Pacific Asia Journal of the Association for Information Systems

Influence of American Institutions on Information Systems (IS) Research within Asia

Aaron French et al. — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 23:56:05 PDT

As the world continues to globalize, business and academia have begun to take a different form of response to these changes. No longer are researchers restricted to localized education or publication outlets. Journals publications, methods used, and topics researched are heavily influenced by the training researchers receive during their doctoral program. Research conducted in Asia has displayed a strong influence from western culture resulting from top researchers at business schools in Asia obtaining their terminal degrees in the North America. However, Asian research appears entangled between developing theory in local context and international requirements for publication. The current research evaluates the educational background influencing top researchers throughout Asia. A discussion of the implications due to Western influence on Asia is provided along with recommendations for knowledge sharing and increasing diversity among from a multinational and global perspective.

Item Context Effects in IS Survey Research

Wendy Hui — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 23:56:04 PDT

This paper discusses correlational and directional item context effects as two method biases that can threaten the validity of survey data. Two empirical studies are used to establish their presence in IS research. In addition, item separation with partial randomization is shown to be a viable way for researchers to control for correlational item context effects associated with inflated Cronbach’s alphas. This paper also presents a procedure to correct the inter-construct correlations and R2 values to account for directional item context effects in comparative experimental studies.

Editor’s Introduction

Ting-Peng Liang — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 23:56:03 PDT

Three papers are included in this issue. The paper by White, Lafayette and Wang addresses an issue related to the relationship between IS managers and IS department success. This is an important but under-investigated issue. No institution can be successful without an outstanding leader. The paper examines the issue from the perspective of empowerment, leadership and personality. It is not surprising that they found highly empowered managers lead to high IS department performance.

Key Characteristics of a Successful IS Manager: Empowerment, Leadership and personality

Louis P. White et al. — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 23:56:03 PDT

This study examines the relationship between empowerment of IS managers and IS department performance. Data on perceived empowerment, leadership styles, and personality; department performance were collected from 148 managers of IS departments in Taiwan. Information on organizational culture and structure were investigated to assess the moderating effects of these factors on empowerment and performance. Our findings show that highly empowered IS managers have higher performing IS departments. Findings also show that transformational leadership has a positive impact on performance. Data from the BFPI indicate that conscientiousness and agreeableness, as managerial traits, have a significant positive effect on performance. The same was not true for Extroversion, Neuroticism, and Openness which had no significant impact on performance. The results are limited by our small sample and the inclusion of data from a single global region. Suggestions are offered for future research to overcome these limitations

Information Systems for Large-Scale Event Management: A Case Study

Boon-Yuen Ng et al. — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 19:46:16 PST

Information systems (IS) have considerable use in supporting large-scale communication and coordination. This is especially important in contexts such as major event and crisis management which have complex requirements on people and technology. IS facilitate the dissemination of real-time information and coordination among decision makers, and thereby the management of the entire event. This paper describes a case of management and deployment of IS for a large-scale event as an exemplar in this area. Singapore won the bid to host a major international event, the Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, collectively known as S2006. However, there were complex requirements and daunting challenges to be overcome in managing such a high-profile and large-scale event. The paper describes how the Committee in charge delivered the IT infrastructure and systems for this large-scale event with 23,700 participants from 184 countries. It suggests several lessons for IT executives in charge of managing large-scale events, mainly for planned (e.g., sports events) and to some
extent for unplanned (e.g., Japan tsunami or BP oil spill crisis) events. Particularly, it highlights the need for advance preparedness, use of IS for situation awareness, cultivating relationships for communication and coordination, and the importance of vendor management and project management skills. These lessons are valuable for IS deployment for large-scale communication and coordination for future mega-events and to some degree for preparedness for unforeseen events.

Persuasive Decision Support: Improving Reliance on Decision Aids

Alison Parkes — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 19:41:01 PST

The primary role of a decision aid is to guide and support a decision maker. As reliance on a decision aid is largely discretionary the persuasiveness of the system becomes critically important. In this paper characteristics thought to affect systems persuasiveness are examined.
This paper asserts that the target and source of a decision support message, along with the design of the message itself, act to influence the persuasiveness of the decision support provided.
Using a purpose built experimental platform with seventy subjects the research finds that the persuasiveness of a decision support message is varied by the perceived difficulty of the task being undertaken, and the perceived usefulness of the decision support provided. The type of decisional guidance provided also affects persuasiveness of the system; in particular, providing suggestive decisional guidance is shown to significantly improve system persuasiveness. The implications of these findings relate to the appropriate design of decision aids, and the contexts within which a decision aid can be expected to persuade decision makers to reply on the support provided.

