The 10 most-cited articles in MIS Quarterly, 2016

The emergence of Alibaba’s Taobao (e-commerce) Villages in remote China has challenged the assumption that rural, underserved communities must always be the recipients of aid to stimulate ICT-enabled development. Based on an in-depth case study of two remote villages in China, this research note shows how ICT (e-commerce) can empower a marginalized community, giving rise to a rural e-commerce ecosystem that can aid self-development. We propose the concept of digital empowerment to explicate our findings in the exploration of community-driven development: first, we identify the critical actors of a rural e-commerce ecosystem and how they use ICTs; second, we illustrate how the same ICT can be used for different affordances by the actors in the evolution of a rural e-commerce ecosystem. The paper also presents unintended consequences of rural e-commerce development. We conclude with suggestions on how to make ICT useful for rural development and, in doing this, challenge some of the prevailing theoretical arguments about this process.

The striking growth of online communities in recent years has sparked significant interest in understanding and quantifying benefits of participation. While research has begun to document the economic outcomes associated with online communities, quantifying the social value created in these collectives has been largely overlooked. This study proposes that online health communities create social value by addressing rural–urban health disparities via improved health capabilities. Using a unique data set from a rare disease community, we provide one of the first empirical studies of social value creation. Our quantitative analysis using exponential random graph models reveals patterns of social support exchanged between users and the variations in these patterns based on users’ location. We find that, overall, urban users are net suppliers of social support while rural participants are net recipients, suggesting that technology-mediated online health communities are able to alleviate rural–urban health disparities. This study advances extant understanding of value production in online…

The social inclusion of newly resettled refugees is a significant issue confronting both refugees and their host societies. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are increasingly viewed as a useful resource in programs that provide settlement services or promote participation in society. This paper moves beyond the conventional discussion on the digital divide to explore what people are actually able to do and achieve with ICTs. We draw on an analysis of the use of ICTs for particular purposes by more than 50 resettled refugees to develop an explanation of the process by which ICT use contributes to their social inclusion. We propose that ICT constitutes a resource from which a set of five valuable capabilities is derived: to participate in an information society, to communicate effectively, to understand a new society, to be socially connected, and to express a cultural identity. In realizing these capabilities through ICT use, refugees exercise their agency and enhance their well-being in ways that assist them to function effectively in a new society and regain control…

Crowdsourcing (CS) of micro tasks is a relatively new, open source work form enabled by information and communication technologies. While anecdotal evidence of its benefits abounds, our understanding of the phenomenon’s societal consequences remains limited. Drawing on value sensitive design (VSD), we explore microtask CS as perceived by crowd workers, revealing their values as a means of informing the design of CS platforms. Analyzing detailed narratives of 210 crowd workers participating in Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk), we uncover a set of nine values they share: access, autonomy, fairness, transparency, communication, security, accountability, making an impact, and dignity. We find that these values are implicated in four crowdsourcing structures: compensation, governance, technology, and microtask. Two contrasting perceptions—empowerment and marginalization—coexist, forming a duality of microtask CS. The study contributes to the CS and VSD literatures, heightens awareness of worker marginalization in microtask CS, and offers guidelines for improving CS practice.…

The era of big data and analytics is upon us and is changing the world dramatically. The field of Information Systems should be at the forefront of understanding and interpreting the impact of both technologies and management so as to lead the efforts of business research in the big data era. We need to prepare ourselves and our students for this changing world of business. In this discussion, we focus on exploring the technical and managerial issues of business transformation resulting from the insightful adoption and innovative applications of data sciences in business. We end by providing an overview of the papers included in this special issue and outline future research directions.

In this paper, we develop conjectures for understanding how information technology (IT) strategy and IT investments jointly influence profitability and the market value of the firm. We view IT strategy as an expression of the dominant strategic objective that the firm chooses to emphasize, which can be revenue expansion, cost reduction, or a dual emphasis in which both goals are pursued. Using data from more than 300 firms in the United States, we find that at the mean value of IT investments, firms with a dual IT strategic emphasis have a higher market value as measured by Tobin’s Q than firms with a revenue or a cost emphasis, but they have similar levels of profitability. Of greater importance, IT strategic emphasis plays a significant role in moderating the relationship between IT investments and firm performance. Dual-emphasis firms have a stronger IT–Tobin’s Q relationship than revenue-emphasis firms. Dual-emphasis firms also have a stronger IT– profitability relationship than either revenue- or cost-emphasis firms. Overall, these findings imply that, at low levels of IT…

Little is known about the context sensitivity of users’ online security perceptions and behaviors to national and individual attributes, and there is inadequate research about the spectrum of users’ behaviors in dealing with online security threats. In addressing this gap, this paper draws on two complementary theoretical bases: (1) the contextualization of the protection motivation theory (PMT) to online security behavior and (2) a poly-contextual lens for the cross-national comparison of users’ security behaviors in the United States and China. The conceptualized model is tested based on 718 survey observations collected from the United States and China. The results support our model and show the divergence between the United States, an exemplar of modern Western society, and China, an exemplar of traditional Eastern society, in forming threat perceptions and in seeking help and avoidance as coping behaviors. Our results also uncovered the significant moderating impacts of espoused culture on the way perceptions of security threats and coping appraisals influence security…

An emerging research agenda focuses on social media’s influence on political activism. Specific attention has recently been paid to digital social movement organizing and action repertoire development. The literature acknowledges the changing face of activism at the movement level, but little is known about the relationship between social movement organizations (SMOs) and digital action repertoires. Understanding this relationship is critical because strong adherence to values is at the heart of establishing action repertoires with legitimacy and persistence. In this paper, we rely on a two-year longitudinal study of the Swedish affiliate of Amnesty International. We examine the transformation in engagement and interaction that followed the organization’s introduction of new action repertoires. Drawing on resource mobilization theory and the collective action space model, we elaborate how new action repertoires both stabilized and challenged the values of the SMO, as well as gradually broadened the interactions of supporters and deepened their modes of engagement. We offer a…

Electronic health records (EHR) facilitate integration of patient health history for planning safe and proper treatment. Combined with data analytics, aggregate-level EHR enable examination and development of effective medicines and therapies for chronic diseases. Although promising efforts to implement EHRs are underway, social and organizational challenges plague EHR development and widespread use. These challenges are due to lingering issues such as privacy, interoperability, and security among key stakeholders (patients, providers, and purveyors). Based upon stakeholders’ needs and the issues, we identify two primary thematic areas—integration and analytics—in which the information systems (IS) discipline can contribute to EHRs. Through the accumulated body of knowledge, IS researchers are well positioned and have the expertise to design, develop, and facilitate the use of EHR in the delivery of healthcare. We identify potential research opportunities in each of the two thematic areas that have the potential to transform the delivery of healthcare. We conclude with a…