Sharenting, the parental practice of sharing children's personal information online, raises critical privacy, ethical, and regulatory concerns. This systematic literature review and research agenda examines how sharenting is studied, analyzing theoretical frameworks through an information systems (IS) lens. Findings identify five key themes—privacy management, identity presentation, consumer vulnerability, social influence, and parenting ethics—shaped by broader technological, social, and regulatory forces. To structure these insights, this study introduces a three-domain framework to categorize how digital infrastructures, cultural norms, and policy gaps influence sharenting behaviors. The review highlights limited IS engagement in sharenting research and underscores the need for greater focus on platform accountability, digital consent mechanisms, and parental decision-making. By mapping key gaps, this study advances an interdisciplinary research agenda while presenting a critical opportunity to apply IS theories and frameworks to inform policy, platform design, and digital literacy efforts that safeguard children's privacy and autonomy in online spaces.
Intelligent machines are set to become an integral part of society in the autonomous age (specifically in the AI era), but tensions remain between human liberties and machine controls. Little research has explored the dynamic trust relationship between humans and artificial intelligence (AI) systems. We conducted a PRISMA-style systematic literature review (SLR) supplemented by a machine learning (ML) approach on studies published between 2010 and 2023, investigating emergent themes, research gaps, and potential directions. Our analysis reveals increasing emphasis on trust in AI, especially as automation spreads across healthcare, finance, e-commerce, and other sectors. Ensuring users feel confident and secure when interacting with AI is vital. We propose a four-phase roadmap focusing on trust across AI's evolving capabilities, from narrow AI to futuristic super-intelligence AI. This guideline helps conceptualize, enhance, and institutionalize trust, making AI more user-friendly and reliable. Moreover, it underscores trust as essential for responsible AI adoption and governance, forming a foundation for future academic research.
As a new era of open access begins this year for this journal, we reflect on the progress and challenges of the past four years and look ahead to our strategic priorities. This editorial offers insight into our journey so far and the opportunities that lie ahead as we embark on this new chapter of open access.
At a time when the value of higher education is increasingly being questioned, this editorial examines the need to re-position higher education for the future workforce. It argues that higher education itself is not the problem; rather, its prevailing structures may no longer be adequate for the realities of the AI era. The editorial explores the strategies institutions can pursue to survive and remain relevant amid the AI wave. In particular, it considers what structural changes may be necessary, how teaching and learning processes may need to be reimagined, how AI can be integrated to drive pedagogical innovation, and why such changes are essential when viewed in light of the foundational purpose of higher education. Ultimately, the editorial calls for intentional action to transform institutional structures and realign them with that original purpose, with AI serving as an enabler rather than a constraint.
As information and communication technologies (ICTs) become increasingly integrated into people's daily lives, incidents of online deviant behaviors such as cyberbullying are on the rise. This study investigates the three components of cyberbullying: the power imbalance, the social media characteristics, and the role of bystander intervention. We used social dominance orientation (SDO) to represent the power imbalance component, while anonymity and social presence are the investigated media characteristics. Additionally, we have developed measurement items to examine the impacts of assistant, defender, and outsider bystander reactions on cyberbullies. We were interested in measuring the impact of each component independently and in relation to others. To assess the model, we utilized a vignette-based survey design, gathering 512 data points through Amazon Mechanical Turk across five distinct cyberbullying vignettes. We employed a comparative SEM model to compare which one of the five research models provides a better explanation of the phenomena. Our key findings highlight that SDO and bystander apathy and assistance significantly influence cyberbullying intention, and that media characteristics can amplify the effect of SDO on cyberbullying.
In today's rapidly evolving business landscape, characterized by heightened competition and unpredictable market dynamics, organizations are under increasing pressure to adapt. In agile environments, too little shared understanding between business and IT is one reason for project failure. We focus on the effects of business process and IT modularity on agility through shared understanding among business and IT professionals. An understanding of the differentiated effects of architecture management on agility and shared understanding can help us to gain a richer understanding of the antecedents of agility. Using the work system theory to link modularity and shared understanding, we develop a theoretical model and test it using survey-based data from the banking industry. We find that in addition to the direct impact of facets of modularity on agility, shared understanding serves as a mediating factor that enhances the effectiveness of modularity on agility. However, modularity does not enable shared understanding between business and IT professionals per se. While modular IT architectures impact the shared understanding about business processes, modular business processes support shared understanding of business strategy.
As information technology (IT) permeates our society and its unbridled use increases, there are increasing concerns about its environmental footprint. Many environmentalists argue that IT, rather than addressing grand societal challenges such as climate change and global warming, is actually contributing to them. To address such concerns, we propose creative construction and technoficing as the two approaches to ensure that information technology is environmentally friendly and its harmful environmental consequences are minimized. These two approaches emphasize building durable and simple but effective technology products, thus minimizing their adverse environmental consequences. We also offer several potential research directions and use several examples to explain why creative construction and technoficing are essential to keeping IS green. Our proposed research directions emphasize the importance of future research focusing on different perspectives that can inform how governments, organizations, and individuals can help manage limited planetary resources and remain sustainable even without the incessant need for regular product upgrades.
