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AI Processed Human Approved

How can visual tools help organizations understand and manage complex smart city mobility platforms?

Sven-Volker Rehm, Anne Faber, Lakshmi Goel

Visualizing Platform Hubs of Smart City Mobility Business Ecosystems

International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS) · 2017

Key findings

Implemented five distinct visualization techniques (Force-directed, Tree Map, Matrix, Radial Network, and Modified Ego-Network layouts) within a software prototype to match diverse stakeholder decision-making needs.
Demonstrated how macro-level visual analytics can uncover key industry players, platform overlaps, missing service niches, and dominant inter-firm relationships.
Conceptualized a framework showing how tailored ecosystem visualizations can stimulate vital knowledge flows across policy governance boards, commercial firms, and smart city citizen communities.

What it means for you

CIO / IT Executive: On Monday morning, review the 'business ecosystem explorer' software prototype documentation and identify which of the five visualization techniques (Force-directed, Tree Map, Matrix, Radial Network, Modified Ego-Network) are most technically feasible for immediate integration into existing smart city data infrastructure.
IT Manager: On Monday morning, schedule a brief technical assessment meeting with your team to evaluate the infrastructure requirements and potential integration points for a pilot implementation of one or two of the presented visualization techniques from the 'business ecosystem explorer' prototype.
Business Strategist: On Monday morning, initiate a discussion with your cross-functional team to brainstorm specific strategic questions about our smart city mobility ecosystem that could be answered by analyzing platform overlaps, missing service niches, and dominant inter-firm relationships using the described macro-level visual analytics.
Researcher: On Monday morning, analyze the research paper's findings on how tailored ecosystem visualizations stimulate knowledge flows and identify which specific visualization technique and corresponding stakeholder group (policy governance, commercial firms, citizen communities) offers the most promising avenue for a follow-up research experiment.
Policymaker: On Monday morning, identify a key policy governance challenge related to smart city mobility coordination and consider how a macro-level visualization of platform hubs, as described in the research, could provide actionable insights to address this challenge.

Digital platform, business ecosystem, smart city, visualization, knowledge flow

AI Processed Human Approved

How can collaborative software be designed so domain experts can configure it for their specific needs?

Sven-Volker Rehm, Thomas Reschenhofer, Klym Shumaiev

IS Design Principles for Empowering Domain Experts in Innovation: Findings From Three Case Studies

International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS) · 2014

Key findings

Identified key design principles for domain expert configurable software, including iterative modeling, content-context relation, information re-use, function re-use, and context alignment.
Highlighted the essential role of 'facilitators' as mediating agents who help bridge technical configuration mechanisms with business domain requirements.
Demonstrated that domain expert configuration provides a flexible, cost-effective method to align IT support with dynamic inter-organizational innovation processes.

What it means for you

CIO / IT Executive: On Monday morning, schedule a brief meeting with your innovation network leads to discuss the potential of 'domain expert configuration' for upcoming projects, specifically asking them to identify one current pain point related to rigid software that could be addressed by such a system.
IT Manager: On Monday morning, review your current internal documentation for any existing examples of 'facilitators' – individuals who successfully bridge technical and business needs – and plan a quick chat with one of them to understand their approach.
Business Strategist: On Monday morning, draft a one-page concept document outlining how a more flexible, domain expert-configurable information system could accelerate a specific strategic innovation initiative, focusing on the benefits of rapid adaptation to diverse partner needs.
Researcher: On Monday morning, identify three publicly available collaborative information systems (e.g., wikis, content management systems) that exhibit elements of 'content-context relation' or 'information re-use' and briefly document how they do so.
Policymaker: On Monday morning, review existing procurement guidelines for IT systems to identify any clauses that might hinder the adoption of flexible, configurable solutions, and consider proposing a pilot program to test the effectiveness of domain expert configuration for inter-organizational projects.

Domain expert configuration, design science, innovation networks, domain knowledge, design principles, case study

AI Processed Human Approved

How can organizations define and select performance indicators for collaborative business networks?

