A Paradigmatic and Methodological Examination of Information Security and Emotion Research

Authors

Eunice Park, Old Dominion UniversityFollow
Rongen "Sophia" Zhang, Baylor UniversityFollow
Yoongi Kim, University of Massachusetts BostonFollow
Jonathan Kim, University of Massachusetts BostonFollow

Abstract

Recent studies in information security and emotion have made significant progress, yet much remains unexplored regarding the overarching trends concerning the role of emotion as a key theoretical perspective in information security research. Our study aims to investigate information security research in premier information system journals through approaches: (1) classifying and analyzing the research based on research paradigm and research method dimensions (see Figure 1), (2) examining major theoretical themes with the level of analysis and key constructs in published security and emotion studies. Figure 1 shows our classification scheme. For data collection, we conducted topic-based searches on Litbaskets (litbaskets.io) and established a database of relevant articles from influential journals spanning 2000 to 2024. Utilizing "security", "privacy" and "emotion" as keywords, we retrieved 109 articles from 154 essential information systems journals. We are currently in the data analysis and coding stage to identify the relationship among key constructs. Our study seeks to contribute to information security research in several ways. First, by analyzing research paradigms in information security research, we can illuminate the paradigmatic goals, assumptions, quality criteria, and perspectives of researchers, aligning with positivism, interpretivism, critical realism, and design science. Second, we can present the methodologies employed, whether non-empirical or empirical, along with their advantages and disadvantages. Third, analyzing major themes can offer insights into historical changes in research objectives, theoretical contributions, and research contexts of interest. Building on these insights, we aim to provide a comprehensive overview of this research field and offer a research framework outline that integrates themes within the existing literature to guide directions for future studies. This will enhance our understanding of the role of emotion in overall information security research.

Paper Number

tpp1258

Recommended Citation

Park, Eunice; Zhang, Rongen "Sophia"; Kim, Yoongi; and Kim, Jonathan, "A Paradigmatic and Methodological Examination of Information Security and Emotion Research" (2024). AMCIS 2024 TREOs. 134.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/treos_amcis2024/134