Knowledge that Transforms

Prior research has examined age, gender, experience, and voluntariness as the main moderators of beliefs on technology acceptance. This paper extends this line of research beyond these demographic and situational variables. Motivated by research that suggests that behavioral models do not universally hold across cultures, the paper identifies espoused national cultural values as an important set of individual difference moderators in technology acceptance. Building on research in psychological anthropology and cultural psychology that assesses cultural traits by personality tests at the individual level of analysis, we argue that individuals espouse national cultural values to differing degrees. These espoused national cultural values of masculinity/femininity, individualism/collectivism, power distance, and uncertainty avoidance are incorporated into an extended model of technology acceptance as moderators. We conducted two studies to test our model. Results indicated that, as hypothesized, social norms are stronger determinants of intended behavior for individuals who espouse feminine and high uncertainty avoidance cultural values. Contrary to expectations, espoused masculinity/femininity values did not moderate the relationship between perceived usefulness and behavioral intention but, as expected, did moderate the relationship between perceived ease of use and behavioral intention.

Firms today use information about customers to improve service and design personalized offerings. To do this successfully, however, firms must collect consumer information. This study enhances awareness about a central paradox for firms investing in personalization; namely, that consumers who value information transparency are also less likely to participate in personalization. We examine the relationship between information technology features, specifically information transparency features, and consumer willingness to share information for online personalization. Based on a survey of over 400 online consumers, we examine the question of whether customer perceived information transparency is associated with consumer willingness to be profiled online. Our results indicate that customers who desire greater information transparency are less willing to be profiled. This result poses a dilemma for firms, as the consumers that value information transparency features most are also the consumers who are less willing to be profiled online. In order to manage this dilemma, we suggest that firms adopt a strategy of providing features that address the needs of consumers who are more willing to partake in personalization, therefore accepting that the privacy sensitive minority of consumers are unwilling to participate in personalization, despite additional privacy features.

An understanding of culture is important to the study of information technologies in that culture at various levels, including national, organizational, and group, can influence the successful implementation and use of information technology. Culture also plays a role in managerial processes that may directly, or indirectly, influence IT. Culture is a challenging variable to research, in part because of the multiple divergent definitions and measures of culture. Notwithstanding, a wide body of literature has emerged that sheds light on the relationship of IT and culture. This paper sets out to provide a review of this literature in order to lend insights into our understanding of the linkages between IT and culture. We begin by conceptualizing culture and laying the groundwork for a values-based approach to the examination of IT and culture. Using this approach, we then provide a comprehensive review of the organizational and cross-cultural IT literature that conceptually links these two traditionally separate streams of research. From our analysis, we develop six themes of IT-culture research emphasizing culture’s impact on IT, IT’s impact on culture, and IT culture. Building upon these themes, we then develop a theory of IT, values, and conflict. Based upon the theory, we develop propositions concerning three types of cultural conflict and the results of these conflicts. Ultimately, the theory suggests that the reconciliation of these conflicts results in a reorientation of values. We conclude with the particular research challenges posed in this line of inquiry.

The aim of this research essay is to examine the structural nature of theory in Information Systems. Despite the importance of theory, questions relating to its form and structure are neglected in comparison with questions relating to epistemology. The essay addresses issues of causality, explanation, prediction, and generalization that underlie an understanding of theory. A taxonomy is proposed that classifies information systems theories with respect to the manner in which four central goals are addressed: analysis, explanation, prediction, and prescription. Five interrelated types of theory are distinguished: (1) theory for analyzing, (2) theory for explaining, (3) theory for predicting, (4) theory for explaining and predicting, and (5) theory for design and action. Examples illustrate the nature of each theory type. The applicability of the taxonomy is demonstrated by classifying a sample of journal articles. The paper contributes by showing that multiple views of theory exist and by exposing the assumptions underlying different viewpoints. In addition, it is suggested that the type of theory under development can influence the choice of an epistemological approach. Support is given for the legitimacy and value of each theory type. The building of integrated bodies of theory that encompass all theory types is advocated.

Explanation facilities are considered essential in facilitating user interaction with knowledge-based systems (KBS). Research on explanation provision and the impact on KBS users has shown that the domain expertise affects the type of explanations selected by the user and the basis for seeking such explanations. The prior literature has been limited, however, by the use of simulated KBS that generally provide only feedback explanations (i.e., ex post to the recommendation of the KBS being presented to the user). The purpose of this study is to examine the way users with varying levels of expertise use alternative types of KBS explanations and the impact of that use on decision making. A total of 64 partner/ manager-level and 82 senior/staff-level insolvency professionals participated in an experiment involving the use of a fully functioning KBS to complete a complex judgment task. In addition to feedback explanations, the KBS also provided feedforward explanations (i.e., general explanations during user input about the relationships between information cues in the KBS) and included definition type explanations (i.e., declarative-level knowledge). The results show that users were more likely to adhere to recommendations of the KBS when an explanation facility was available. Choice patterns in using explanations indicated that novices used feedforward explanations more than experts did, while experts were more likely than novices to use feedback explanations. Novices also used more declarative knowledge and initial problem solving type explanations, while experts used more procedural knowledge explanations. Finally, use of feedback explanations led to greater adherence to the KBS recommendation by experts—a condition that was even more prevalent as the use of feedback explanations increased. The results have several implications for the design and use of KBS in a professional decision-making environment.

