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Can Regulation Restore Authenticity? Evidence from Policies Against Online Review Suppression
AI Processed Human Approved

How do laws banning businesses from suppressing negative reviews affect online customer ratings?

Aida Sanatizadeh, Gordon Burtch, Yili Hong, Yuheng Hu
Can Regulation Restore Authenticity? Evidence from Policies Against Online Review Suppression
Information Systems Research · 2025
Key findings
  • Following the CRFA enactment, U.S. hotel reviews became systematically more negative in both star ratings and textual sentiment.
  • Reviews became significantly longer on average, indicating that consumers shared more detailed feedback once legal risks were mitigated.
  • Rating declines were most concentrated among less reputable hotels and those in highly competitive local markets, which previously suppressed negative reviews more aggressively.
  • The policy's effects were strongest among American reviewers and users with longer platform tenure.
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive: On Monday morning, initiate a review of our internal policies and legal contracts to ensure no clauses inadvertently threaten or discourage customers from providing honest feedback on public review platforms.
  • IT Manager: On Monday morning, task your team with monitoring online review platforms for any patterns of review suppression tactics being used by our competitors, specifically looking for increases in negative reviews that are quickly removed or challenged.
  • Business Strategist: On Monday morning, analyze recent customer feedback data, particularly any negative reviews received in the last quarter, and assess if there are opportunities to engage with these customers to improve our offerings and address concerns openly.
  • Researcher: On Monday morning, identify and gather publicly available datasets on consumer review sentiment and volume for companies in sectors known for aggressive review suppression prior to recent regulatory changes, to replicate or extend the findings on the CRFA.
  • Policymaker: On Monday morning, schedule a meeting with your legislative staff to discuss potential avenues for expanding regulatory protections to cover other forms of consumer feedback, such as social media comments or product testimonials, building upon the success of the CRFA.
Consumer Review Fairness Act, Online Reviews, Review Suppression, Chilling Effect, Digital Platforms, Consumer Protection
Digital Identity Wallets: A Guide to the EU’s New Identity Model
AI Processed Human Approved

How can organizations successfully implement digital identity wallets and overcome common adoption challenges?

Andre Kudra, Alexander Rieger, Johannes Sedlmeir, Tamara Roth, Gilbert Fridgen, Amber Young
Digital Identity Wallets: A Guide to the EU’s New Identity Model
Information Systems Journal (ISJ) · 2026
Key findings
  • Synthesizes empirical lessons from 12 real-world digital wallet implementation projects across various industries.
  • Categorizes adoption obstacles into technical maturity, organizational integration, and ecosystem value co-creation challenges.
  • Establishes a four-step implementation roadmap guiding organizations from strategic readiness to active ecosystem engagement.
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive: Schedule a 30-minute internal briefing for your core IT leadership team to present the attached research summary and assign a point person to investigate the 'technical maturity' obstacles identified in the key findings within the context of our existing identity and access management infrastructure.
  • IT Manager: On Monday morning, compile a list of all current third-party single sign-on providers used by the organization and identify which of these might be candidates for integration or replacement with a digital identity wallet solution in the future, flagging any immediate integration challenges or risks.
  • Business Strategist: Dedicate one hour on Monday morning to reviewing the 'ecosystem value co-creation' challenges mentioned in the research and brainstorm at least three potential business use cases within our organization where a digital identity wallet could unlock new revenue streams or significantly improve customer experience.
  • Researcher: Begin analyzing the 12 practical experience case studies mentioned in the research by focusing on the 'organizational integration' obstacles. Identify and document recurring themes and successful mitigation strategies from at least three diverse industry examples to inform our own adoption framework.
  • Policymaker: Initiate a dialogue with legal and compliance teams on Monday morning to assess the implications of the 2026 EU mandate for digital wallet support, specifically identifying any current regulatory gaps or areas where policy clarification will be needed to facilitate the adoption of wallet-based identity models.
digital identity wallets, identity and access management, eIDAS, attribute-based access control, self-sovereign identity
A Metaverse-Based Proof of Concept for Innovation in Distributed Teams
AI Processed Human Approved

How can immersive virtual spaces help remote teams collaborate creatively and generate innovative ideas?