Montijn van de Ven, Paola Lara Machado, Banu Aysolmaz, Oktay Turetken

Managing Performance in Collaborative Networks: A Method for Defining Key Performance Indicators for Collaborative Business Models

Business & Information Systems Engineering · 2026

Key findings

Introduced a three-step method covering KPI specification, multi-criteria KPI selection, and attribute operationalization.
Differentiated KPI scopes into network, subnet, and actor levels to balance network alignment with individual flexibility.
Demonstrated practical utility through business scenarios including car navigation services, urban indoor farming, and sustainable households.

What it means for you

CIO / IT Executive: On Monday morning, initiate a pilot project to apply the three-step KPI definition method to one specific collaborative network your organization participates in, focusing on identifying and documenting initial network-level KPIs using your existing data infrastructure.
IT Manager: On Monday morning, schedule a working session with a key business stakeholder from a collaborative project to begin the 'KPI specification' step of the research method, focusing on articulating the desired outcomes for that specific collaboration.
Business Strategist: On Monday morning, review the research's findings on differentiating KPI scopes and draft a preliminary list of potential network, subnet, and actor-level KPIs for a newly forming collaborative initiative.
Researcher: On Monday morning, begin designing a case study to apply and further refine the proposed KPI definition method within a new collaborative business scenario, focusing on the 'multi-criteria KPI selection' and 'attribute operationalization' steps.
Policymaker: On Monday morning, identify a specific public-private collaborative initiative and begin exploring how the research's approach to KPI definition could be adapted to measure its network-wide alignment and individual actor contributions effectively.

Business models, Collaborative business models, Collaborative networks, Key performance indicators, Performance management, Design science research

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

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

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

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

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

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

AI Processed Human Approved

How can organizations use digital technology to improve environmental performance and achieve economic benefits?

Dina Jill Maya Mertens, Thomas Haskamp, Jan vom Brocke

Exploring Digital Sustainability: A Multidimensional Framework for IS Scholarship

International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS) · 2025

Key findings

Synthesized literature into a multidimensional framework detailing the antecedents, moderators, and outcomes of digital sustainability.
Identified 14 sustainability-enabling logics showing how digital technology drives value creation, such as automatization, prediction, tokenization, and servitization.
Categorized consequences into economic benefits, enhanced green employee/customer behavior, and improved environmental performance, alongside critical considerations like digital energy consumption.
Proposed a research agenda around three main avenues: organizational transformation, product-level value creation mechanisms, and managing the duality/paradox of digital sustainability.

What it means for you

CIO / IT Executive: On Monday morning, initiate a review of your organization's current digital infrastructure against the 'antecedents' dimension of the digital sustainability framework. Prioritize identifying at least one area where technology can be leveraged for 'automatization' to reduce physical resource consumption (e.g., paperless workflows, virtual meetings replacing travel).
IT Manager: On Monday morning, identify one specific digital tool or process currently in use (e.g., cloud storage, software updates) and evaluate its potential 'digital energy consumption.' Research and propose to your team one tangible step to optimize its energy efficiency, such as scheduling software updates during off-peak hours or reviewing cloud storage policies for unused data.
Business Strategist: On Monday morning, examine your current product or service offerings and identify an opportunity to apply one of the 'sustainability-enabling logics' presented in the research. For example, explore how 'servitization' (offering a service instead of a product) could reduce material waste and extend product lifespan.
Researcher: On Monday morning, focus on the 'product-level value creation mechanisms' research agenda. Select one of the 14 identified logics (e.g., 'prediction') and brainstorm how it could be applied to develop a testable hypothesis related to reducing a specific environmental impact within an organizational context. Outline the initial steps for designing a pilot study.
Policymaker: On Monday morning, review existing digital infrastructure policies and identify areas where incentives can be introduced or strengthened to encourage 'enhanced green employee/customer behavior' through digital means. For example, consider proposing a policy that rewards teams who demonstrably reduce their digital carbon footprint through technology adoption.

Digital Sustainability, Digital Technology, Green IS, Green IT, Sustainable Value Creation, Literature Review

AI Processed Human Approved

Why do traditional approaches to defining requirements cause large-scale IT projects to fail?