Editor's Introduction

Ting-Peng Liang — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 19:41:00 PST

The value of information systems can be realized in many different aspects. A major one is to support decision making and event management. In this issue, we publish two papers, one investigates the role of information systems in decision support and the other shows how information technologies can be applied effectively to assist event management.

A Design Science Approach to Virtual World Implementation of Trade Fairs

Ramesh Sharda et al. — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 01:52:58 PDT

Virtual world technology platforms, which allow users from distant places to congregate virtually for entertainment or other purposes, are growing into useful tools for businesses and consumers. Besides other applications, the concept of same-time, different-place gatherings can also be used to organize virtual trade fairs that are complements or extensions of physical tradeshows. This paper describes a design-science approach to the development of a virtual world technolo-gy platform specifically aimed at creating virtual tradeshow events that bring show attendees and exhibitors together. After describing the design and development of the virtual world tech-nology platform and some of its applications, we report its implementation in a career fair setting organized to facilitate interaction between would-be employers and students at a university.. We also conducted a preliminary evaluation of the effectiveness and efficiency of this virtual event by surveying employers and attendees. Although the event effectiveness is rated aver-age, this exploratory analysis reveals that the virtual events are quite efficient in terms of use of resources. The overall effort to develop the virtual events is minimal as compared to the number of additional attendees that can participate in the event, reducing the cost per new lead gener-ated. As the technology evolves further to enhance richness of the interactions, these virtual events will become major applications of virtual worlds.

IT Governance in Collaborative Networks: A Socio-Technical Perspective

Josephine L.L. Chong et al. — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 01:52:57 PDT

Research on IT governance has tended to focus on the issue within a single organizational environment. Our understanding of IT governance in an inter-organizational context remains limited. In addition, few have taken a socio-technical perspective. The aim of the study is therefore to empirically explore the impacts of socio-technical factors on the effectiveness of IT governance for a collaborative network by examining three IT governance elements: structure, process and relational mechanism. This paper reports on the findings of the pilot phase of the broader study.
The findings indicate that more effective collaborative IT governance is associated with an active involvement of a governing body; a co-ordinated communication process; and the presence of relational culture and attitudinal commitment. Theoretical and managerial implications of the study are discussed.

Fully Mediated Effects of Formative Measures Using MIMIC Constructs

James J. Jiang et al. — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 01:50:11 PDT

Formatively-measured constructs are increasingly applied in information system research models.
Recent work shows that exogenous formatively-measured constructs suffer from a number of problems that include interpretational confounding and a lack of external consistency. Yet replacement by reflectively-measured constructs can lead to bias if not theoretically appropriate. One solution may be to use a MIMIC construct composed of the formative measures as well as two additional reflective measures. A simulation study indicates that a MIMIC so composed mitigates the problems of interpretational confounding and poor external consistency allowing use broader use in a variety of structural models.

Editor’s Introduction

Ting-Peng Liang — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 01:50:10 PDT

This issue includes three papers that reflect three different dimensions of interest to the Pacific Asia Journal of AIS (PAJAIS): research methodology, behavioral research and design science research. The first paper by Jiang, et al. addresses a research methodology issue on handling formative constructs in structural equation modeling. As formative constructs become more
popular, how to properly handle them to avoid the interpretational confounding is an important issue. The paper illustrates how to alleviate the problem by using the MIMIC approach that measures formative constructs by adding two or more additional reflective indicators.

Understanding the Adoption of Convergent Services: The Case of IPTV

Dongwon Lee et al. — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 01:48:20 PDT

Today, many IT innovations that affect our daily lives originate from digital convergence. This study examines the factors influencing consumers’ adoption of Internet protocol TV (IPTV), a representative convergent service combining communication and media technologies. Using innovation diffusion theory, we developed an adoption model reflecting the unique characteristics and usage contexts of IPTV. The results indicate that relative advantage, compatibility, trialability, content diversity, monetary value, personal innovativeness, and social influence have significant direct effects on the consumer’s adoption of IPTV. In addition, the specific attributes of IPTV—namely, interactivity, content diversity, and monetary value—have significant mediating effects on the consumer’s adoption via relative advantage. These results not only provide practical insights into consumer acceptance of new convergent services but also help practitioners plan their marketing strategies more effectively.

