Knowledge that Transforms

This study identifies the effects of security investments that arise from previous failures or external regulatory pressure. Building on organizational learning theory, the study focuses on the healthcare sector where legislation mandates breach disclosure and detailed data on security investments are available. Using a Cox proportional hazard model, we demonstrate that proactive security investments are associated with lower security failure rates. Coupling that result with the economics of breach disclosure, we also show that proactive investments are more cost effective in healthcare security than reactive investments. Our results further indicate that this effect is amplified at the state level, supporting the argument that security investments create positive externalities. We also find that external pressure decreases the effect of proactive investments on security performance. This implies that proactive investments, voluntarily made, have more impact than those involuntarily made. Our findings suggest that security managers and policy makers should pay attention to the strategic and regulatory factors influencing security investment decisions.

The effects of e-commerce institutional mechanisms on trust and online purchase have traditionally been understood in the initial online purchase context. This study extends this literature by exploring the role of e-commerce institutional mechanisms in the online repurchase context. In doing so, it responds to the emerging call for understanding the institutional context under which customer trust operates in an e-commerce environment. Specifically, this study introduces a key moderator, perceived effectiveness of e-commerce institutional mechanisms (PEEIM), to the relationships between trust, satisfaction, and repurchase intention. Drawing on the theory of organizational trust, and based on a survey of 362 returning online customers, we find that PEEIM negatively moderates the relationship between trust in an online vendor and online customer repurchase intention, as it decreases the importance of trust to promoting repurchase behavior. We also find that PEEIM positively moderates the relationship between customer satisfaction and trust as it enhances the customer’s reliance on past transaction experience with the vendor to reevaluate trust in the vendor. Consistent with the predictions made in the literature, PEEIM does not directly affect trust or repurchase intention. Academic and practical implications and future research directions are discussed.

The 50-year march of Moore’s Law has led to the creation of a relatively cheap and increasingly easy-to-use world-wide digital infrastructure of computers, mobile devices, broadband network connections, and advanced application platforms. This digital infrastructure has, in turn, accelerated the emergence of new technologies that enable transformations in how we live and work, how companies organize, and the structure of entire industries. As a result, it has become important for all business students to have a strong grounding in IT and digital innovation in order to manage, lead, and transform organizations that are increasingly dependent on digital innovation. Yet, at many schools, students do not get such grounding because the required information systems core class is stuck in the past. We present a vision for a redesigned IS core class that adopts digital innovation as a fundamental and powerful concept (FPC). A good FPC serves as both a foundational concept and an organizing principle for a course. We espouse a particularly broad conceptualization of digital innovation that allows for a variety of teaching styles and topical emphases for the IS core class. This conceptualization includes three types of innovation (i.e., process, product, and business model innovation), and four stages for the overall innovation process (i.e., discovery, development, diffusion, and impact). Based on this conceptualization, we examine the implications of adopting digital innovation as an FPC. We also briefly discuss broader implications relating to (1) the IS curriculum beyond the core class, (2) the research agenda for the IS field, and (3) the identity and legitimacy of IS in business schools.

Online platforms offer access to a larger social group than is generally available through offline contacts, making the Internet an emerging venue for seeking casual sex partners. The ease of seeking sex partners through classified ad sites may promote risky behaviors that increase the transmission of STDs. In this paper, using a natural experiment setup, we investigate whether the entry of a major online personals ad site, Craigslist, increases the prevalence of HIV over a 10 year period from 1999 to 2008 across 33 states in the United States. After controlling for extraneous factors, our results suggest that the entry of Craigslist is related to a 15.9 percent increase in HIV cases. Our analysis suggests that the site entry produces an average of 6,130 to 6,455 cases of HIV infection in the United States each year, mapping out to between $62 million and $65.3 million in annual treatment costs. In addition, the analyses reveal that nonmarket-related casual sex is the primary driver of the increase in HIV cases, in contrast to paid transactions solicited on the site (e.g., escort services and prostitution), which has a negative relationship with HIV trends. These findings are essential to understanding the social routes through which HIV transmission takes place and the extent to which site entry can influence HIV trends. Implications for healthcare practitioners and policy makers are discussed.

The long-term viability of virtual communities depends critically on contribution behavior by their members. We deepen and extend prior research by conceptualizing contributions to virtual communities in terms of small friendship group–referent intentional actions. Specifically, we investigate cognitive, emotional, and social determinants of shared we-intentions and their consequences for member contribution behavior to the small friendship group to which they belong within a larger community. Using multiple measurement sources and a longitudinal quasi-experimental design, we show that group norms and social identity, as well as attitudes and anticipated emotions, contribute to the development of behavioral desires, which in turn influence we-intentions. In addition, subjective norms are less effective than either group norms or social identity in encouraging contribution behavior. Finally, members’ experience levels positively moderate the relationship between we-intentions and contribution behaviors, and differences between collectivistic versus individualistic orientations moderate the effects of social identity and anticipated emotions on the desire to contribute to one’s friendship group in the virtual community. Tests for methods biases were conducted, as well as rival hypotheses. These findings have significant research and managerial implications.