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The Journal of the Southern Association for Information Systems

Introduction

The first article in this issue, “Exploring the Factors Associated with Online Financial and Performance Disclosure in Nonprofits”, identifies characteristics of nonprofit organizations that influence disclosure via web outlets. As personal donations become increasingly important funding sources of nonprofits those people donating wish to become more informed about how their donations are spent. It can be argued that nonprofits were not “early adopters” of web technology as a means of communicating financial performance.

The section on ‘Web Disclosure Adoption Models’ is both interesting and informative. While U.S. nonprofits have been the main source of data for studies, Lee and Blouin also reference a study of nonprofits in Taiwan. It adds another layer of perspective to this study. Of note to our readers is that 20% of respondents to the survey in this research were in the education and research sector of nonprofits.

“Beyond Habit: The Role of Sunk Costs on Developing Automatic IS Use Behaviors” deals with what every company that has a web site wants to know: “what makes users visit a site often and stay a long time”. The reference list will aid scholars who want to continue the vein of research exploring the role of sunk costs in fostering frequent, long site visits. Sunk costs are an aggregation of time spent learning the technology, effort spent in customizing the user’s experience, money spent, and other factors which create a feeling of investment in the web site’s use.

It will be up to future researchers to replicate this research on truly large samples. But this research has given a sense of direction for future research into the sunk cost effect and how it might be generalized to wider populations.

George Schell, Editor