Theses/Dissertations - Information Systems & Business Analytics

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/2104/8490

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A dynamic approach to examine the growth trajectory of e-participation factors.
(2021-08-05) Nash, Kyle, 1980-; Wakefield, Robin L.
This research explores key factors that drive e-participation growth among 147 nation-states over seven years (2014-2020). While the literature utilizing information and communication technologies (ICT) to advance e-participation research has proliferated in recent years, these studies generally do not clarify how e-participation growth occurs and how it is sustained. The current study develops an e-participation model based on Stigmergy Theory to identify core factors that drive e-participation. Then, Latent Growth Curve Modeling (LGM) is used to examine differences in countries’ growth trajectories over time. This study contributes to understanding the factors that expand and sustain e-participation to reduce developing countries' learning curves.
Acceptance of anthropomorphic technology.
(August 2022) Cornelius, Samia, 1988-; Leidner, D. E. (Dorothy E.)
Just as the way a person looks and/or behaves affects human-to-human interaction, it may also affect the interaction of humans with avatars, digital characters, and computer interfaces. Anthropomorphic technology is technology that looks or behaves like human beings and is increasingly playing an important role in human-to-computer interactional processes. Extant research informs user responses of familiarity and acceptance to anthropomorphic technology, but also withdrawal from and rejection of anthropomorphic technology due to the presence of the uncanny valley, threat to the human distinctiveness, or the undermining of traditional expectations from machines. Integration on the topic is sparse, and with advancements in natural face technology and artificial intelligence, the extent of “human-likeness” continues to change and evolve. Moreover, with anthropomorphic technology becoming mainstream, user preferences continue to alter. To help resolve some of the ambiguity surrounding anthropomorphic design and add updated knowledge to the current body of research, this dissertation presents an organizing and assessing review to integrate extant literature studying anthropomorphic technology and present a research agenda. It then conducts three online experiments to assess user perceptions of the credibility and persuasiveness of virtual influencers. Virtual influencers are computer-generated images that project advanced levels of visual realism and are prevalent in the digital environment. In the papers presented, we test extant theoretical perspectives and challenge the increasing investments in anthropomorphic visual design. We present a case for the development of less human-like digital characters for better utility and acceptance, especially in the case of persuasion.
Advancing research on hybrid organizations : insights from the management practices of a large firm diversified into multiple digitally enabled businesses.
(2016-11-16) Zhang, Sixuan, 1985-; Leidner, D. E. (Dorothy E.)
The advances in information technology have dramatically augmented the reach, flexibility, and agility of modern enterprises. In the past years, many large companies rapidly expanded their business scopes and spanned their organizational boundaries, diversifying into various digitally enabled businesses. These firms may achieve organizational innovations and business opportunities through the integration of digital products and services in different fields. We argue that this new form of organizations be the next breed of organizations and their integration efforts pose certain intraorganizational level “organizing” challenges that have not yet covered sufficiently in the literature: How to design organizational activities, structures, and processes to support such integration. This dissertation adopts the hybrid organizing perspective to explore the intraorganizational level mechanisms that explain how large firms diversified into multiple digitally enabled businesses achieve integration. To do so, a case study of LeEco, an internet and technology giant in China, is conducted. This dissertation makes two important contributions. First, this dissertation advances understanding of hybrids by demonstrating how hybrids embedded in a more complex pluralistic institutional environment achieve integration at the intraorganizational level. It also contributes to knowledge of hybrids by identifying the generative aspects of the combination of multiple elements. Second, utilizing hybrid organizing as a sensitizing device to unearth the intraorganizational level mechanisms that explain how a big firm diversified into multiple digitally enabled businesses achieve integration at the intraorganizational level, this dissertation contributes back to hybrid organizing by identifying several internal links between the four internal-oriented dimensions of hybrid organizing.
Collaborating for good : building a virtual reality simulation to improve health outcomes in the urban slums of India.
(2018-04-25) Mahid, Zonayed, 1993-; Green, Gina C., 1962-; Koch, Hope W.
