Jack Shih-Chieh Hsu

The impacts of user review on software responsiveness: Moderating requirements uncertainty

Rapidly changing business environments and evolving processes increase the uncertainties in IS development. To produce a high-quality system that responds to user needs is challenging. We attempted to determine whether user reviews during the development process could reduce uncertainties and improve the product. Technology structuration theory indicated that users, as actors participating in reviews during the development of a system, could help reduce uncertainty in the organizational requirements and thus improve the software product. A survey of system developers indicated that user requirements uncertainty had a direct, negative effect on software responsiveness but that user review, serving as a moderator, could reduce this effect.

The Role of Extra-Role Behaviors and Social Controls in Information Security Policy Effectiveness

Although most behavioral security studies focus on organizational in-role behaviors such as information security policy ISP compliance, the role of organizational extra-role behaviors-security behaviors that benefit organizations but are not specified in ISPs-has long been overlooked. This study examines 1 the consequences of organizational in-role and extra-role security behaviors on the effectiveness of ISPs and 2 the role of formal and social controls in enhancing in-role and extra-role security behaviors in organizations. We propose that both in-role security behaviors and extra-role security behaviors contribute to ISP effectiveness. Furthermore, based on social control theory, we hypothesize that social control can boost both in-and extra-role security behaviors. Data collected from practitioners-including information systems IS managers and employees at many organizations-confirmed most of our hypotheses. Survey data from IS managers substantiated the importance of extra-role behaviors in improving ISP effectiveness. Paired data, collected from managers and employees in the same organizations, indicated that formal control and social control individually and interactively enhance both in-and extra-role security behaviors. We conclude by discussing the implications of this research for academics and practitioners, along with compelling future research possibilities.

Exploring the relationship between receiving and offering online social support

Drawing on the taxonomy of social support and the transactional model of stress and coping, we proposed a dual social support model to study online social support exchange behaviors. Our model predicts that receiving problem-focused and emotion-focused support from others enhances coping resources; in turn, these coping resources are the primary drivers of the willingness to offer support to others. We empirically tested the proposed dual social support model using data collected from 212 users of online support communities. The results indicate that the problem- and emotion-focused mechanisms simultaneously, yet differentially, determine the willingness to offer support.

Understanding the role of behavioural integration in ISD teams: an extension of transactive memory systems concept

The transactive memory system (TMS) has been considered as one critical element for effective teamwork. However, viewing TMS as a second‐order construct that mixes cognitive (specialty and credibility) and behavioural (coordination) components leads to confusion and increases the difficulty in interpreting study results. This study follows the concept proposed by one recent study and attempts to distinguish between behavioural and cognitive components. Furthermore, drawing on the need for diverse members to be integrated behaviourally, we also attempt to extend the TMS research stream by proposing a more comprehensive behavioural component of TMS. We argue that to obtain better teamwork outcomes, information system development (ISD) team members need to integrate the expertise possessed by each individual, make decisions jointly and interlink all individual actions. In light of this, our study aims to replace coordination with team behavioural integration, a more comprehensive behavioural consequence of cognition and explore the critical role of behavioural integration in ISD teams by understanding its impact on ISD teamwork project team performance. The study result, based on data collected from 205 information system project managers, supports our hypotheses that expertise specialty, credibility and their interaction positively affect team behavioural integration. This, in turn, leads to enhanced project team performance.

Exploring the interaction effects of social capital

Most social capital studies either treat the three dimensions of social capital as parallel or hypothesize that causal relationships exist among them. We attempt to further explore the interaction effects between paired dimensions of social capital. In the context of information system development (ISD) projects, we propose direct and interaction effects of different dimensions of social capital on process and product performance. A survey of system developers indicates that all three proposed interaction effects on process performance are significant but with different patterns. Only one (structural and relational) interaction effect is found to have an effect on product performance. Academic and practical implications are discussed.