Digital health in the workplace attracts practitioners' and scholars' attention because digital health is relevant to ensuring the satisfaction, retention, and long-term workableness of employees. We draw attention to the role leaders play in digital health in the workplace and introduce the concept of digital health-oriented leadership. Based on related literature, we define health-oriented leadership as a leadership style that models and supports the healthy use of information systems (IS) to maintain and improve employee well-being. We conceptualize digital health-oriented leadership consisting of three dimensions: awareness of digital health and potential threats, the importance that leaders attach to digital health, and behaviors of leaders to support digital health. Insights from 37 interviews with leaders and team members support the extraction and description of relevant subdimensions taking a leaders-, team members-, and IS-perspective. The new concept specific to the digital health context paves the way for an enhanced understanding and promotion of healthy working with IS in the digital age, leading us to develop six avenues for future research.
Volunteers play an important role in organizational and humanitarian environments and all cultures. Given the prevalence of online technologies and the increasing global impact of emergency situations, understanding the factors that influence virtual volunteering decisions in different national cultures is essential for researchers and practitioners. In this study, we utilize identity theory to investigate the effects of personal values and volunteer identity on virtual volunteering. To test the proposed model, we administer an online survey to 219 citizens in the United States and Australia. The findings indicate antecedent factors affecting virtual volunteering differ based on national culture. Whereas individuals in Australia are motivated by values of self-enhancement power and self-transcendent benevolence, the U.S. sample is motivated by self-enhancement achievement and self-enhancement power. These findings offer new theoretical and practical insights into the factors influencing citizens'responses in two countries.
Millions of subscribers switch back and forth between streaming services. When considering switching from one streaming service to another, subscribers usually compare them side by side and either completely switch to the alternative streaming service or partially switch by using both streaming services. To understand when subscribers engage in complete or partial switching and identify nuanced differences in these switching behaviors, we draw on expectation disconfirmation theory, conducting a mixed methods approach based on interviews (N=44) and a fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (N=224). We contribute to switching research by illuminating the different configurations that lead to complete and partial switching, suggesting that relying on the same explanation for these different switching behaviors falls short. While we reveal a unifinal explanation for complete switching, partial switching requires more complex, equifinal explanations. We advance research on streaming services by identifying affordability and perceived content exclusiveness as important constraints for switching behavior in this context.
Shared understanding is imperative for effective business/IT collaboration. In the past, research has frequently employed a situational snapshot approach, focusing on the degree of business/IT shared understanding at specific points in time. To understand the evolution of shared understanding over time, we conducted a study of four distinct IT projects within a global IT service provider firm. A longitudinal cross-case analysis is employed to identify patterns in the development of shared understanding over time and to uncover explanations for these patterns. We identify common challenges, such as team member involvement or technical details, at various phases of IT projects and provide recommendations on the timing and design of critical actions to overcome these challenges and facilitate a shared understanding. By doing so, we develop propositions on the development of shared understanding and lay the foundation for a process theory of business/IT shared understanding in IT projects.
The media capabilities of computer-mediated communication play a crucial role in facilitating work-related interactions. This study examines whether the media capabilities preferred by remote workers lead to or help protect against remote work exhaustion. The hypotheses were tested using both PLS-SEM and CB-SEM to ensure the robustness of the results. Results from 572 United States study participants suggest that remote workers who prefer media with high parallelism are the most likely to report remote work exhaustion. The findings show that remote workers who favor media with higher reprocessability were the second most likely to report experiencing exhaustion from remote work. However, rehearsability was found to act as a protective media capability against this form of exhaustion. Our study reveals the existence of tradeoffs associated with media capabilities with important research and practice implications.
In developing information technology (IT) artifacts to solve practical problems in society, design science research places a strong emphasis on the justificatory knowledge that informs their design. Historically, justificatory knowledge has privileged Western worldviews and scientific approaches, resulting in IT artifacts that discriminate against and exclude marginalized groups. As Indigenous peoples reclaim lost rights and seek to establish digital sovereignty, there is the need to understand and elevate the value of Indigenous knowledges within the design science paradigm. Building on the Indigenous Knowledge Integration Framework, this article discusses how Indigenous knowledges can directly inform IT design and demonstrates this potential using an expository case where M & amacr;ori tribal protocols for p & omacr;whiri (welcoming visitors) are used to structure the development of a large language model (LLM). The development of the LLM confirms that Indigenous knowledges can enhance the construction of IT artifacts. The contributions of the article lie in showing how Indigenous knowledges can be applied ex ante as justificatory knowledge, demonstrating how Indigenous knowledges intrinsically linked with minority languages can support the design and development of more inclusive LLMs, and charting a way toward more inclusive design science research and digital sovereignty for Indigenous and other marginalized peoples.