This research studies a cross-discipline, cross-cultural, and cross-sector collaborative process used to build a virtual reality simulation (VRS). The VRS is part of a social innovation collaboration (SIC) project to improve health outcomes in India’s urban slums. The SIC includes a hospital, two universities, two technology companies and the community that collaborated for 15-months to build the VRS. By analyzing data generated from the SIC meetings, interviews, emails, and project documents, we found that these collaborations are wrought with contradictions primarily coming from competing allegiances between each organization’s control structure and the goals of the SIC. This study reports on the contradictions and discusses macro- and micro-level mechanisms the SIC team used to keep contradictions from escalating to conflict and thwarting the project. This study offers guidance to creating successful SICs that use technology to address health and poverty in developing countries. Theoretically, we integrate structuration and role conflict theories.
Contagion, trajectory, and turnover : exploring network factors influencing turnover over time.
(2016-07-13) Villafranca, Eric S., 1984-; Tripp, John F.
Organizations use a large portion of their budget on building and maintaining human resources. Losing an employee, especially a good one, can be expensive. While turnover has been studied using a network lens, it has traditionally viewed network characteristics as a property of the particular individual, and the majority of research that has examined social network position and its outcomes has focused on a cross-sectional view of an individuals’ position. We consider that an individual’s network position changes over time: moving toward the center of the network becoming more embedded, away from the center becoming less embedded, or staying relatively static. We call this an individual’s Structural Trajectory. We build a research model using Structural Trajectory, and social contagion, to explore the drivers of turnover in a dataset containing employee email metadata. The results show a strong contagion effect, and a relationship between large network movements (Structural Trajectory) and turnover.
Dignity, respect and grace in participatory research involving university teams.
(2020-04-20) Kulaba, Peter, 1977-; Green, Gina C., 1962-; Koch, Hope W.
Higher education institutions are increasingly responding to global development challenges through collaborative interventionist research efforts with organizational partners. By doing so, they increasingly engage in roles previously the purview of international development organizations. This research, through a critical research in information systems (CRIS) lens, evaluates the collaboration between an American university team and India-based hospital team and technology vendors. A participatory design approach is used in the collaboration to develop an mHealth application that addresses the growing challenge of diabetes among a slum population in Bengaluru, India. The study found that when research involves working in distributed teams, despite technological advances, the importance of creating opportunities for physical interaction between research collaborators is important. Secondly, at initiation, communication plans are necessary to ensure cohesiveness and safeguard documentable history. Lastly, treating each other with respect, dignity and genuine grace was found to be most critical in ensuring a meaningful participatory collaboration.
Exploring the impacts of development methodologies on the collective action of information systems development project teams.
(2017-08-25) De Leoz, Gerard M., 1974-; Petter, Stacie Clark.
Information systems development (ISD) constitutes the largest proportion of capital expenditures in most medium to large organizations globally, yet delays and budget overruns are commonplace. ISD methodologies, such as waterfall and agile, systematize and organize the development process, but all methodologies have strengths and weaknesses. Furthermore, ISD methodologies and project team dynamics are impacted by invisible hands in organizations, which are the social forces such as project team composition and culture, the economic forces such as project budget and team knowledge, and the political forces such as stakeholder control mechanisms and arising conflicts within project teams. Using the lens of collective action theory, this research explores how invisible hands influence changes to ISD methodologies that impact the ability of project teams to collectively attain their project goals. Through collective action theory, this research ultimately extricates ramifications to project team cohesion while project teams endure the negative impacts of the social, economic and political forces towards the completion of ISD projects. This research employs a multiple case study to examine the team dynamics of three ISD project teams from two research sites with varied project outcomes: a failed project, a marginally successful project, and an exemplarily successful project. Cutting across the cases, this study proposes a process model that explains the confluence, bombardment and endurance phases that ISD project teams cyclically undergo as project teams sustain the impacts of organizational forces and adjust the ISD methodologies to further their projects. This research offers two primary contributions. First, the use of collective action theory helps in providing a more holistic understanding of challenges encountered by ISD project teams through propositions that integrate the impacts of forces in an organization’s social, economic and political environments. Second, this study offers a process model that imparts insights from the perspective of ISD project teams who attempt to work cohesively towards the attainment of project goals. These study contributions potentially improve the risk mitigation and resolution of challenges in ISD projects as organizations seek to accomplish business goals, as well as enhance ISD project team attributes that may improve project team performance and successes through better team cohesion.
From analytics investments to revenue generation : a three-stage process to value creation with business analytics.
(2020-07-28) Peters, Uchenna, 1983-; Koch, Hope W.