Rosemary Francisco, Sharon Geeling, Grant Oosterwyk, Carolyn Tauro, Gerard De Leoz
A Metaverse-Based Proof of Concept for Innovation in Distributed Teams
MIS Quarterly Executive · 2025
Key findings
  • Immersive avatar-based interactions and informal spatial movement lowered social pressure, significantly enhancing psychological safety and participant engagement.
  • Combining spatial metaverse platforms with digital whiteboard tools allowed teams to transition fluidly between open exploration and structured prototyping.
  • Skilled, continuous facilitation proved essential for guiding virtual transitions, maintaining momentum, and reducing technical adoption barriers.
  • Assembling cross-functional teams across different geographic locations successfully broke organizational silos and fostered more diverse, novel solution concepts.
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive: On Monday morning, initiate a pilot program to explore and test a specific metaverse platform (e.g., Spatial, ENGAGE) by scheduling a 30-minute exploratory session with your direct reports to assess its potential for distributed team collaboration and innovation, focusing on avatar-based interaction and spatial navigation.
  • IT Manager: On Monday morning, research and identify two to three user-friendly metaverse platforms and one digital whiteboard tool that integrate well, and then schedule a brief (15-minute) demo for your team to evaluate their potential for facilitating dynamic collaboration and creative ideation in distributed teams.
  • Business Strategist: On Monday morning, identify one specific cross-functional innovation challenge your distributed teams are currently facing and outline how an immersive metaverse environment could potentially foster more spontaneous interaction and diverse solution ideation for that specific challenge.
  • Researcher: On Monday morning, begin by reviewing the 'Key Findings' of this study and formulate three specific hypotheses about how the integration of metaverse environments and digital whiteboards can measurably improve psychological safety and idea generation in your next distributed team project.
  • Policymaker: On Monday morning, draft a preliminary proposal for a 'Virtual Innovation Hub' policy, outlining the potential benefits of adopting immersive metaverse technologies for distributed teams, referencing the research findings on enhanced engagement and reduced social pressure.
Metaverse, Distributed Teams, Virtual Workspace, Design Thinking, Action Research, Psychological Safety
TOWARD CULTURAL–ETHICAL FIT IN AI GOVERNANCE: A GLOBAL TYPOLOGY OF GOVERNANCE PROFILES
AI Processed Human Approved

How can AI governance be adapted to fit local cultural and ethical values around the world?

Dimitrios Symeonidis, Johannes Schneider, Anastasija Nikiforova
TOWARD CULTURAL–ETHICAL FIT IN AI GOVERNANCE: A GLOBAL TYPOLOGY OF GOVERNANCE PROFILES
ECIS 2026 · 2026
Key findings
  • Identified eight distinct ideal-type AI governance profiles reflecting specific cultural and ethical alignments: group fairness, individual fairness, market-led growth, value-led growth, human oversight fortress, autonomous growth, individual control, and collective security.
  • Demonstrated that global AI governance is structured by two key meta-tensions: social justice versus economic competitiveness, and autonomy versus security and control.
  • Formulated three theoretical propositions outlining how cultural alignment determines governance legitimacy, shapes patterns of societal resistance, and guides regulatory evolution over time.
  • Offered a diagnostic decision framework for policymakers to adapt international AI guidelines to local socio-cultural contexts without sacrificing core safety requirements.
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive: On Monday morning, schedule a 30-minute deep dive with your legal and ethics teams to identify which of the eight AI governance profiles identified in the research most closely aligns with your organization's current AI development and deployment practices, and flag any immediate misalignments.
  • IT Manager: On Monday morning, initiate a review of your team's current AI project documentation and development methodologies, specifically looking for instances where decisions about fairness, transparency, or accountability might have been implicitly influenced by a single cultural perspective (e.g., U.S.-centric) and note them for further discussion.
  • Business Strategist: On Monday morning, begin analyzing your organization's key international markets and identify the primary cultural value orientations that characterize them, then cross-reference this with the meta-tensions (social justice vs. economic competitiveness, autonomy vs. security) to anticipate potential governance friction for upcoming AI initiatives.
  • Researcher: On Monday morning, begin drafting a short literature review outline focusing on how cultural value orientations (e.g., individualism vs. collectivism) have historically shaped the adoption and regulation of other transformative technologies (e.g., the internet, biotechnology) to draw parallels with AI governance.
  • Policymaker: On Monday morning, review the 'diagnostic decision framework' mentioned in the research, and identify one specific AI guideline (e.g., data privacy regulations) that your jurisdiction currently applies universally, then brainstorm how to adapt its interpretation to better fit the dominant cultural value orientations of your primary constituent groups.
AI governance, cultural values, governance typology, ethical AI, regulatory design
THE VOICE OF COMMERCE: HOW SMART SPEAKERS RESHAPE DIGITAL CONTENT CONSUMPTION AND PREFERENCES
AI Processed Human Approved

How does adopting smart speakers change how consumers search for, buy, and consume digital content?

Yoonseock Son, Wonseok Oh, Il Im
THE VOICE OF COMMERCE: HOW SMART SPEAKERS RESHAPE DIGITAL CONTENT CONSUMPTION AND PREFERENCES
MIS Quarterly · 2023
Key findings
  • Smart speaker adoption led to a 21.5% increase in monthly VOD content expenditures, alongside a 3.0% decrease in average content completion rates.
  • The increase in purchases is driven by lowered search friction, resulting in more search incidences, higher conversion rates, and less labor-intensive evaluation of content.
  • Using smart speakers for conversational purposes beyond simple informational queries amplifies the positive impact of device adoption on sales.
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive: On Monday morning, task your team with investigating integration points between existing VOD platforms and major smart speaker voice assistant APIs (e.g., Alexa, Google Assistant) to enable seamless content discovery and playback via voice commands.
  • IT Manager: On Monday morning, analyze the current VOD platform's data infrastructure to identify how to track and log voice-initiated search queries and content playback events, distinguishing them from traditional remote control interactions.
  • Business Strategist: On Monday morning, initiate a brainstorm session to explore new content promotion strategies that leverage voice-activated search, considering how to make titles more discoverable through natural language queries and conversational recommendations.
  • Researcher: On Monday morning, begin outlining a follow-up study to quantify the correlation between specific conversational voice interactions (beyond simple search) and increased VOD content consumption, perhaps through A/B testing of voice-guided discovery features.
  • Policymaker: On Monday morning, convene a working group to assess the potential implications of increased voice-activated content consumption on digital accessibility standards and to explore how to ensure equitable access to content across all user interfaces.
Voice channel, search, smart speaker, digital content, econometrics
Efficacy Beliefs and Outcomes: Socio-Cognitive Perspectives on a Faculty-Led coP
AI Processed Human Approved

How does collaborative course redesign affect student performance, teaching consistency, and instructor confidence?

