The ability of information technologies (ITs) to integrate activities and offerings across multiple channels offers a promising opportunity for retail firms to enhance their relationship with their ...customers and firm performance. Consumers value the flexibility to learn about the available offerings, complete their orders and obtain customer service across different channels in a convenient and integrated manner. Therefore, the retail industry has begun to use IT extensively to automate and integrate business processes across their traditional and online channels. This study examines the impacts of the use of IT by retail firms in integrating channel activities for selling to customers. Our research model argues that retail channel integration through IT should enhance the efficiency and innovation of a retail firm. In turn, these improvements should enhance their overall performance. We also propose that the environmental dynamism would moderate the effects of improvements in efficiency and innovation on firm performance. We draw upon recent theories in organizational resource integration and organizational learning to develop our research model and hypotheses. Based on survey data from 125 multichannel retailers in Singapore, we find that retail channel integration through the use of IT allows firms to not only be efficient in delivering the current offerings, but also be innovative in creating future offerings. Further, we find that environmental dynamism does positively moderate the effects of innovation ability on performance. Our results provide managerial insights for firms involved in digital integration not only in the retail sector but also in other service industries. These findings could also serve as a foundation for further research on service operations management for firms with both physical and online operations.
Collaborating with a partner in a distant area is widely endorsed in practice as a means for inspiring novel innovations. However, empirical evidence also reports significant innovation efficiency ...challenges when working with distant partners due to differences in technical knowledge domain differences. In this study, we conducted a multi-method approach by using a case study of 30 interviews to develop three information technology (IT)-enabled inter-firm knowledge capabilities and testing the research model with field survey data from 258 firms. The findings of this research confirm our hypotheses that IT-enabled inter-firm knowledge exploration capability and IT-enabled inter-firm knowledge exploitation capability can help embrace the benefits of product effectiveness while IT-enabled social integration capability surmount process efficiency challenges inherent in collaboration with distant partners. This study adds a much-needed perspective to the IT and innovation literature and offers practical suggestions for firm managers to mindfully design and deploy IT resources in collaborative innovation projects.
Focusing on long-term buyer–supplier relationships, this article addresses two questions: (1) What are the antecedents that lead to the adoption of formal control, social control, or both? (2) What ...is the nature of the relationship between formal control and social control - are they substitutes or complements? We develop a model to investigate the impact of the length of cooperation and institutionalization on the use of control mechanisms. Further, we argue that in China, formal control and social control may be substitutes in domestic buyer–supplier relationships, but they may be complements in international relationships. Survey data collected nationwide with executives in 380 domestic and 200 international buyer–supplier relationships in China are used to test our hypotheses.
Rural-urban healthcare access inequality refers to a disparity between rural and urban people with severe medical ailments in gaining access to the high-quality healthcare services they need. ...Although much hope has been pinned on the use of health information technology (HIT) to alleviate this critical and enduring societal challenge, the realized societal impact of HIT is unclear. Anchoring on both social transformation theory and affordance actualization theory, we conducted an in-depth qualitative study with two rounds of data collection in China. In addition to investigating how the societal challenge has triggered transformative HIT interventions, our analysis contributes to a theory on an HIT solution for the rural-urban healthcare access inequality challenge by establishing a link between HIT affordances and HIT interventions. This is done by examining how microlevel HIT effects escalate to macrolevel HIT effects through societal-level affordance actualization, which can affect this healthcare access inequality challenge. Along with providing policy implications on introducing HIT solutions to address intricate and complex societal challenges, this study extends existing theories by revealing the adaptation of the HIT intervention and differentiating the effects of collective and shared affordances.
Firms are increasingly opening up their innovation efforts to allow users to tap into the benefits they can offer, such as mobile data service (MDS) innovation on iOS and Google Android platforms. ...For this purpose, platforms typically provide toolkits to facilitate user participation, aiming to create an ecosystem for sustainable innovation. However, with the barriers to user innovation and attrition of existing innovators, it could be challenging for firms to attract and sustain users’ MDS innovation. With the possible benefits from user innovation, and considering the challenges faced, firms need to understand how to influence potential user innovators to take part and to encourage extant user innovators to innovate again. However, there is a lack of comprehensive research and understanding of what drives users’ intentions to innovate services and the differences in the antecedents of such intention between potential and actual user innovators. Further, although prior studies have suggested that toolkits can support user innovation, little research has theorized and empirically tested their influence. Motivated thus, this study proposes a model based on (1) user innovation theory to explain the antecedents (including toolkit support) of user MDS innovation intention and (2) construal level theory to explain the differential effects of the antecedents for actual and potential user innovators. We tested the model through survey data from potential and actual MDS user innovators on Google Android and iOS platforms. We find that trend leadership and anticipated extrinsic reward influence both potential and actual user innovators’ intentions to innovate. However, anticipated recognition and toolkit support affect only actual user innovators, while anticipated enjoyment affects only potential user innovators. Interestingly, toolkit support strengthens the influence of anticipated enjoyment for actual user innovators but weakens its influence for potential user innovators. Further, potential user innovators value anticipated extrinsic rewards less than actual innovators do. The implications for research and practice are discussed.