This study examines how processes of external influence shape information technology acceptance among potential users, how such influence effects vary across a user population, and whether these effects are persistent over time. Drawing on the elaboration-likelihood model (ELM), we compared two alternative influence processes, the central and peripheral routes, in motivating IT acceptance. These processes were respectively operationalized using the argument quality and source credibility constructs, and linked to perceived usefulness and attitude, the core perceptual drivers of IT acceptance. We further examined how these influence processes were moderated by users’ IT expertise and perceived job relevance and the temporal stability of such influence effects. Nine hypotheses thus developed were empirically validated using a field survey of document management system acceptance at an eastern European governmental agency. This study contributes to the IT acceptance literature by introducing ELM as a referent theory for acceptance research, by elaborating alternative modes of influence, and by specifying factors moderating their effects. For practitioners, this study introduces influence processes as policy tools that managers can employ to motivate IT acceptance within their organizations, benchmarks alternative influence strategies, and demonstrates the need for customizing influence strategies to the specific needs of a user population.

Although there is a long tradition of empirical studies of software developers, few studies have focused on software maintenance. Prior work is predicated on the belief that higher levels of software comprehension are associated with higher levels of performance on modification tasks. This study provides a more complete understanding of the relationship between software comprehension and modification. We conceptualize software maintenance as interlinking comprehension and modification, and argue that the relationship between the two is moderated by cognitive fit. Specifically, cognitive fit exists when the software maintainer’s dominant mental representation of the software and their mental representation of the modification task emphasize the same type of knowledge. We hypothesize that when cognitive fit exists, greater improvements in comprehension are associated with higher levels of performance on a modification task. When cognitive fit does not exist, however, the software maintainer’s mental representations of the software and of the modification task do not emphasize the same type of knowledge, which may mean that attention is devoted to comprehension at the expense of modification, resulting in lower performance on the modification task. In these circumstances, comprehension and modification tasks may interfere with each other, an effect known as dual-task interference. We therefore hypothesize that performance on a modification task is moderated by the fit between the mental representation of the software and that of the modification task. We tested our theory by varying cognitive fit to create matched and mismatched conditions in a single experiment that used IT professionals as subjects. Our findings support our theory: cognitive fit moderates the relationship between comprehension and modification. Specifically, changes in software comprehension and modification performance are positively related when cognitive fit exists and negatively related when cognitive fit does not exist. Our findings demonstrate the need to examine more complex relationships among the numerous types of tasks involved in software development rather than examining software comprehension alone.

This paper extends Ajzen’s (1991) theory of planned behavior (TPB) to explain and predict the process of e-commerce adoption by consumers. The process is captured through two online consumer behaviors: (1) getting information and (2) purchasing a product from a Web vendor. First, we simultaneously model the association between these two contingent online behaviors and their respective intentions by appealing to consumer behavior theories and the theory of implementation intentions, respectively. Second, following TPB, we derive for each behavior its intention, attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control (PBC). Third, we elicit and test a comprehensive set of salient beliefs for each behavior. A longitudinal study with online consumers supports the proposed e-commerce adoption model, validating the predictive power of TPB and the proposed conceptualization of PBC as a higher-order factor formed by self-efficacy and controllability. Our findings stress the importance of trust and technology adoption variables (perceived usefulness and ease of use) as salient beliefs for predicting ecommerce adoption, justifying the integration of trust and technology adoption variables within the TPB framework. In addition, technological characteristics (download delay, Website navigability, and information protection), consumer skills, time and monetary resources, and product characteristics (product diagnosticity and product value) add to the explanatory and predictive power of our model. Implications for Information Systems, e-commerce, TPB, and the study of trust are discussed.

In the context of personalization technologies, such as Web-based product-brokering recommendation agents (RAs) in electronic commerce, existing technology acceptance theories need to be expanded to take into account not only the cognitive beliefs leading to adoption behavior, but also the affect elicited by the personalized nature of the technology. This study takes a trust-centered, cognitive and emotional balanced perspective to study RA adoption. Grounded on the theory of reasoned action, the IT adoption literature, and the trust literature, this study theoretically articulates and empirically examines the effects of perceived personalization and familiarity on cognitive trust and emotional trust in an RA, and the impact of cognitive trust and emotional trust on the intention to adopt the RA either as a decision aid or as a delegated agent. An experiment was conducted using two commercial RAs. PLS analysis results provide empirical support for the proposed theoretical perspective. Perceived personalization significantly increases customers’ intention to adopt by increasing cognitive trust and emotional trust. Emotional trust plays an important role beyond cognitive trust in determining customers’ intention to adopt. Emotional trust fully mediates the impact of cognitive trust on the intention to adopt the RA as a delegated agent, while it only partially mediates the impact of cognitive trust on the intention to adopt the RA as a decision aid. Familiarity increases the intention to adopt through cognitive trust and emotional trust.