John Michael Muraski, Donald H. Heath, Michael A. Eierman, Michael Patton
Efficacy Beliefs and Outcomes: Socio-Cognitive Perspectives on a Faculty-Led coP
AIS SIGED International Conference on Information Systems Education and Research (SIGED) · 2023
Key findings
  • Student performance showed consistent, measurable gains across multiple semesters following the course redesign, as demonstrated by improved pre- and post-test assessment deltas.
  • Participation in the community of practice positively impacted instructors' self-efficacy beliefs, with vicarious learning and peer verbal persuasion emerging as key drivers of confidence.
  • The collaborative approach established high course consistency across sections while creating a durable, supportive framework for peer mentoring and ongoing curriculum enhancement.
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive: On Monday morning, schedule a 30-minute meeting with your IT academic technology support lead to explore a pilot program implementing a Communities of Practice model for a high-enrollment introductory course, using the provided research as a framework for discussion on potential student outcome improvements and faculty development.
  • IT Manager: On Monday morning, gather the instructors for the introductory information systems course for a 45-minute session. Share the key findings of this research, specifically highlighting the gains in student performance and instructor self-efficacy. Then, collaboratively brainstorm one small, concrete change to the course syllabus or assessment that can be implemented next semester as a collective first step towards greater consistency.
  • Business Strategist: On Monday morning, analyze the current onboarding and ongoing professional development process for new faculty teaching foundational courses. Identify any gaps in collaborative support and informal learning opportunities, and consider how principles from this research, such as vicarious learning and peer persuasion, could be integrated into existing programs to improve faculty confidence and course consistency.
  • Researcher: On Monday morning, begin drafting a proposal for a follow-up study. Focus on investigating the specific mechanisms of vicarious learning and peer verbal persuasion within the identified Community of Practice, perhaps through targeted surveys or observation protocols, to quantify their impact on instructor self-efficacy and to better understand how to scale these findings.
  • Policymaker: On Monday morning, initiate a discussion with the Provost's office and the Faculty Senate leadership to present the findings of this research. Propose the development of a university-wide framework or grant program that incentivizes and supports the formation of faculty Communities of Practice for foundational courses, emphasizing the potential for improved student learning outcomes and faculty development.
Community of Practice, Self-Efficacy, Course Redesign, Social Cognitive Theory, Information Systems Education, Participatory Action Research
Boundary Spanning and Practical Impact in IS Research: A Bourdieusian Analysis
AI Processed Human Approved

How can practitioner researchers overcome the divide between academia and industry to create real-world impact?

Stephen McCarthy, Hendrik Scholta, Geir Inge Hausvik, Peter André Busch
Boundary Spanning and Practical Impact in IS Research: A Bourdieusian Analysis
Information Systems Journal (ISJ) · 2025
Key findings
  • IS practitioner doctorates facilitate knowledge exchange through boundary-spanning activities including research design adaptation, multi-channel dissemination, and creating symbolic discourse.
  • Practical impact progresses through proof-of-concept, proof-of-value, and proof-of-use stages, each requiring different combinations of social, cultural, economic, and symbolic capital.
  • Environmental forces such as academic vs. practice doxa (institutional norms) and habitus (professional dispositions) create positional conflicts that require active negotiation and tailored incentives to sustain engagement.
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive: On Monday morning, schedule a 30-minute meeting with your direct reports to initiate a 'practice impact review' focused on one ongoing IS project. Ask each person to identify one specific academic insight or research finding from a recent external study or internal research initiative that could be directly applied to improve that project's current proof-of-concept or proof-of-value stage, and assign them to explore this application by end of week.
  • IT Manager: On Monday morning, identify one specific, recent academic paper or conference proceeding relevant to a current team challenge. Forward this paper to your team with a concise note asking for a brief, 1-2 sentence summary of its most practical takeaway and how it *might* apply to your current proof-of-value stage objective by Tuesday afternoon.
  • Business Strategist: On Monday morning, review the key performance indicators (KPIs) of one strategic business initiative currently underway. Identify which KPIs are not meeting expectations and, using the 'proof-of-value' framework, draft a one-page hypothesis on how a novel IS application or process, potentially informed by academic research, could demonstrably improve these specific KPIs within the next quarter.
  • Researcher: On Monday morning, select one recent academic publication where you are the lead author and identify its 'proof-of-use' stage potential. Draft a single-slide executive summary that articulates the core problem addressed, the practical solution proposed, and one tangible benefit for a specific industry practitioner role (e.g., IT manager, business analyst), and share it with three relevant practitioner contacts for feedback by Wednesday.
  • Policymaker: On Monday morning, review the current grant application criteria for technology innovation funding. Identify if and how 'demonstrable practical impact' is explicitly assessed, and draft a brief proposal to incorporate a specific requirement for applicants to detail their strategy for achieving 'proof-of-value' or 'proof-of-use' within a defined timeframe, alongside theoretical contributions.
academia-practice gap, boundary spanning, design science research, engaged IS scholarship, practical impact, theory of practice
Affordance-Based Pathway Model of Social Inclusion: A Case Study of Virtual Worlds and People With Lifelong Disability
AI Processed Human Approved

How do virtual worlds help people with lifelong disabilities move from social isolation to social inclusion?