Motivations for Using Information for Decision making in Virtual Communities The Moderating Effects of Usage Behavior

Li-Ting Huang et al. — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 01:48:19 PDT

Virtual communities are increasingly being viewed as important shopping reference groups and are being used as a new medium for affecting sales. In virtual communities, individuals generally exchange product information with others. This information guides members on the best products and where to buy them. We investigated the motivation behind virtual community members’ decision to use information when they inspire more individuals to join shopping reference groups and influence product sales. Most previous research on this subject has emphasized the influence of electronic word of mouth and the posters’ opinions regarding product choice. We further developed this idea by examining the various perspectives that are part of virtual communities’ nature vis-à-vis members’ activities of posting, viewing, and accepting information.
We also explored the comparative importance of motivating factors behind members’
intentions to use information for purchase-related decision making in different groups from three perspectives: the social exchange theory, gratifications theory, and the information adoption model. We collected data through an online survey and by examining respondents’ actual posting behaviors. We showed that the importance of economic, relational, and social factors differs among groups. “Information browsers” mostly browse through information, rarely post messages, and consider relational and social factors as the main contributors to using information for decision making. “Information consumers” expect effective information, rarely post messages,
and consider relational factors as a major determinant. “Information providers,” the primary posters, seldom accept others’ opinions and consider economic and social factors important for the intention of using information for decision making.

Cognitive Neuroscience in Information Systems Research

Ting-Peng Liang — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 01:48:18 PDT

Behavior research is a major stream in information systems (IS) research. Traditionally,
researchers follow theories and paradigms developed in psychology, sociology, and verify their applicability in information technology adoption and related issues. Questionnaire is the major instrument for investigation. This, however, has a limitation in that it is hard to verify whether the reported data truly reflect the actual mental situation of the subject. It is well-known that human subjects have cognitive restrictions in reporting their implicit attitudes. Therefore, a few techniques have been developed to improve data quality and to avoid problems such as common method biases, unreliable or invalid data.

Knowledge Sharing as Social Exchange: Evidence from a Meta-Analysis

Chih-Chung Liu et al. — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 00:19:44 PDT

Motivating people to contribute knowledge has become an important research topic and a major challenge for organizations. In order to promote knowledge sharing, managers need to understand the mechanism that drives individuals to contribute their valuable knowledge. Several theories have been applied to study knowledge-sharing behavior. However, the research settings and findings are often inconsistent. In this study, we use the social exchange theory as the basis to develop an extended model to explain knowledge-sharing behavior and include IT context as a moderator. A meta-analysis on 52 reported studies was conducted to examine how different factors in the social exchange theory affect knowledge-sharing behavior. The findings indicate that the social exchange theory plays an important role underlying individuals' knowledge-sharing behavior. The results also demonstrate that social interaction and trust can
enhance individual's knowledge-sharing behavior. Furthermore, IT facilitation can moderate the effect of social interaction.

Privacy and Security Aspects of Social Media: Institutional and Technological Environment

Nir Kshetri — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 00:19:43 PDT

Legitimate as well as illegitimate organizations and entities are gaining access to information about social media (SM) users through illegal, extralegal, and quasi-legal means. Worse still, many organizations and individuals using SM have become targets and victims of cybercrimes.
SM have also led to an exposure of unethical and illegal conducts within some organizations. One estimate suggested that 36% of social networking users have reported experiencing malware attacks through their profiles. Another study suggested that one in four companies have become cybercrime victims via social networking sites. Likewise, about a quarter of employers surveyed by the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics in 2009 had disciplined an employee for improper activities on social networking sites. Organizations that fail to take appropriate technological and behavioral measures related to SM are likely to suffer reputation damages, loss of customers' confidence, and other types of economic losses. The goal of this paper is to develop a framework that provides a simple, explicit mechanism for understanding privacy and security issues associated with SM. To achieve this goal, we draw upon literatures on diverse areas such as institutional theory, marketing and criminology. Specifically, we examine how various institutions from the standpoint of SM superimpose in a unique interaction with SM related technologies’ natures that influence businesses’ and consumers’ privacy and security. We discuss how various features of SM related technologies such as newness (leading to ineffectiveness of existing IT security products), complexity (difficulty to understand SM’s functioning) and attractiveness of SM as a cybercrime target (availability of information with superior targetability and huge size and rapid growth of SM). We also examine how regulative institutions (lack of laws to deal with SM as well as lack of enforcement of existing laws), normative institutions (lack of ethical and professional guidelines) and cognitive institutions (lack of precautionary measures and lack of defensive measures or counterpoison) have contributed to a lack of behavioral and attitudinal measures to ensure privacy and security.

