Brian Detlor

The corporate portal as information infrastructure: towards a framework for portal design

Corporate portals offer organizational users the ability to access a wide variety of information sources directly from the desktop. By functioning as an underlying Web infrastructure for information management, portals can provide firms with a shared information work space that facilitates access to information content, organizational communications, and group collaboration. To foster the development of portals in this way requires a design approach that goes beyond traditional technological and content concerns. Utilizing ideas borrowed from both Taylors value-added model of systems development and Davenports concept of the information ecology of organizations, a framework for corporate portal design is presented. The framework stresses the need for developers to incorporate value-added processes that match the information needs and uses of organizational participants and improve the organizations informational context. Doing so, can help promote corporate portal designs that function as infrastructure for information access and use.

Gender and Web information seeking: A self‐concept orientation model

Adapting the consumer behavior selectivity model to the Web environment, this papers key contribution is the introduction of a self-concept orientation model of Web information seeking. This model, which addresses gender, effort, and information content factors, questions the commonly assumed equivalence of sex and gender by specifying the measurement of gender-related self-concept traits known as self- and other-orientation. Regression analyses identified associations between self-orientation, other-orientation, and self-reported search frequencies for content with identical subject domain (e.g., medical information, government information) and differing relevance (i.e., important to the individual personally versus important to someone close to him or her). Self- and other-orientation interacted such that when individuals were highly self-oriented, their frequency of search for both self- and other-relevant information depended on their level of other-orientation. Specifically, high-self/high-other individuals, with a comprehensive processing strategy, searched most often, whereas high-self/low-other respondents, with an effort minimization strategy, reported the lowest search frequencies. This interaction pattern was even more pronounced for other-relevant information seeking. We found no sex differences in search frequency for either self-relevant or other-relevant information.

Working with information: information management and culture in a professional services organization

The paper presents a case study of a large Canadian law firm with a distinctive information culture that is vigorously implementing an information management strategy. Our findings suggest that, at least for this organization, information culture trumps information management in its impact on information use outcomes. Thus, the strongly held information values and behaviors in the firm accounted for more than one-third of the variance in information use outcomes. Employees did perceive a high level of information management activity in the firm, although information management played a smaller, perhaps indirect role in explaining information use outcomes. What might organizations do to improve information use? This study suggests that organizations might do well to recognize that, in the hustle and bustle to implement strategies and systems, information values and information culture will always have a defining influence on how people share and use information.

Intelligent mobile crisis response systems

Systems to help coordinate responder communication and response efforts in order to minimize the threat to human life and damage to property.

End-user adoption of animated interface agentsin everyday work applications

Recognizing the potential contribution that interactive software agents bring to everyday work applications, this paper reports on end-user adoption of animated interface agents in one particular work application environment: Microsoft® Office. The paper develops and empirically tests a theoretical model of the factors affecting an end-users choice to adopt and utilize such interface agents. From this theoretical model, a survey instrument was adapted and administered to 261 participants, familiar with animated interface agents. Results from a partial least squares (PLS) analysis indicates that a variety of factors are at play, which inhibit or foster a persons choice to utilize and adopt animated interface agents. Of significance is that: (a) both perceived usefulness and perceived enjoyment are important influencing factors; (b) users with high scores in innovativeness toward information technology are less likely to find animated interface agents enjoyable; (c) individuals with high animation predisposition scores perceive animated interface agents to be more enjoyable; and (d) users who perceive animated interface agents to be more enjoyable also perceive them to be more useful. Such insights can be used to leverage the introduction and rollout of animated interface agents in everyday work applications in ways that promote their avid adoption and use.

Working the Web: an empirical model of Web use

This paper investigates how knowledge workers utilize the Web to seek external information as part of their daily work. Thirty four participants from seven companies were interviewed about their information needs and preferences. In addition, a custom-developed software application recorded each participants Web behavior for a two week monitoring period. To understand better the significant episodes of activity identified in the Web tracking logs, a second round of personal interviews was conducted. The study found that people who use the Web as part of their work engage in four complementary modes of undirected viewing, conditioned viewing, informal search, and formal search. Moreover, each mode is characterized by information seeking moves based on recurrent sequences of browser functions and features. Based on these findings, a model of Web use is presented, as well as some suggestions for supporting and enhancing Web information seeking in organizations.

Factors affecting the adoption of online library resources by business students

The overall goal of this study is to explain how information literacy instruction (ILI) influences the adoption of online library resources (OLR) by business students. A theoretical model was developed that integrates research on ILI outcomes and technology adoption. To test this model, a web-based survey, which included both closed and open-ended questions, was administered to 337 business students. Findings indicate that the ILI received by students is beneficial in the initial or early stages of OLR use; however, students quickly reach a saturation point where more instruction contributes little, if anything, to the final outcome, such as reduced OLR anxiety and increased OLR self-efficacy. Rather, it is the independent, continuous use of OLR after receiving initial, formal ILI that creates continued positive effects. Importantly, OLR self-efficacy and anxiety were found to be important antecedents to OLR adoption. OLR anxiety also partially mediates the relationship between self-efficacy and perceived ease of use. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Intelligent agents as innovations

This paper explores the treatment of intelligent agents as innovations. Past writings in the area of intelligent agents focus on the technical merits and internal workings of agent-based solutions. By adopting a perspective on agents from an innovations point of view, a new and novel description of agents is put forth in terms of their degrees of innovativeness, competitive implications, and perceived characteristics. To facilitate this description, a series of innovation-based theoretical models are utilized as a lens of analysis, namely Kleinschmidt and Cooper’s (J Prod Innovation Manage 8:240–251, 1991) market and technological newness map, Abernathy and Clark’s (Res Policy 14:3–22, 1985) competitive implications framework, and Moore and Benbasat’s (Inf Syst Res 2:192–222, 1991) list of perceived innovating characteristics. Together, these models provide a theoretical foundation by which to describe intelligent agents, yielding new insights and perceptions on this relatively new form of software application.

Investigating the Determinants of Satisfaction and Usage of Mobile IT Services in Four Countries

Abstract This study integrates marketing and IS theories to investigate the antecedents and consequences of end-user satisfaction and usage with mobile IT services. Research findings, based on the collection and Partial Least Squares analysis of data from 736 individuals located in four countries, support the viability of utilizing an extension of the American Customer Satisfaction Model to investigate the behavior of global wireless services users. Specific differences in the customer satisfaction of mobile service end-users in Canada, Singapore, Finland, and Israel are also presented.

The influence of information ecology on e‐commerce initiatives

This paper explores the influence of an organization’s information ecology, or internal information environment, on a firm’s electronic commerce initiatives and plans. To investigate this problem area, results are reported from a recent case study investigation on the adoption and use of a specific e‐commerce initiative – namely a corporate portal – by 20 participants at a large Canadian company. Data collection involved semi‐structured interviews and field observations, while analysis comprised a variant form of grounded theory. Factors of the information ecology influencing portal utilization are identified. From these, implications are drawn to e‐commerce solutions in general. Specific recommendations include the need to create a democratic steering committee to oversee the development of e‐commerce solutions, gain support of upper management, and market and train organizational workers on the functionality and strategic importance of a company’s e‐commerce initiatives and plans.