Karen Stendal, Maung K. Sein, Devinder Thapa
Affordance-Based Pathway Model of Social Inclusion: A Case Study of Virtual Worlds and People With Lifelong Disability
Journal of the Association for Information Systems · 2026
Key findings
  • Identified three functional affordances (communicability, mobility, and personalizability) and two social affordances (engageability and self-actualizability) crucial for social inclusion.
  • Established that the actualization of functional affordances enables and dynamically interacts with social affordances to foster interpersonal relationships and community participation.
  • Discovered that outcomes achieved by actualizing specific affordances serve as facilitating conditions that support the perception and realization of additional affordances.
  • Extended affordance theory by demonstrating a feedback loop where social engagement refines and enhances the perception and use of basic functional capabilities.
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive: On Monday morning, task your accessibility team to conduct an initial assessment of our current platform's 'communicability' features (e.g., real-time chat, group messaging, avatar-based interaction quality) against the research's identified functional affordances to understand potential barriers and opportunities for individuals with disabilities.
  • IT Manager: On Monday morning, schedule a 30-minute working session with your frontline support staff to review existing user feedback logs for mentions of difficulty with navigation, communication, or customization within our virtual environment, specifically looking for patterns that might align with limitations in perceived 'mobility' or 'personalizability' affordances.
  • Business Strategist: On Monday morning, initiate a competitive analysis focusing on how emerging virtual platforms or digital communities are leveraging 'engageability' and 'self-actualizability' affordances to foster user connection and content creation, particularly noting any strategies that might appeal to or benefit users with disabilities.
  • Researcher: On Monday morning, begin drafting a protocol for a pilot study within our organization's virtual world that focuses on measuring the impact of enhanced 'communicability' features on user-reported feelings of 'engageability' and 'self-actualizability' among a diverse user group, potentially including participants with disabilities.
  • Policymaker: On Monday morning, convene a brief meeting with your advisory committee to discuss how current digital inclusion policies might be strengthened by explicitly incorporating the research's identified 'functional affordances' (communicability, mobility, personalizability) and 'social affordances' (engageability, self-actualizability) as measurable criteria for assessing technological accessibility and support for social participation.
Social Inclusion, Virtual Worlds, People With Lifelong Disability, Affordances, Second Life, ICT
Yoga Sutra-Based Memory Analysis of Information Systems Implementation
AI Processed Human Approved

How do stakeholders' past negative experiences affect their trust and adoption of new technology?

Ranjan Vaidya
Yoga Sutra-Based Memory Analysis of Information Systems Implementation
Communications of the Association for Information Systems · 2026
Key findings
  • The Yoga Sutra framework demonstrates that subliminal impressions (Samskara) formed by past unfair trade practices deeply influence stakeholder behaviors and technology adoption.
  • Contextual factors and research interviews function as triggers (Alambana) that evoke unpleasant memories, reinforcing distrust between system users, government boards, and private vendors.
  • Information system failures in developing contexts often result from a lack of adherence to core ethical and behavioral values rather than culture acting as a barrier.
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive: On Monday morning, schedule a 30-minute discovery call with your Head of User Experience and your Chief Ethics Officer to brainstorm how to proactively identify and mitigate potential 'Samskara' (subliminal impressions) in upcoming system implementations by focusing on past negative stakeholder experiences.
  • IT Manager: On Monday morning, review the last three system user feedback reports for any recurring themes related to distrust or negative past experiences, and flag the top two recurring issues to investigate further for potential 'Alambana' (external triggers) in your current system.
  • Business Strategist: On Monday morning, draft a brief (one-page) internal memo to your team outlining the concept of 'Samskara' and its potential impact on technology adoption, and request them to identify one instance in recent projects where past negative impressions might have influenced user behavior.
  • Researcher: On Monday morning, begin drafting the introduction to your next research paper by clearly articulating the gap in current information systems research regarding the lack of focus on individual cognitive variations and Eastern philosophical perspectives on memory, using the Yoga Sutra framework as your proposed solution.
  • Policymaker: On Monday morning, initiate a discussion with your advisory board regarding the importance of embedding ethical and behavioral values into the design and implementation guidelines for all new government information systems, referencing the finding that failures often stem from a lack of adherence to these values, not culture.
Yoga, Information Systems, Memory, Behavioural Analysis, Samskara, ICT4D
Ethics-based ontology in ICT4D
AI Processed Human Approved

How do technology projects affect local communities, and what determines whether they succeed or fail?