Need for Consistency in Information System Research

Ting-Peng Liang — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 00:19:42 PDT

After witnessed three decades of development in information systems research, I find that we need to develop a new way to further enhance the area. One important issue is that constructs in our area are often defined and/or applied “flexibly” by researchers. As a result, different findings could be inconsistent, non-duplicable, and not directly comparable. This, in fact, strongly violates the basic rule of scientific research and is often under the criticism of natural scientists.

Delivering Knowledge Across Boundaries: A Case Study of Bankco’s Offshoring Projects

Feng Yuanyue et al. — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 00:06:27 PST

Although prior empirical studies have repeatedly suggested that knowledge sharing between offshore clients and vendors is critical for the success of offshoring relationships, much less is known about the actual processes of knowledge delivery across organizational knowledge boundaries in these offshoring projects. To fill the research gap and enrich the academic literature,
we propose a process framework to demonstrate the actual processes in which knowledge is delivered across boundaries between vendors and clients in the offshoring arrangements. By combining the framework of knowledge boundary and theory of absorptive capacity to analyse the case of BankCo’s offshoring project, the stages are identified, through which various types of knowledge are sequentially delivered from clients to vendors by several processes in each
stage. In particular, our study reveals that a strategic shift from total global offshoring project to global distributed teamwork renders BankCo an opportunity to overcome the hindrance of pragmatic boundary and insufficient absorptive capacity of the offshoring vendors.

Building IT Capability to Increase Organizational Performance: A Path-Oriented Process

Rui Bi et al. — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 00:06:26 PST

Most studies on information technology (IT) capability have drawn their conceptualization from the tenets of resource-based view (RBV). Though path dependence is central to the concept of RBV, very few studies have examined the developmental paths of IT capabilities, which are typically treated as first-order constructs with their effects on firm performance investigated as direct causal links. This paper conceptualizes IT capability as the outcome of a path- specific resource building process, driven by the e-business skills and knowledge of a firm’s IT human resources, which we refer to as e-business centric IT expertise. We posit that through the use of appropriate IT infrastructure, and the development of back-end integration and front-end functionalities, e-business centric IT expertise could be harnessed to provide the right information to the right customers at the right time, giving rise to a firm-specific IT capability. We further contend that IT capability is a source of competitive advantage, offering inimitable differentiation in market responsive agility, which is a key to securing sales in an increasingly customer-centric market. We operationalize these conceptualizations as a structural equation model (SEM) and tested 12 hypothesized relationships using data drawn from a survey of 310 fast-growth smallto-medium sized companies in Australia. The test results uphold 10 of the 12 formulated hypotheses, supporting our conceptualization that IT capability building is a path-specific process.
To affirm our contention that IT capability is developed from the interacting effects of a suite of IT resources, and not the sum of the disjointed effects of individual resources, we also formulated and tested an alternative model that links individual IT resources directly to market responsive agility. Combined with a series of mediation tests, our SEM exercises confirm that IT resourcesinteract in a specific way to give rise to IT capability to enhance market responsive agility and achieve sales performance. We discuss the implications of these findings in the context of IT investment.

Guest Editors’ Introduction

Chih-Ping Wei et al. — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 00:04:34 PST

The Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems (PACIS), sponsored by the Association for Information Systems (AIS), is the premier annual information systems conference in the region. It aims to provide a high quality forum for researchers and practitioners to exchange research findings and practices on key issues in information systems and management.

PACIS 2010 was held in Taipei, Taiwan in July 2010 and its theme is “Service Science in Information Systems Research.” In response to the transition of the global economy from the manufacturing to service-dominated economy, service science is emerging as a new and exciting paradigm. It represents a melding of information technology with an understanding of business processes and human behaviors for improving service operations, delivery, innovation, and ultimate values to customers. At the emerging stage of service science, it is essential for information systems (IS) researchers and practitioners to help shape what service science is by fusing IS research into inquiries of service science. Meanwhile, the service-centric view of service
science may open up exciting opportunities and unique challenges to IS research. Hence, PACIS 2010 aims to facilitate the dialogues among IS professionals in academic and industries to exchange insights on issues related to service science in IS research as well as IS research to service science.