Business analytics is currently changing the business landscape in terms of competition, innovation, and relevance. While it is said that the combination of big data and advanced analytics technologies hold vast potential for boosting innovation, competition, and productivity for organizations across diverse industries, scholarly research on how they lead to competitive advantage and business value are scarce. This study examines how organizations can create value from their analytics investments. This study is based on a 5 – year single case study with multiple projects of a large U.S.- based distribution firm that partnered with a technology provider to implement analytics to improve its profit margins. Utilizing the theory of affordance and metaphor of imbrication as a synthesizing device, a qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews, field notes from observation meetings, and project documents indicate that organizations may go through three stages to create value from their analytics investments. This research offers two primary contributions. First, the use of the affordance theory and imbrication metaphor provides a holistic understanding of the factors that play an essential role in the value-creation process with business analytics. Second, this study offers a three-stage process model that provides insights into the recursive inter-relationship of socio-technical entities in the organizational environment that impact the extent to which analytics affordances can be actualized.
Information leaks and information systems.
(2012-11-29) Madden, Joshua E.; Trower, Jonathan.; Information Systems.; Baylor University. Dept. of Information Systems.
While the rise of WikiLeaks and other leak-related organizations has been reflected in the research in international relations, it has received limited focus within the field of information systems. This study surveyed current college students in order to understand what factors may play a role in encouraging students to show a degree of concern in regards to information leaks. Factors such as concernment about the national security of the United States and demographics have been analyzed against the degree of concern about information leaks reported by the students in the survey. The paper concludes with calls for further research within the field of information systems in regards to the impacts of information leaks and other leak-related organizations.
Information Overload : detection and prevention through the usage of consumer neural devices.
(2017-07-06) Milic, Nash A., 1987-; Leidner, D. E. (Dorothy E.)
Information Overload is a state in which individuals have a vast amount of information that is readily available, almost instantaneously, without mechanisms to check the validity of the content and the potential risk of misinformation. The Information Age and growing excess of digitally available information amplifies the problem of Information Overload, which handicaps employees’ productivity and well-being.This dissertation employs a non invasive customer oriented EEG sensor to explore how Information Overload affects the human brain, its executive parts and its cognitive functions and develops a theoretical mechanism for understanding the Information Overload phenomena.
Internal social media's impact on socialization and commitment.
(2013-05-15) Gonzalez, Ester S.; Leidner, D. E. (Dorothy E.); Information Systems.; Parks, Brian, USAA.; Baylor University. Dept. of Information Systems.
Social media technologies present an opportunity for organizations to create value by acclimating new employees and increasing organizational commitment. Past research has indicated that many organizations have leveraged social media in innovative ways. The purpose of this study is to investigate an internal social media tool that was designed and implemented as part of a new hire program with the objective of socializing new hires in hopes of increasing employee commitment. A survey was administered to approximately 458 IT employees of a large, financial institution and 198 employees responded. This dissertation suggests that work related social media use is associated with role clarity and normative commitment. It also suggests that social related social media use is associated with knowledge of organizational culture, social acceptance, and affective commitment. In this dissertation, two types of social media use, four indicators of socialization and three indicators of commitment were analyzed. This dissertation concludes with a discussion of the findings and recommendations for future research on social media.
Privatization and the resistance to change: technological, political, and sociological issues.
(2007-03-07T02:48:54Z) Lackmeyer, Jay.; Trower, Jonathan.; Vaughn, Randal L.; Information Systems.; Baylor University. Dept. of Information Systems.
Both Florida and Texas child welfare systems function heavily off of legislative mandates. In 1996, the Florida legislature mandated four pilot programs that privatized child welfare services through contracts with community-based agencies (McCullough and Associates). Since then Florida has privatized the entire state through 22 regionally defined lead agencies. Their role as a lead agency is to provide and/or sub contract all services related to maintaining children referred to them by the state or private investigators. In a similar fashion, Texas has pushed towards privatization with Senate Bill 6 which requires that all functions of foster care, adoption, and case management be moved to the private sector, with TDFPS (Texas Department of Family Protective Services) focusing only on abuse investigations. This thesis compares the Florida and Texas privatization story and through interviews with leading experts decides whether or not privatization is doomed to failure before it is initiated.
Psychological contract in the information technology profession.
(2015-07-13) Moquin, René, 1964-; Riemenschneider, Cindy.