Devinder Thapa
Ethics-based ontology in ICT4D
2025
Key findings
  • Establishes an ethics-based ontology in ICT4D that shifts focus from instrumental views of technology to lived human experience and moral responsibility.
  • Demonstrates through the OLE Nepal case study how embedding technology into local educational ecosystems, national curricula, and teacher practices leads to sustainable success.
  • Reveals through the OLPC Peru case study how top-down, context-unaware technological implementations erode local agency and lead to project failure.
  • Highlights key implementation challenges, including translating abstract philosophical concepts into practical design metrics and addressing Eurocentric biases in technology evaluation.
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive: On Monday morning, schedule a 30-minute meeting with your ICT4D project leads to introduce the concept of an 'ethics-based ontology' and ask them to identify one project where technology is deeply integrated into user workflows and cultural practices. Assign them to bring initial thoughts on how the project's impact on lived experience and moral agency could be assessed in the next project review.
  • IT Manager: On Monday morning, review the support tickets and user feedback logs from the last quarter for your current ICT4D deployment. Specifically, look for recurring issues that are not purely technical but seem to relate to user frustration, resistance to adoption, or a perception of technology not fitting their daily routines. Flag these for further investigation with your team.
  • Business Strategist: On Monday morning, identify your organization's most critical ICT4D initiative. Draft a brief memo outlining how you plan to evaluate its success not just on efficiency metrics but also on its impact on the dignity, agency, and cultural integrity of the end-users. Prepare to discuss this revised evaluation framework with your team by the end of the week.
  • Researcher: On Monday morning, revisit the 'implementation challenges' section of the research paper and select ONE challenge (e.g., translating abstract concepts into practical design metrics). Begin drafting a short (1-page) proposal for how you might operationalize this concept for a future ICT4D project you are involved in, focusing on a tangible measurement.
  • Policymaker: On Monday morning, review existing national or organizational guidelines for technology procurement and deployment in development contexts. Identify sections that address user impact, cultural sensitivity, or long-term sustainability. Draft a short list of questions to investigate how these existing guidelines could be strengthened to incorporate considerations of lived experience and moral responsibility for technology's impact.
ICT4D, being-in-the-World, ethics of responsibility, ontology, development, philosophy
Gamification for Community Building: Click to Shake Hands
AI Processed Human Approved

What drives users to stay engaged with location-based games and build real-world communities?

Faisal Al Thani, Chadi Aoun, Savanid Vatanasakdakul
Gamification for Community Building: Click to Shake Hands
Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems (PACIS) · 2025
Key findings
  • Formulates a novel theoretical framework connecting technology adoption, gamification mechanics, external social influences, and intrinsic motivations to app stickiness and community engagement.
  • Identifies key drivers such as location incentives, perceived ease of use, reward value, achievement, network influence, herd behavior, social motive, and sense of belonging.
  • Establishes an empirical research design targeting over 1,000 active Pokémon GO players using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM).
  • Provides preliminary theoretical grounding for designing mobile gamified systems that promote social sustainability and persistent physical-world social interactions.
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive: On Monday morning, allocate budget to pilot a location-based gamified application in one of our company's facilities, specifically focusing on fostering cross-departmental collaboration by integrating 'location incentives' for shared project spaces.
  • IT Manager: On Monday morning, schedule a meeting with your development team to discuss how to integrate elements like 'reward value' and 'achievement' into our existing internal communication platform to encourage more active participation and knowledge sharing.
  • Business Strategist: On Monday morning, initiate a brainstorming session with your marketing and product teams to identify opportunities to leverage 'network influence' and 'herd behavior' in upcoming product launches or community outreach initiatives, perhaps by creating exclusive early-access groups.
  • Researcher: On Monday morning, refine the survey instrument to include questions specifically measuring 'sense of belonging' and 'social motive' as distinct constructs, and prepare to recruit participants from diverse community groups for your next study.
  • Policymaker: On Monday morning, direct your staff to research successful public policy initiatives that have used location-based incentives or gamification to encourage citizen engagement with local services or community events, and identify potential applications for our jurisdiction.
Community Engagement, Gamification, Location-based games, Stickiness, Technology Adoption, Social Interaction
Social Commerce in Qatar: Consumer Characteristics and Emergent Engagement
AI Processed Human Approved

Who is buying through social media in Qatar, which platforms do they use, and how often?

Savanid Vatanasakdakul, Chadi Aoun, Faiq Defiandry
Social Commerce in Qatar: Consumer Characteristics and Emergent Engagement
Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS) · 2025
Key findings
  • Most social commerce users in Qatar engage in s-commerce purchases 1-3 times per month (82%), with an additional 18% purchasing 4-7 times monthly.
  • Instagram emerged as the leading platform for s-commerce in Qatar (46%), followed by WhatsApp (20%), TikTok (14%), and Facebook (9%).
  • Female consumers (56%) and younger demographics aged 20-24 (48%) constitute the largest user segments engaging in social commerce.
  • The findings highlight the significant impact of local culture, digital infrastructure, and localized content preferences in driving social commerce diffusion.
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive: On Monday morning, initiate a strategic review of existing IT infrastructure and security protocols to ensure they can adequately support and protect the growing volume of social commerce transactions, with a specific focus on enhancing mobile payment gateway integrations and data privacy measures for platforms like Instagram and WhatsApp.
  • IT Manager: On Monday morning, task your team to audit the current analytics tracking for social media platforms, particularly Instagram and WhatsApp, to ensure accurate capture of user engagement and conversion data related to social commerce activities, and set up dashboards to monitor these metrics.
  • Business Strategist: On Monday morning, draft a proposal to develop targeted social commerce campaigns on Instagram, prioritizing visually appealing content and influencer collaborations, specifically aimed at the 20-24 female demographic, mirroring their current high engagement in this space.
  • Researcher: On Monday morning, begin outlining a follow-up research proposal focusing on qualitative insights into *why* Qatari consumers, particularly younger females, prefer Instagram for social commerce, exploring themes like trust, authenticity, and localized content.
  • Policymaker: On Monday morning, request a briefing from relevant ministries to understand current regulations regarding digital marketing and e-commerce on social media platforms in Qatar, and identify any gaps that might need to be addressed to foster responsible growth of social commerce.
Social Commerce, Social Media, Consumer Behavior, Technology Adoption, Qatar
Role of Information Systems in Empowering Innovation Networks
AI Processed Human Approved