David Kreps, Frantz Rowe

Using a Process Philosophy Perspective in Information Systems Research: Principles of Creative Evolution

Journal of the Association for Information Systems · 2024

Key findings

Formulated five foundational principles for process philosophy in IS research: heterogeneous multiplicity, immanence in a process, experience over abstraction, consciousness in duration, and relational ontology.
Identified entitative abstractions in traditional requirements engineering as a major contributor to large-scale IT project failures.
Emphasized the critical role of human consciousness, inner time, and free will in co-creating technology systems that adapt to evolving organizational contexts.

What it means for you

CIO / IT Executive: On Monday morning, schedule a 30-minute "process thinking" brainstorming session with your heads of engineering and product development to discuss a recent project that faced significant challenges, focusing on how evolving user needs and unforeseen contextual shifts, rather than static requirements, might have been the root cause.
IT Manager: On Monday morning, initiate a 15-minute stand-up with your development team to specifically ask them to articulate one instance from the past week where a change in the team's understanding or a user's evolving need led to a necessary adaptation of their work, and how they managed that 'flow'.
Business Strategist: On Monday morning, review the 'success metrics' for your current key strategic initiatives and identify one metric that relies heavily on a static, predefined outcome. Then, draft a brief proposal to reframe that metric to capture ongoing adaptability and emergent value rather than just initial adherence to a plan.
Researcher: On Monday morning, dedicate an hour to re-reading your current research proposal, specifically highlighting any language that treats concepts as fixed entities. Then, rewrite one paragraph to emphasize the dynamic, experiential, and relational aspects of your subject matter, incorporating the principles of creative evolution.
Policymaker: On Monday morning, identify one current policy or regulation within your domain that is narrowly defined by static criteria or historical precedents. Then, draft a one-page memo outlining how an update to this policy could incorporate principles of ongoing adaptation and feedback loops to account for emergent technological and societal shifts.

process philosophy, ontology, duration, consciousness, free will, requirements engineering

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

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

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

AI Processed Human Approved

How does cloud computing affect energy use and carbon emissions across host and user countries?

Jooho Kim, Jiyong Park, Jason Dedrick

An Empirical Investigation of Cloud Computing and Environmental Performance of Nations: Implications for Shared Responsibility in Cloud Computing

Journal of the Association for Information Systems · 2025

Key findings

Access to cloud services generally enhances environmental efficiency by reducing national energy and carbon intensities associated with IT services.
Countries hosting cloud data centers experience higher local energy and carbon intensities due to heavy physical infrastructure demands.
Neighboring countries benefit from green cloud IT services without incurring adverse environmental costs on their local IT capital.
A shared responsibility model based on multilayered technology architecture is proposed to divide environmental accountability between cloud providers and users.

What it means for you

CIO / IT Executive: On Monday morning, initiate a review of our current cloud infrastructure's geographical distribution and identify which of our cloud services are hosted in countries that are net importers of cloud services (i.e., benefiting from efficiency gains) versus countries that are net hosts of data centers. Then, begin drafting an internal memo to your team outlining the need to assess the environmental footprint of our chosen cloud providers, specifically focusing on the geographical location of their data centers.
IT Manager: On Monday morning, compile a list of all cloud services currently utilized by your department and identify the primary cloud provider(s) for each. Then, locate and review the public documentation of these providers regarding their data center locations and any publicly available environmental sustainability reports or initiatives.
Business Strategist: On Monday morning, begin by identifying which key business processes or customer-facing services are heavily reliant on cloud computing. Then, investigate if these services are currently being delivered from cloud infrastructure located in countries that are significant importers of cloud services or from countries that are major hosts of data centers, and flag this for further cost-benefit analysis that includes potential environmental externalities.
Researcher: On Monday morning, start by drafting an email to your colleagues or supervisor proposing a follow-up study that quantifies the specific cross-border environmental impacts for a subset of countries using the methodologies outlined in this paper. Include a brief outline of the data you would need to gather, such as national IT service import/export data and detailed data center location information for key cloud providers.
Policymaker: On Monday morning, draft a preliminary policy brief for your relevant committee or ministry that summarizes the key findings of this research regarding the uneven distribution of environmental burdens from cloud computing. Specifically, highlight the need for international dialogue on shared responsibility and propose an initial step to investigate incorporating environmental footprint data into public procurement policies for cloud services.

Cloud Computing, IT Capital, IT Services, Digital Responsibility, Shared Responsibility, Sustainability

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

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

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

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