Events such as the dot-com bust, economic instability, and organizational streamlining, present challenges to retaining and hiring information technology (IT) professionals. During the last decade, IT professionals were dismissed in large numbers from their organization because technology is often considered a cost center. As the technology field continues to recover, organizations are struggling to retain their remaining IT staff. Those previously dismissed from their organizations approached rehire situations cautiously for fear they would be dismissed again. Current practitioner and academic research continue to investigate methods of recruiting new and retaining IT workers by using incentives and promises. However, prolonged demanding situations can potentially influence IT turnover intention. In this positivistic study, 104 IT professionals identified the conditions that influenced turnover intention through psychological contract breach and psychological contract violation. The results suggest that perceived work exhaustion, salary, job promotion, opportunities and perceived job autonomy influenced psychological contract breach. Psychological contract breach was found to influence psychological contract violation, which also influenced turnover intention. Psychological contract breach was found to mediate the relationship between job autonomy, emotional dissonance, and perceived work exhaustion to psychological contract violation.
Self-sufficient IT : a study of CRM implementation in higher education settings.
(2020-04-22) Sanchez Gonzalez, Alexis D., 1993-; Green, Gina C., 1962-; Riemenschneider, Cindy.
The popularity of cloud-based vertical Customer Relationship Management (CRM) technology has led to an increase in user-led implementations of CRMs in higher education institutions (HEIs). Many of these CRMs come with assurances of 'self-sufficiency' from vendors. How do CRM implementation processes look in these contexts? This study examines four functional unit implementations in a university setting; three with centralized processes in-house IT staff; the other with decentralized processes and no in-house IT staff. After analyzing data collected from 17 interviews with users involved in the implementations, we find differences between the implementation settings in CRM motivations, goals and implementation processes. We describe the nature of these differences and how differences in the implementation processes impacted the achievement of CRM goals. A contribution of this study is a set of implications and recommendations for HEIs implementing similar CRMs, with the objective of ensuring greater achievement of organizational goals.
Shopping for a cause : exploring the role of information systems in ethical consumption.
(2017-07-24) Giddens, Laurie G., 1979-; Leidner, D. E. (Dorothy E.)
There is a growing awareness and concern from consumers about the negative impacts of their consumption decisions on the environment, public health, and the global economy. Consequently, consumers are beginning to seek assurance that the products they consume are environmentally and socially conscious. One way consumers can address these concerns is by purchasing ethically sourced products, an activity referred to as ethical consumption. For consumers to take responsibility for the environmental impact of their consumer choices, they must be provided information on the ethical attributes of the products they purchase. Ethical consumption apps (ECAs) provide consumers with this information. ECAs provide real-time information to the consumer on the ethical attributes of products. These mobile apps allow the user to scan products of interest and receive information on the provenance, environmental effects, safety, and social impacts of products at the time of purchase. While ECAs have the potential to encourage ethical consumption, research investigating these applications, their functionality, and use remains scant. The goal of this research is to fill this gap by investigating the following research questions: (1) how do consumers use information provisioned through ethical consumption apps? and (2) what is the impact of ECA use on purchasing behavior? To investigate these research questions, I conduct a qualitative study using a grounded theory approach. Based on the findings of data collected from ECA users and producers, I propose a Model of IT Enabled Behavior Change. This model illuminates the role of information systems in ethical consumption. Moreover, these findings are applicable to understanding how individuals utilize information systems to support voluntary behavior change. These findings have implications for theory, practice, and society.
A study of a workflow management system in higher education.
(2009-06-10T12:59:52Z) Lemaster, Jeffrey B.; Vaughn, Randal L.; Information Systems.; Baylor University. Dept. of Information Systems.
The Online Protocol Submission system is web-based workflow management system designed and implemented by Information Technology Services and the Office of the Vice Provost for Research at Baylor University. The system is secure and modular. The system automates certain processes in an effort to streamline the protocol procedure of the Institutional Review Board in preparation of the influx of protocols from Baylor University's vision to become a leading research institution. This project is a building block in moving the Baylor culture into technological innovation by replacing paper-laden processes with automated processes. This paper will describe the design process of the Online Protocol Submission system and examine its ability to handle the increase in workflow of the IRB.
The digitized infant : a field study of entangled emotions and affordances.
(2020-06-30) Leestma, Peter O., 1986-; Leidner, D. E. (Dorothy E.)