How can leaders set up and manage shared technology tools to support collaborative innovation across partner companies?

Sven-Volker Rehm, Lakshmi Goel, Iris Junglas
Role of Information Systems in Empowering Innovation Networks
MIS Quarterly Executive · 2015
Key findings
  • Identifies five key IS functionalities critical for innovation networks: collaborative work environments, knowledge maps, knowledge spaces, innovation procedure toolkits, and social media platforms.
  • Reveals that network success stems from pragmatically using a diverse set of accessible IS tools to form a shared infrastructure rather than relying on a single complex system.
  • Delivers nine practical guidelines for CIOs to manage IS infrastructure across the co-shaping, co-performing, and co-opting phases of open innovation networks.
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive: On Monday morning, initiate a review of our existing IS tools to identify at least three readily accessible platforms (e.g., cloud-based project management, secure file sharing, internal wiki) that can be quickly configured to support a collaborative work environment for our next cross-company project, prioritizing ease of adoption for all partners.
  • IT Manager: On Monday morning, assess the user-friendliness and integration capabilities of our current knowledge management system and identify any gaps. Then, plan a quick training session for a pilot group of users demonstrating how to tag and categorize project-related documents to build a rudimentary 'knowledge map' for our innovation network.
  • Business Strategist: On Monday morning, draft a brief outline of key innovation challenges and opportunities for our next external collaboration, and then identify which of the five identified IS functionalities (collaborative work environments, knowledge maps, knowledge spaces, innovation procedure toolkits, and social media platforms) would be most impactful in addressing these specific challenges, focusing on pragmatic tool selection.
  • Researcher: On Monday morning, begin cataloging and categorizing the publicly available 'innovation procedure toolkits' or best practice guides that could be shared or adapted for our current project, focusing on those with clear, step-by-step instructions that can be easily integrated into a shared digital space.
  • Policymaker: On Monday morning, draft a short proposal for an initiative that encourages or provides resources for SMEs to adopt cloud-based collaborative platforms, specifically highlighting how these platforms can support cross-organizational knowledge sharing and innovation within their respective industries.
Open Innovation, Innovation Networks, Information Systems Infrastructure, Small and Medium Enterprises, Collaborative Work Environments, Medical Device Industry
Using Information Systems in Innovation Networks: Uncovering Network Resources
AI Processed Human Approved

How can collaborating companies use shared information systems to align resources and develop new products?

Sven-Volker Rehm, Lakshmi Goel, Iris Junglas
Using Information Systems in Innovation Networks: Uncovering Network Resources
Journal of the Association for Information Systems · 2017
Key findings
  • Inter-organizational information systems are essential for enabling networking capabilities and constructing unique, shared resource constellations at the network level.
  • Four core informational purposes of information systems—representation, sharing, architecture, and reach—facilitate the cross-boundary resource alignment process.
  • Creating IS-embedded network resources enables collaborating firms to establish sustainable competitive advantages that extend beyond individual firm boundaries.
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive: On Monday morning, schedule a meeting with key innovation network partners to initiate discussions on standardizing or enhancing inter-organizational information system capabilities for resource visibility and alignment. Identify one critical shared process in an ongoing innovation project and task your team with exploring how a new information system feature could better represent and share partner resources for that process.
  • IT Manager: On Monday morning, review the existing inter-organizational information systems used by your company in innovation networks. Identify one area where information sharing or representation of partner capabilities is currently fragmented or manual, and develop a concrete proposal for a pilot project to improve this using a specific IS feature (e.g., a shared dashboard for resource availability).
  • Business Strategist: On Monday morning, identify one ongoing collaborative innovation project and map out the key physical, human, and organizational resources currently being leveraged from your network partners. Then, identify specific gaps in visibility or alignment of these resources and brainstorm one practical way an inter-organizational information system could be adapted or enhanced to address these gaps.
  • Researcher: On Monday morning, begin drafting a qualitative interview guide for your next set of case studies, focusing on questions that explore how specific inter-organizational information system features (representation, sharing, architecture, reach) enable or hinder the alignment of physical, human, and organizational resources for new product development.
  • Policymaker: On Monday morning, research existing government grants or incentives that support the adoption and development of inter-organizational information systems for small and medium-sized enterprises involved in collaborative innovation. Draft a one-page summary of potential policy interventions to encourage such adoption for a discussion with relevant industry stakeholders.
Network Resource, Dynamic Capability, Networking Capability, Resource-based View, Innovation Network, New Product Development
Artificial Normality: How Conversational Agents’ Perceived Humanness Inhibits Error Attribution and Preserves Satisfaction
AI Processed Human Approved

How does making conversational agents appear more human affect customer reactions when errors occur?

