Ruth C. King

What causes stress in information system professionals

Job stress can lead to burnout and turnover, costing IT organizations countless dollars in replacement costs, and making methods for measuring and minimizing stress a business benefit.

The impact of socialization on the role adjustment of information systems professionals

The study of socialization and its practices has only recently been applied to organizations to investigate the manner in which new employees adjust to corporate culture. Past studies have examined the nature of human-resource development from an individual perspective. Research in socialization practices represents an organizational approach toward understanding the manner in which new employees adjust to their roles. This study examines the impact of socialization practices on the nature of this role adjustment with respect to information systems professionals. One hundred and sixty newly hired IS personnel in five different cities were surveyed to examine the relationship between organizational socialization tactics and adjustment variables such as role orientation, role ambiguity, and role clarity. Results suggest that socialization practices affect professional role adjustment. Specifically, institutionalized socialization tactics lead to a custodial role orientation and individualized socialization tactics produce an innovative role orientation. In addition, institutionalized tactics are shown to reduce role ambiguity and role conflict in new employees. Implications for human-resource management of IS personnel and future research in this area are discussed.

Nonlinear and Noncompensatory Models in User Information Satisfaction Measurement

This study applies nonlinear and noncompensatory models to examine how users evaluate their satisfaction with their information systems (IS) environment. Several instruments have been developed in the literature to measure user information satisfaction (UIS). These instruments measure user satisfaction by asking respondents to rate their satisfaction/dissatisfaction with a variety of IS attributes; e.g., EDP services, EDP staff, information product, and involvement in IS development. These responses are then combined linearly to develop a surrogate measure for UIS satisfaction. This linear model is derived from Andersons information theory (Anderson 1981) and based on the assumption that each attribute judgment has a conditionally monotone relationship with the UIS evaluation. However, the literature on attitude formation and decision making suggests that other nonlinear and noncompensatory models are available to decision makers for combining information and are used frequently in attitude formation. In this study, we use two sets of data to examine the linear model and five nonlinear models of decision making to evaluate whether nonlinear models are more effective in predicting a users overall satisfaction with information systems. First, responses from faculty members at an academic institution were used to test each model. All the nonlinear models were more efficient predictors than the linear models. In addition, two nonlinear models-the multiplicative and the scatter models-best represented the data with square multiple correlations of 0.69 and 0.68, as compared to the linear model which had an R2 of 0.61. Second, data from a previous study (Galletta and Lederer 1989) were analyzed to examine whether nonlinear models were more efficient. Data for this study were collected using the short version of the Bailey and Pearson (1983) UIS instrument. Results of the analysis from the full and cross-validation samples show that nonlinear, noncompensatory models performed at par or better than the linear model.

Revisit the Debate on Intermediation, Disintermediation and Reintermediation due to E-commerce

The existing literature opposing disintermediation adopts a very realistic but broad definition of intermediary functions, making the outcome of their arguments obvious, i.e. intermediation will always exist in one form or another. Supporters of disintermediation take a more focused definition of an intermediary, i.e. an economic player that buys from the seller and sells to the buyer and reduces their transaction costs of trading by doing so. It is difficult to reconcile the debate from these opposite ends because of the lack of a common definition of intermediaries. In this paper we have used the definition adopted by supporters of disintermediation to show that disintermediation due to web-based e-commerce is never a possibility. The paper uses a two-stage extensive form game with simultaneous moves in the first stage to analyse the effect of web-based e-commerce on intermediated offline channel structures. The model is solved for the Nash equilibrium. Depending on the relation between the mark-up of e...

An application of the cusp catastrophe model to user information satisfaction

Abstract This study shows that there is a nonlinear relationship between overall user information satisfaction (UIS) and an index created by combining satisfaction responses to various information systems components/attributes. Several instruments have been developed in the IS literature to measure UIS. These measure UIS by asking respondents to rate their satisfaction/dissatisfaction with a variety of IS attributes; for example, EDP services, EDP staff, information products, and involvement in IS development. Tests of predictive validity, in the past, have shown only a 55% correlation between global UIS and UIS scores. Here, we show that the global UIS measure and IS factor scores follow a nonlinear relationship and are, in fact, cusp-distributed. The extent of use of IS is shown to be a splitting factor in this distribution and produces abrupt, catastrophic changes. Responses from faculty members at an academic institution were used to test for the distribution using IS component scores as the normal independent variable and the extent of use of IS as the splitting variable. The cusp model was a more efficient predictor than the linear model or a control equation using bimodal transformation.

