John Qi Dong

Business value of social media technologies

Challenge the common belief that OUICs are valuable by enabling firms to collect large amount of user-generated ideas.Propose that simply collecting ideas from OUICs is not valuable, whereas how firms deal with the ideas from OUICs matters for value creation.Adopt a longitudinal design and collect a large-scale panel data set to empirically test the theory.Provide threefold contribution to IS research on IT capabilities, the business value of IT, as well as IT and innovation. Social media technologies allow user-generated content and provide new opportunities and challenges for firms to transform their business. In particular, more and more firms have started strategically using the online user innovation communities (OUICs) for open innovation initiatives. The extent to which firms are able to derive business value from OUICs, however, has not been systematically examined. Drawing on a multi-theoretical foundation from the framework of dynamic capabilities and the view of innovation value chain, we conceptualize two OUIC-enabled capabilities, which are, ideation capability related to collecting user-generated ideas about potential innovation from OUIC, and implementation capability related to selecting user-generated ideas for innovation development and introducing developed innovation via OUIC. Using a large-scale panel data set consisting of 1676 firm-day observations from Dell and Starbucks, we examine the impacts of OUIC-enabled capabilities on firm value. We find robust evidence that OUIC-enabled ideation capability actually does not influence firm value, whereas OUIC-enabled implementation capability increases firm value. Novel theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.

Slack Resources and the Rent-Generating Potential of Firm-Specific Knowledge:

We examine how two types of slack resources relevant to knowledge employees—human resource slack and financial slack at the R&D functional level—influence the rent-generating potential of firm-specific knowledge resources. According to the resource- and knowledge-based views of the firm, firm-specific knowledge resources are critical for generating economic rents for a firm. However, without motivated knowledge employees investing in the corresponding specialized human capital in the process of absorbing and deploying firm-specific knowledge resources, the resource potential for rent generation would be greatly discounted. We argue that human resource slack among knowledge employees and financial slack available for R&D activities affect the rent-generating potential of firm-specific knowledge resources by influencing knowledge employees’ incentives to invest in specialized human capital. In particular, while financial slack facilitates rent generation of firm-specific knowledge resources by increasing employee incentives to invest in specialized human capital, human resource slack hinders it by reducing such incentives. Empirical results based on longitudinal R&D employment data, U.S. patent data, and Compustat support these arguments.

Gender differences in adoption of information systems: New findings from China

The paper explores regional gender differences in information systems adoption based on a sample of 496 Chinese individuals from four universities and one firm, by a lens of theory of planned behavior. It enriches the literature by explaining and examining the moderating effects of gender on the relationships between antecedents and behavioral intention of using information systems for Chinese users. Contrary to prior findings in the US-based research, Chinese women were found to be more strongly influenced by their computer attitudes whereas Chinese men were found to be more strongly affected by their subject norms. Perceived behavior control was important for both sexes without significant difference. The results were robust across prior experience, ages, educational levels, as well as academic disciplines and job occupations. Meanwhile, the paper uncovers under what conditions perceived behavior control and subject norms will be salient determinants of Chinese user acceptance of information systems. Practical implications about gender sensitivity in information systems adoption are discussed.

User Acceptance of Information Technology Innovations in the Chinese Cultural Context

Summary The paper explores user acceptance of information technology innovations in the Chinese cultural context. Although user acceptance has been extensively studied and has long been recognized as being affected by culture, there is a paucity of research on the topic in cultural settings other than North America. This paper enriches the literature by developing a model based on 12 prominent theories of technology acceptance and innovation diffusion in the Chinese cultural context. Perceived usefulness, ease of use, compatibility, result demonstrability, and facilitating saliently determine the behavioral intention of Chinese users to use information technology innovations. In addition, such relationships are mediated by attitudes toward behavior. The paper further contributes by providing a theoretical explanation through a lens of cultural clusters and dimensions theory. The findings are discussed with respect to cultural differences in power distance, individualism, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity...Summary The paper explores user acceptance of information technology innovations in the Chinese cultural context. Although user acceptance has been extensively studied and has long been recognized as being affected by culture, there is a paucity of research on the topic in cultural settings other than North America. This paper enriches the literature by developing a model based on 12 prominent theories of technology acceptance and innovation diffusion in the Chinese cultural context. Perceived usefulness, ease of use, compatibility, result demonstrability, and facilitating saliently determine the behavioral intention of Chinese users to use information technology innovations. In addition, such relationships are mediated by attitudes toward behavior. The paper further contributes by providing a theoretical explanation through a lens of cultural clusters and dimensions theory. The findings are discussed with respect to cultural differences in power distance, individualism, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity, and long‐term orientation between the United States (U.S.) and China, which would influence users’ acceptance of information technology innovations.