Alfred Benedikt Brendel, Sascha Lichtenberg, Fabian Hildebrandt & Alan R. Dennis
Artificial Normality: How Conversational Agents’ Perceived Humanness Inhibits Error Attribution and Preserves Satisfaction
Journal of Management Information Systems · 2026
Key findings
  • Greater perceived humanness in conversational agents preserves perceptions of situational normality when minor errors occur.
  • Preserved situational normality reduces users' tendency to attribute error cause to the agent, thereby safeguarding overall service satisfaction.
  • Errors made by humanlike conversational agents are processed similarly to errors made by human service agents, demonstrating that humanlike design can alleviate algorithm aversion.
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive: On Monday morning, allocate budget to pilot the integration of more human-centric design principles (e.g., nuanced language, empathetic phrasing) into our core customer-facing conversational agent, focusing on areas where process errors are most common, to preemptively reduce user error attribution and maintain satisfaction.
  • IT Manager: On Monday morning, task your development team to review our current conversational agent's dialogue logs for instances of process errors and identify the top 3 most frequent error types to begin redesigning their responses with more humanlike cues (e.g., slight pauses, conversational fillers) to normalize the situation for users.
  • Business Strategist: On Monday morning, initiate a cross-functional workshop with marketing and product development to explore how to strategically position our conversational agents' perceived humanness in customer communications, emphasizing its role in creating a seamless experience even when minor technical glitches occur.
  • Researcher: On Monday morning, begin designing a follow-up study that experimentally manipulates specific humanlike conversational features (e.g., varying levels of politeness, acknowledgment of difficulty) within a simulated error scenario to quantify their direct impact on error attribution and situational normality, building upon the findings of Artificial Normality.
  • Policymaker: On Monday morning, convene a small working group to draft guidelines for the ethical development of conversational agents, recommending that AI design standards encourage the incorporation of humanlike qualities to enhance user experience and mitigate negative reactions to inevitable system errors, rather than solely focusing on pure efficiency.
Chatbot, Chatbot errors, situational normality, anthropomorphism, humanness, error attribution, user satisfaction
STRUCTURING READINESS FOR AI INNOVATION: THE ROLE OF THE DESIGN CHALLENGE BRIEF AS A COORDINATION AND GATEKEEPING ARTEFACT
AI Processed Human Approved

How can teams evaluate whether an artificial intelligence project is ready to launch?

Jennifer Hehn, Franziska Anna Röckel, Benjamin van Giffen
STRUCTURING READINESS FOR AI INNOVATION: THE ROLE OF THE DESIGN CHALLENGE BRIEF AS A COORDINATION AND GATEKEEPING ARTEFACT
ECIS 2026 · 2026
Key findings
  • The study outlines a preliminary three-phase qualitative model for establishing AI project readiness: divergent exploration, negotiation/translation, and convergent alignment, though these findings are descriptive and lack statistical testing.
  • The Design Challenge Brief is shown to act as a gatekeeping artifact that structures readiness reviews and allows teams to selectively revisit earlier project assumptions without resetting the entire process.
  • The study is limited by its small qualitative sample of five projects and its setting within a structured, university-led innovation lab, which may restrict generalizability to less-structured corporate settings.
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive: Draft and mandate a standard 'Design Challenge Brief' template that all AI project champions must complete and get approved before receiving formal project launch funding.
  • IT Manager: Gather your AI project team for a 1-hour workshop to map your current pre-project planning stage to the three phases of divergent exploration, negotiation/translation, and convergent alignment, explicitly documenting how you will handle fluid data availability.
  • Business Strategist: Audit your pipeline of proposed AI initiatives and flag any project that has not yet completed a collaborative 'Design Challenge Brief' to prevent launching projects with high uncertainty around non-deterministic outcomes.
  • Researcher: Draft a research proposal and survey instrument to test the generalizability of the three-phase AI readiness model across a quantitative sample of 100+ corporate AI projects outside of academic lab settings.
  • Policymaker: Integrate a 'Design Challenge Brief' gatekeeping requirement into your public sector AI procurement and funding frameworks to ensure public agencies evaluate data readiness and outcome uncertainties before awarding AI contracts.
AI innovation, readiness work, design challenge brief, boundary objects, gatekeeping
AVATAR DESIGN AND USER PERSONALITY TRAITS: SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW ON IDENTITY CONSTRUCTION THROUGH AVATAR IN THE METAVERSE
AI Processed Human Approved

How do people's personality traits shape the way they design their avatars in virtual worlds?

