that can support creating an immersive Metaverse environment for businesses to gain new business opportunities. The study deploys multi-criteria decision-making techniques, "Total Interpretive Structural Modelling," and "Cross-Impact Matrix Multiplication Applied to Classification" to establish cross-relationships among enablers. The study also provides a hierarchical roadmap for creating an immersive metaverse environment. Recognizing which enablers hold the most influence in a hierarchy can lead to the strategic development of an immersive environment. This study will help researchers, policymakers, technology consultants, and business practitioners explore Metaverse's most impacting enablers to gain competitive advantages and future opportunities for the business