Although emotions are often evoked when medical professionals are required to employ new systems at work, their roles in information system post-adoption literature are relatively less examined. We ...draw on appraisal theories of emotions to unveil the emotional mechanisms underlying medical professionals' behaviors at different post-adoption stages. Results from data collected from a two-round survey demonstrate the roles of emotions such as irritation, interest, and satisfaction in explaining user adaptation at the initial post-adoption stage and the role of emotions such as pride and satisfaction in determining the continued use of technology following user adaptation at the later post-adoption stage.
Spotlight
Impressions at first glance matter in the digital world in that they could lead to a lasting impact on credibility perceptions, usage intention, and user satisfaction. This research ...investigates how different forms of visual aesthetics (i.e., classical vs. expressive aesthetics) influence web page impression formation. We explicate a theoretical model of web page impression formation with a temporal sequence of processing stages: automatic visual processing, attentive visual processing, and impression formation, which in turn affects approach-avoidance tendencies. Our findings show the importance of web page impression at first glance, as it can significantly influence the approach tendency toward a web page. In addition, whether a web page can impress users positively depends on the arousal and attention induced by visual aesthetical elements under different time conditions. Our research also suggests that website designers and testers should attach importance to the balance between conservative and innovative designs to maximize their effects on web page impression formation.
Impressions at first glance matter in the digital world in that they could lead to lasting impact on credibility perceptions, usage intention, and user satisfaction. Past studies have found that much of impression formation is affected by visual design-related features. Despite its importance, little is known of how different forms of visual aesthetics (i.e., classical vs. expressive aesthetics) influence web page impression formation. Drawing on impression formation literature and cue utilization theory, we formulate a theoretical model of web page impression formation with a temporal sequence of processing stages: automatic processing, initial perception confirmation, and impression formation, which in turn affects approach-avoidance tendency. We conduct two within-subject studies to collect both self-reported and eye movement data to test our predictions. Using real-world web pages as stimuli, the first study reveals that people engage in both automatic processing and attentive processing to form web page impressions, and arousal (measured by pupil size) shapes how people allocate attention (measured by peak duration and fixation count) to visual aesthetics. Using web pages with manipulated aesthetics in the second study, we illuminate the theoretical logic of web page impression formation by showing that people first engage in automatic processing and then engage in attentive processing. Both studies provide strong empirical support for the mediating role of arousal on the effects of visual aesthetics on attention allocation. These findings contribute to an initial theoretical understanding of visual aesthetics effects on impression formation in the digital world and provide important implications for website designers.
This study seeks to clarify the nature of control in the context of information privacy to generate insights into the effects of different privacy assurance approaches on context-specific concerns ...for information privacy. We theorize that such effects are exhibited through mediation by perceived control over personal information and develop arguments in support of the interaction effects involving different privacy assurance approaches (individual self-protection, industry self-regulation, and government legislation). We test the research model in the context of location-based services using data obtained from 178 individuals in Singapore. In general, the results support our core assertion that perceived control over personal information is a key factor affecting context-specific concerns for information privacy. In addition to enhancing our theoretical understanding of the link between control and privacy concerns, these findings have important implications for service providers and consumers as well as for regulatory bodies and technology developers. PUBLICATION ABSTRACT
Location-based services (LBS) use positioning technologies to provide individual users with reachability and accessibility that would otherwise not be available in the conventional commercial realm. ...While LBS confer greater connectivity and personalization on consumers, they also threaten users' information privacy through granular tracking of their preferences, behaviors, and identity. To address privacy concerns in the LBS context, this study extends the privacy calculus model to explore the role of information delivery mechanisms (pull and push) in the efficacy of three privacy intervention approaches (compensation, industry self-regulation, and government regulation) in influencing individual privacy decision making. The research model was tested using data gathered from 528 respondents through a quasi-experimental survey method. Structural equations modeling using partial least squares validated the instrument and the proposed model. Results suggest that the effects of the three privacy intervention approaches on an individual's privacy calculus vary based on the type of information delivery mechanism (pull and push). Results suggest that providing financial compensation for push-based LBS is more important than it is for pull-based LBS. Moreover, this study shows that privacy advocates and government legislators should not treat all types of LBS as undifferentiated but could instead specifically target certain types of services.