Sohee Kim, Efpraxia D. Zamani, Konstantina Spanaki
AVATAR DESIGN AND USER PERSONALITY TRAITS: SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW ON IDENTITY CONSTRUCTION THROUGH AVATAR IN THE METAVERSE
ECIS 2026 · 2026
Key findings
  • Conscientious individuals systematically tend to design avatars that closely resemble their physical, real-world selves, reflecting their responsible and organized personality traits (statistically supported across synthesized literature).
  • Users with high levels of openness are statistically more likely to select radical and experimental avatar designs (statistically supported across synthesized literature).
  • Extraversion systematically predicts the choice of socially oriented avatars with high visibility and outgoing styles, whereas agreeableness exhibits only a weak, non-significant relationship with avatar design choices (statistically supported across synthesized literature).
  • Neuroticism demonstrates mixed effects on avatar choices, sometimes resulting in greater self-avatar discrepancy and other times in idealized digital representations, especially among women (mixed results explicitly noted in literature).
  • High-fidelity technological immersion (e.g., through VR headsets and motion tracking) systematically increases presence and embodiment, which in turn drives identity salience and stronger user-avatar behavioral alignment (statistically supported across synthesized literature).
  • The findings are limited by a reliance on English-only publications and a dataset largely containing studies on older virtual environments (e.g., Second Life) rather than modern, integrated metaverses.
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive: On Monday morning, sign off on a procurement budget to upgrade the remote team's hardware from standard webcams to high-fidelity VR headsets with motion-tracking capabilities, directly leveraging the finding that immersive hardware systematically increases presence, embodiment, and professional user-avatar behavioral alignment in virtual workspaces.
  • IT Manager: On Monday morning, reconfigure the onboarding settings of your company's virtual collaboration platform (e.g., Microsoft Mesh) to offer two distinct avatar creation paths: a fast-track 'realistic photo-to-avatar' tool to satisfy conscientious employees who value physical resemblance, and an 'advanced creative' toolkit with diverse assets for employees high in openness.
  • Business Strategist: On Monday morning, restructure the digital product roadmap for your virtual storefront to prioritize two distinct, personality-targeted microtransaction lines: a premium line of highly visible, socially expressive, and outgoing avatar accessories for extraverted users, and a baseline line of realistic, professional attire for highly conscientious users.
  • Researcher: On Monday morning, draft a research proposal and IRB application for a comparative study tracking avatar customization behaviors of non-English-speaking users in modern, high-fidelity platforms (like VRChat or Horizon Worlds), explicitly addressing the current literature limitations regarding English-only studies and outdated Second Life data.
  • Policymaker: On Monday morning, draft an organizational 'Metaverse Identity Privacy Policy' that explicitly bans the algorithmic profiling of users based on their self-avatar discrepancy, ensuring that users (particularly women experiencing identity discrepancy related to neuroticism) are protected from targeted behavioral manipulation or bias based on their digital representations.
Avatar design, Identity, Metaverse, Personality traits, Systematic Literature Review
ORCHESTRATION PARADOXES IN NATIONAL QUANTUM COMPUTING INNOVATION ECOSYSTEMS
AI Processed Human Approved

What competing tensions and trade-offs do leaders face when guiding national quantum computing ecosystems?

Jori Taipale, Olli Tyrväinen, Tuure Tuunanen, Joel Mero, Teiko Heinosaari
ORCHESTRATION PARADOXES IN NATIONAL QUANTUM COMPUTING INNOVATION ECOSYSTEMS
ECIS 2026 · 2026
Key findings
  • Organizing tensions were identified as the most frequent paradox, specifically focusing on the trade-offs between collaboration vs. resource competition and guidance vs. flexibility.
  • Performance tensions emerged regarding resource allocation between software vs. hardware development and building a shared vision vs. individual firm survival.
  • Belonging tensions highlighted a 'godfather' paradox, where the ecosystem must balance the state's role as a major supportive funder and customer with the ultimate goal of corporate independence.
  • Learning tensions were characterized by the challenge of managing multi-talent knowledge development versus narrow technology specialization.
  • The study is limited by its single qualitative case context in Finland with a small sample of 15 informants, requiring caution when applying these findings to other national contexts.
What it means for you
  • CIO / IT Executive: Schedule a 9:00 AM meeting with your lead enterprise architect to audit your current quantum-readiness roadmap, establishing a formal policy that divides software development and hardware access investments 50/50 to hedge against the performance tension of committing prematurely to a single unproven hardware stack.
  • IT Manager: Create a bi-weekly 1-hour 'Quantum Cross-Training' slot in your team's calendar starting this Friday, pairing your specialized quantum physics PhDs with your generalist cloud engineers to address the learning tension between narrow technical specialization and broad-based systems integration.
  • Business Strategist: Perform a revenue dependency audit to calculate the percentage of your quantum business unit's funding derived from state grants versus commercial clients, and draft a pitch deck for two private-sector pilots to actively transition away from 'godfather' state-funding reliance.
  • Researcher: Draft a pre-competitive collaboration agreement template to send to a peer researcher at a competing institution, outlining a shared framework for baseline algorithm testing while clearly defining IP boundaries to manage the tension of collaboration versus resource competition.
  • Policymaker: Draft a revision for the upcoming national quantum funding round guidelines that introduces a 'co-investment requirement,' mandating that state-funded consortia secure at least 25% of their budget from private corporate buyers to counter the 'godfather' dependency paradox.
Ecosystem orchestration, Paradox theory, Quantum computing innovation ecosystem, Explorative case study, Interpretive qualitative research
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