Coping knowledge boundaries between information system and business disciplines: An intellectual capital perspective

Information system development can be considered a collaboration between users and developers. The inability to leverage the localized knowledge embedded in these two stakeholders hinders software development work to achieve high performance. Exploring the ways to counter this difficulty is then critical. This study applies an intellectual capital perspective to address the issues around spanning the knowledge boundary between developers and users. Our findings highlighted how important effective knowledge boundary spanning is to both product and project quality. Furthermore, three dimensions of intellectual capital increased the degree to which knowledge boundary spanning was effective.

Antecedents and Consequences of User Coproduction in Information System Development Projects

Based on a coproduction concept highlighted by service-dominant logic, this study attempts to understand the antecedents and consequences of user coproduction in information system development projects. As a key contribution, we posit that user coproduction is influenced by social capital between users and developers; we then postulate that user coproduction determines the project outcomes. Paired data collected from both user representatives and developers by using a survey approach was used to test proposed hypotheses. The results showed that user coproduction has a positively significant influence on project outcomes, and social capital between user representatives and developers is also associated with user coproduction.

Understanding the role of computer-mediated counter-argument in countering confirmation bias

Confirmation bias has long been discussed in the behavioral decision-making research stream. Although decision support systems were designed to counter cognitive biases and speed up information processing, confirmation bias still can be observed during the decision-making process and causes some unwanted behaviors, such as selective reading. An experimental design was conducted to examine the impact of confirmation bias in a computer-supported decision-making context. In addition, we attempted to explore whether the providing of computer-mediated counter-argument can effectively eliminate the impact caused by selective reading. The experiment results show that confirmation bias can be observed when decision makers possess strong preconceptions and selective reading behaviors, caused by confirmation bias, resulting in skewed adjustment and high confidence. This means that computer-mediated counter-arguments can effectively reduce the effects caused by confirmation bias as well as lead to higher satisfaction with the decision outcome. Lastly, the research results were discussed and implications of this finding for academics and practitioners were provided.

Reducing Requirement Incorrectness and Coping with Its Negative Impact in Information System Development Projects

The negative impact of incorrect requirements on information system development (ISD) project performance has long been acknowledged. This study addresses the problem of incorrect requirements by proposing a model that combines the error reduction and coping concepts proposed by Field, Ritzman, Safizadeh, and Downing (2006) with the view that ISD is a knowledge-intensive process. The model hypothesizes that when developers and users possess an understanding of each others primary domain of knowledge, the prevention of incorrect requirements and the mitigation of the negative consequences of incorrect requirements tend to improve project performance. Data collected from 250 ISD professionals on the basis of their experiences of recently completed ISD projects confirmed all of our hypotheses. The results demonstrate that the eliciting of incorrect requirements can be reduced when users and developers possess cross-domain understanding and when requirement analysis methodologies and techniques are available. Furthermore, the negative impact of incorrect requirements on project performance can be mitigated when developers have sufficient ISD knowledge and behavioral knowledge.

The effect of unexpected features on app users' continuance intention

For expectancy-based theories, we separate unexpectedness from confirmation.We incorporate unexpectedness, delight, and customer citizenship behaviors (CCB) into traditional expectancy theories.Satisfaction is more affected by confirmation and delight is more determined by unexpectedness.Delight is relatively important to CCB, satisfaction is associated more with continuance intention. This study incorporates unexpectedness, delight, and customer citizenship behaviors (CCB) into the cognitive, affective, and behavioral stages of traditional expectancy theories, which, in general, contain confirmation, satisfaction, and continuance intention in each stage, respectively. Data collected from 436 app users shows that, from the cognitive stage to the affective stage, satisfaction is affected more by confirmation, and delight is determined more by unexpectedness. In contrast, from the affective stage to the behavioral stage, satisfaction has a greater effect on continuance intention, and delight is more critical for customer citizenship behavior. This study contributes to traditional expectancy theories by highlighting the importance of unexpectedness in the forming of continuance intention, and by illustrating the relatively critical role that components of each stage play in subsequent stages.