Sharath Sasidharan

The dynamics of trust in B2C e-commerce: a research model and agenda

Trust is a key factor that determines the success of Business to Consumer (B2C) e-commerce transactions. Research has identified several critical factors that influence trust. These have been incorporated into the design of e-commerce web portals; however a vast majority of potential users are still wary of online business transactions. This points to the need for the development of more sophisticated and comprehensive models that can provide additional insights into the true role played by trust in the adoption of e-commerce portals. Here we do so by focusing on trust as it pertains to B2C e-commerce transactions. Pertinent issues addressed are: (1) Is trust the critical factor that makes all the difference between users accepting or rejecting a B2C portal? (2) Are there factors that could play a more critical role in user acceptance/rejection of such portals? (3) If so, what is the relevance of trust relative to these factors? The research model and agenda introduced here enable researchers to view trust in its proper perspective as part of the bigger picture of technology acceptance.

The Effects of Social Network Structure on Enterprise Systems Success: A Longitudinal Multilevel Analysis

The implementation of enterprise systems has yielded mixed and unpredictable outcomes in organizations. Although the focus of prior research has been on training and individual self-efficacy as important enablers, we examine the roles that the social network structures of employees, and the organizational units where they work, play in influencing the postimplementation success. Data were gathered across several units within a large organization: immediately after the implementation, six months after the implementation, and one year after the implementation. Social network analysis was used to understand the effects of network structures, and hierarchical linear modeling was used to capture the multilevel effects at unit and individual levels. At the unit level of analysis, we found that centralized structures inhibit implementation success. At the individual level of analysis, employees with high in-degree and betweenness centrality reported high task impact and information quality. We also found a cross-level effect such that central employees in centralized units reported implementation success. This suggests that individual-level success can occur even within a unit structure that is detrimental to unit-level success. Our research has significant implications for the implementation of enterprise systems in large organizations.

Incremental Experts: How Much Knowledge Does a Team Need?

Experts are often viewed as individuals with a vast storehouse of knowledge beyond the normal participants in a domain. In reality, the expert may have just enough additional knowledge beyond those they interface with to propel their team to success. This research explores the interplay between the accumulation of knowledge as facilitated by individual and team network structures and prior skill sets necessary to successfully participate in a business simulation emulating the cash-to-cash cycle of a manufacturing company. Students participate in simulated organizations that compete against one another in an introductory and extended setting, the latter being the more complex market environment. Comparisons within and between teams across simulations indicate that minor background differences in specific participant ability and associated network structures can make significant differences in simulation standings.

Management Teams: The Case for Balancing or Unbalancing

Team formation has emphasized a balanced approach to team member composition in order to insure that required knowledge was not missing from the teams. However, with significant knowledge gaps among team members, the existence of a strong knowledge leader amongst a novice group can impact team success over more balanced teams. This research measures team formation based on a balance of prior domain knowledge and team communication skills. Team success is measured by the results from a simulated business environment in which teams compete based on their knowledge of a cash-to-cash manufacturing market cycle. Results indicate that a strong knowledge leader with strong communication skills in a relatively novice group can be more effective than a team assembled with a more balanced knowledge base.

Change Management, Knowledge Dynamics and Normative Influences in Enterprise Technology Implementation: An Empirical Study

The sufficiency of the work environment in providing knowledge support and influencing user perceptions can impact enterprise technology implementation. This article examines the dialectics of change management techniques such as training and user involvement in system design with user task structure in impacting implementation success. Drawing upon the social information processing theory and by adopting a social networking perspective, it also examines the influence of knowledge networks in facilitating technology-related knowledge acquisition while taking into account the domain expertise of knowledge sources and the quality of resulting knowledge flows. The role of influence networks in channelling normative influences is also explored. Analysis of data collected from users of a newly implemented enterprise resource planning system indicates that training and user involvement in system design had a nuanced impact on implementation success, with training benefiting users performing routine, structured tasks while involvement in system design supported those performing ad hoc, unstructured tasks. Centrality positions in the knowledge and influence networks positively impacted implementation success. The results point to the need for restructuring change management programmes to suit the implementation environment, crafting ‘designer’ social networks that facilitate knowledge acquisition, and the inclusion of domain expertise of knowledge sources while assessing knowledge centralities.

Social Networks and Organizational Performance: Exploring the Quality of Domain Knowledge Sources

For sustained performance in a dynamic market environment, individuals within an organization must operate in a social network SN that promotes knowledge exchanges, encourages knowledge acquisition, and facilitates dissemination of domain knowledge pertinent to the execution of job-related tasks. Research on Knowledge Social Networks KSN has hitherto focused on interpersonal social network structures and its impact on knowledge outcomes with little attention being paid to the quality of domain knowledge possessed by knowledge sources and the value of resultant knowledge flows. This paper evaluates the quality of knowledge sources used in the social network by robustly measuring knowledge structures, the underlying foundation of conceptual knowledge. A field study of a simulated market environment with competing organizations found the KSN to be central in explaining organizational performance. However, its interplay with the domain knowledge structure of knowledge sources provided deeper insights into its link with organizational success.

Assimilation of Enterprise Information Systems: Knowledge Support from People and Systems

Prior research has indicated that employees rely on their informal social network to acquire knowledge essential for assimilating new technologies into their work practices. This study investigates the role of the help desk and online help in providing knowledge support for individual users and workgroups after the implementation of an Enterprise Information System. In addition to the informal social network, the people-driven help desk and system-driven online help are incorporated into a multi-modal social network framework to understand their synergistic impact on implementation success. The findings of the study indicate that the help desk provides knowledge support to both individuals and workgroups, while online help has a nuanced effect that depends on the density of individual and workgroup social network connections. The study further emphasizes the relevance of multi-modal social networks in understanding the combined network effects of people and systems.

The Influence of Knowledge Transfers on the Implementation of Enterprise Information Systems

Introduction The implementation of Enterprise Information Systems is difficult and challenging. It requires that many users learn to use the new system and coordinate their work. The goal of this study is to understand the relationship between the extent of user learning via social means and its impact on the implementation success.

All Is Right with the World: Schema Congruity and Trust Beliefs in B2C Electronic Commerce

Business-to-Consumer e-commerce vendors view consumer trust as an important determinant of purchasing intent. Based on the cognitive dissonance and schema-congruity theories, this paper examines the impact of schema-congruity between the website design elements of color and typography with the product context in impacting trust. Websites perceived as compatible with subconsciously internalized belief systems and hence deemed schema-congruent by consumers are expected to engender higher levels of trust. A controlled experimental study involving 128 participants spanning eight different schema-congruency conditions was conducted. Results indicated that completely schema-congruent websites engendered higher levels of trust. Partially schema-congruent and schema-incongruent websites registered significantly lower levels of trust due to cognitive dissonance arising out of their incompatibility with consumer belief systems. The judicious selection of color and typography perceived as schema-congruent with the product context can serve to enhance consumer trust in e-commerce websites.