Low Self-Efficacy User Acceptance of Information Technology Innovations

Most prior information systems researches on user acceptance were conducted in developed countries or regions. The samples of these studies commonly have relatively high level of self-efficacy, compared to those in developing countries or regions. However, there are great discrepancies in technology diffusion and self-efficacy across and even in the same country or region, which might impact the validity of existing user acceptance theories. In order to develop successful information systems, the question of how information technology (IT) innovations should be managed for low self-efficacy users must be answered as well. In light of this, the paper enriches the literature by developing and validating a low self-efficacy user acceptance model (LSEUAM). It empirically tested an extended model of user acceptance (EMUA), however, by survey data from low self-efficacy IT users in the remote region of China, one of the most important developing nations. It was found that facilitating condition was the most significant determinant of low self-efficacy user acceptance, which had direct effect on behavioral intention. Perceived usefulness and result demonstrability significantly determined behavioral intention to use IT innovations for low self-efficacy users via attitude toward behavior. Based on the empirical results, LSEUAM was developed by discussion on a self-efficacy comparison between remote and kernel regions of China. LSEUAM was further validated by a model comparison with EMUA based on the same low self-efficacy sample using structural equation modeling technique.

User acceptance of information technology innovations in the remote areas of China

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to report an exploratory study based on the Chinese user technology acceptance model (CUTAM), by testing CUTAM and developing a model to predict user acceptance of information technology innovations in the remote areas of China.Design/methodology/approach – By collecting the data from a survey in Hainan province, the paper is able to empirically examine the explanative power of CUTAM in the remote context of China. The author further developed a new model for user acceptance in the remote areas of China, based on analysis discussion on the empirical results from a perspective of computer self‐efficacy across regions. The model fit was examined and it was found that the new model is better than CUTAM to fit the data from remote areas of China.Findings – Perceived usefulness, result demonstrability and facilitating condition were found to be salient behavioral beliefs determining behavior intention of Chinese users of information technology innovations in the remote ar...

How Information Technology Influences Patenting Innovation: A Knowledge Recombination Perspective

Firms’ investment in information technology (IT) has been suggested as an important organizational resource enabler of knowledge production, leading to patenting innovation. In the prior literature, however, the process through which IT investment influences patenting innovation outputs remains unclear. To open up this black box in our understanding of IT and innovation, we draw on the knowledge recombination perspective and develop a model to characterize the innovation process as a firm’s efforts of recombining existing knowledge (i.e., knowledge recombinant intensity) and the scope of knowledge that is recombined by a firm (i.e., knowledge recombinant diversity). Using large-scale panel data over 10 years, we found robust empirical evidence corroborating our theory. We also provide additional insights by enriching the measures of IT as aggregate investment and different types of infrastructure and the measures of patenting innovation outputs as quantity and quality. Overall, our results provide new fin...

Information Technology and Innovation Outputs: The Missing Link of Search Evolution

Recent literature documents mixed findings on the impact of information technology (IT) investment on firm innovation outputs, calling for deeper exploration of the mechanisms through which IT influences innovation that can reconcile these mixed findings. Based on the evolutionary theory of the firm, we theorize the impacts of IT investment on the variation of firm search behavior in spanning various existing boundaries. Specifically, we explain how and why firms with greater IT investment are more likely to search across technological, organizational, geographical, and temporal boundaries in recombining knowledge elements, which has curvilinear impacts on the quantity and quality of innovation outputs. Using a panel data set from multiple archival sources, we found robust empirical evidence corroborating our theory.

Human Capital and Information Technology Capital Investments for Firm Innovation: Curvilinear Explanations

We investigate the relationship between a firm’s investments in knowledge-related assets and innovation. We propose curvilinear (inverted-U shaped) effects of human capital investments and IT capital investments on firm innovation respectively. Based on the analysis of 349 German firms across industries, corroborating support for the proposed relationships is presented. We contribute to the existing work on the resource-based view of the firm (RBV) by identifying and testing the possible downsides associated with the excessive accumulation of strategic resources.