The digitization of one’s personal data is of growing interest in the information systems discipline. Parents digitizing their infant’s personal data in the form of infant monitoring is of particular interest. This study examines emotions and affordances within the context of remote infant monitoring. Through an affordance lens, this research conducts an exploratory field study to investigate the role of emotions in the use of an infant monitoring system (IMS). A qualitative analysis of 2,741 online reviews indicates emotional, behavioral, and physical drivers motivating the use of the IMS. Several emotional and behavioral affordances are available through the use of IMS features. Existing in tension with the affordances, constraints limit the affordances of the technology. Several positive and negative outcomes result from both the affordances and constraints. This research furthers the digitization of self literature by contributing to remote monitoring, emotions, and affordances through the development of the Affordance-Constraint-Outcome model.
The downsides of information systems security policy compliance efforts : toward a Theory of Unintended Reversed Security Action and Productivity (TURSAP).
(2016-04-26) Balozian, Puzant Y., 1983-; Leidner, D. E. (Dorothy E.)
Modern organizations face significant information security violations from inside the organizations to which they respond with various managerial techniques. It is widely believed in IS security literature that enforcing IS security policy compliance on employees through various means is the solution for security effectiveness. Nevertheless, this dissertation challenges that notion and advances a stream of research that suggests increasing security measures may lead to decrease in user productivity, increased user mistrust toward the IT department, increased user frustration, increased user technology avoidance, increased non-malicious volitional security violations and overall may lead to increased security risk, instead of decreasing it. This dissertation explores the how and why of these mechanisms and suggests what to do about this phenomenon. Following a grounded theory methodology, this dissertation develops the Theory of Unintended Reversed Security Action and Productivity (TURSAP), the first of its kind in exploring the downsides of IS security measures.
The network as dependent variable : antecedents of online social network formation.
(2018-04-05) Chipidza, Wallace, 1987-; Tripp, John F.
Although social networks change over time, network dynamics remains an understudied area of social network research. The detailed logs that are a feature of online social networks allow for easier observation and capturing of social network evolution. This study examines the evolution of an online social network. The network is proposed to evolve with varying tendencies of density, reciprocity, centralization, and demographic influences under two competing theories – social capital theory and social comparison theory. Using a longitudinal data set of email communications that span a period of twenty-six months, the study examines the dynamics of the email communication network of a technology company. Prior social network research is dominated by descriptive studies. This study is different because it not only tests the statistical significance of the influence of structural and demographic factors on network evolution, but also their relative strengths. Further, the study also examines how online social networks differ from offline social networks. It examines the differences between the (online) email communication network and the (offline) advice, brainstorming, and working networks within the same organization. The study finds that the email network evolves with tendencies towards high density, high centralization, and high reciprocity. Demographic influences are inconsistent over time; they are salient only in certain months. The study also finds that online networks exhibit higher levels of density, centralization, and reciprocity compared to offline networks. As such, the study contributes to theory by finding (I) antecedents of social network evolution and (II) differences between online and offline networks.
The transparency of information systems organizations.
(2016-06-09) Milovich, Michael.; Leidner, D. E. (Dorothy E.)
The awareness of technology by end-users is expanding. Starting with the millennials, today’s digital natives have grown up with technology awareness while earlier generations have immigrated to an understanding of technology. The constant availability of devices and digital data has made this awareness a natural or forced extension in one’s personal life. Technology awareness is necessary for keeping up with friends and family or fulfilling a job requirement. Moreover, technology use blends across personal and business activities. Technology awareness has created a heightened need for information systems (IS) organization transparency about technology. Yet, a theory of IS organization’s transparency does not exist. The need for transparency in business is not new. Transparency has been a core topic since The Great Depression. Without an academic theory, transparency in business practice has primarily been legislated through laws and declarations in countries around the world. The purpose of this study is to develop a theoretical lens for understanding the perceptions of an IS organization’s transparency, an academic basis that is resolute enough to frame the communication of an IS organization in an age of ubiquitous technology consumerization and digital information for a reasonably informed and interested person. Extant research shows IS strategies and policies must be transparent to users throughout an organization, not just upper management. However, not all business departments want or need the same degree of transparency. This research is a positivist case study of data collected from thirty participants in five departments of a regional not-for-profit health care system. A cyclical analysis produces concepts that become central characteristics in an IS organization’s transparency. These concepts were tested to understand the degree of transparency valued by each department.

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