Do Customers Identify with Our Website? The Effects of Website Identification on Repeat Purchase Intention

ABSTRACT An online retailer’s website acts as a focal point for a company’s online identity, not only encompassing the products and services offered but also presenting the aesthetic image and values of the company. Cultivating a strong company online identity helps differentiate one online retailer from another, attracts and retains customers to strengthen competitive advantage, and enhances brand, product, or service distinctions. Our study proposes that an online retailer’s website cultivates a particular identity that consumers may identify with to varying degrees. This identification with an online retailer’s web presence may generate repeat purchases from committed consumers, or even extra-role behaviors such as the creation and distribution of written, audio, and video content online. Website identification is proposed to be a representation of a consumer’s identification with his/her perception of an online retailer’s identity. Website identification is theorized to act as a mediating factor that unifies online purchase research streams with information systems, consumer behavior, and marketing, presenting new strategies for online retailers to assess and build a strong customer base. This study demonstrates that website identification provides a new theoretical perspective to understand online shopping behavior of committed customers. We recommend that online retailers promote website identification to attract and retain repeat customers by focusing on the attractiveness of the website and product offerings while maintaining a high degree of trust.

Electronic Retailing Strategies: A Case Study of Small Businesses in the Gifts and Collectibles Industry

The objective of this case study is to better our understanding of the strategic deliberations of managers and owners of small businesses as they pursue electronic retailing, since they face different barriers and constraints when dealing with electronic retailing issues than do their larger counterparts. Detailed phone interviews were conducted with four small businesses within the Gifts and Collectibles industry. Findings indicate that the development of a transactional website, which is often utilized by large retailers, is not the initial strategy, nor the primary strategy, that these businesses devise to generate online sales. Rather, owners and managers select strategies that are less intrusive to their present brickand-mortar operations while allowing them to maintain needed control of online sales levels. Contributions include a comparison of the electronic retailing strategies that are utilized, including the business owners’ perceptions of the technological capabilities that are needed for each strategy, and the identification of other factors that weigh heavily into their selection of a strategy. Interview excerpts from the owners and managers supplement the discussion.

THE FOUNDATION OF HRD IN A NETWORKED WORLD

The recent histories of information technology (IT) and human resource development (HRD) reveal parallel developments in their transitions from tangential activities to strategic thrusts. After defining terms and concepts, we describe five stages of parallel development within IT and HRD. We conclude by projecting HRD and IT advances as organizations move to the next stage.

To Lend is to Own: A Game Theoretic Analysis of the E-Book Lending Market

ABSTRACT Digital forms of content have provided online retailers new ways of enhancing other business opportunities. E-book vendors such as Amazon introduced a fourteen-day lending program for its Kindle-linked e-books, banking on the e-book lending program to increase sales to consumers who appreciate the added utility from the new lending options. The benefits of such an e-book lending strategy can become significant as the number of e-book owners reaches a critical mass, creating a network effect. However, the strategy may involve risk because there is also the possibility of cannibalization of retailers’ print book. We investigate, in both monopolistic and duopolistic competition settings, whether and how an online retailer can benefit from introducing an e-book lending program and its effect on their pricing strategy and cannibalization. We also examine whether sequential release of print books and e-books in monopolistic settings will affect retailer’s revenue. Our study finds that in a monopoly setting, the retailer should implement the e-book lending strategy when the condition of network effect is satisfied. Our findings also suggest that retailers can use release time to minimize cannibalization in the case of sequential release. In addition, the e-book lending option benefits the retailer in a duopoly setting only when one retailer offers such a program; otherwise, the better-known retailer benefits more. Theoretical and practical implications for the management of different formats of content in various competition markets to sustain and expand business opportunities are discussed.