At the intersection of technology and marginalization lies an urgent need for research that not only interrogates these tensions but also reimagines new possibilities. To promote and grow research on technology and marginalized contexts, we launched a new invitedtrack, "IT, Social Justice, and Marginalized Contexts," at HICSS for three consecutive years (2024-2026); built a community of a total of 600+ scholars (submitting authors, reviewers, and/or minitrack chairs); co-wrote and published four editorials on technology and marginalization; and published HICSS special issues (including this current issue). In this editorial, we look back at our initial efforts, present our current progress, and provide a few directions for further research at the intersection of technology and marginalization.
While the ubiquitous presence of information and communication technology (ICT) in everyday life has brought about convenience and enrichment to many, it has also inadvertently led to the digital exclusion of marginalized individuals with limited proficiency in ICT. One conspicuous group of such marginalized individuals is senior citizens, given their generally lower levels of ICT access, savviness, and bodily constraints limiting their ability to use ICT effectively. As societies experience rapid population aging, the need for digital inclusion among senior citizens will be even more pronounced as the world becomes ever more digitalized. This study examines the use of ICT among senior citizens by leveraging the concepts of disposition and capitals in Bourdieu's practice theory. Employing a mixed methods approach that integrates both qualitative and quantitative analyses, it shows how social, economic, bodily, and cultural capitals shaped disposition and ICT use among senior citizens. In terms of theoretical contribution, it advances a practice theory of digital inclusion and exclusion for the study of ICT in marginalized contexts. In terms of practical implication, it underscores the need for a range of approaches by strategizing across the different capitals and disposition in promoting digital inclusion among senior citizens.
An early step in designing information systems (IS) is eliciting design requirements. Traditionally, these requirements focus on product characteristics, such as desired functionalities. However, this technology-centered approach often neglects the broader context of IS design, which significantly influences project outcomes. While IS scholars emphasize the importance of context awareness, clear guidance on achieving it remains lacking-particularly for marginalized communities, where the context differs substantially from that of typically non-marginalized researchers and developers. Marginalized communities, such as the Deaf community, possess distinct cultural identities shaped by histories of discrimination and exclusion. Successfully conducting IS research and design in these contexts demands profound context awareness. We derive our argument for the importance of context awareness from the theory of Value Sensitive Design and the principles of sociotechnical design. We propose that context awareness is essential for the project to be perceived as legitimate by the marginalized community, which is crucial for the project's success. To help researchers become more context-aware, we present 42 design requirements resulting from a two-year iterative design science research project conducted in collaboration with the Deaf community. These design requirements encompass the research project, the IS design process, and the final product. This article contributes to the literature on inclusive IS design, Value Sensitive Design, and the development of assistive technologies.
This editorial addresses the critical intersection of artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain technologies, highlighting their contrasting tendencies toward centralization and decentralization, respectively. While AI, particularly with the rise of large language models (LLMs), exhibits a strong centralizing force due to data and resource monopolization by large corporations, blockchain offers a counterbalancing mechanism through its inherent decentralization, transparency, and security. The editorial argues that these technologies are not mutually exclusive but possess complementary strengths. Blockchain can mitigate AI's centralizing risks by enabling decentralized data management, computation, and governance, promoting greater inclusivity, transparency, and user privacy. Conversely, AI can enhance blockchain's efficiency and security through automated smart contract management, content curation, and threat detection. The core argument calls for the development of ''decentralized intelligence'' (DI)—an interdisciplinary research area focused on creating intelligent systems that function without centralized control.
Websites are one of the most prolific forms of information and communication technology (ICT). Yet, their potential to contribute to the development of oppressed groups and marginalized populations remains largely understudied. The ICT for development literature often uses simplistic views of identity that ignore the diversity of human experiences arising from the interconnectedness of ethnicity, sexual orientation, and gender. These aspects of identity are interconnected, and ignoring their intersection disregards compounding inequalities contended by sexual and gender minorities who are also ethnic minorities. Motivated by this research gap, this study analyzes 33 Two-Spirit web pages to further our understanding of how websites can contribute to the development of Two-Spirit communities. Two-Spirit is a modern term that recognizes expressions of gender fluidity and sexual diversity advanced by Indigenous Peoples in North America for centuries. An interpretive approach revealed that websites can support the development of Two-Spirit communities through four affordances: open spaces for activism, life stories telling, initiative impact reporting, and enabling access to resources. This paper contributes to the ICT literature on development by explaining how these affordances coalesce into a visibilization mechanism whereby ICT mediates unconstrained expressions of the Two-Spirit identity free of prejudices and colonial distortion.
Social media platforms have revolutionized the dissemination of information, enabling real-time citizen-driven journalism. However, this unprecedented accessibility has also facilitated the proliferation of fake news, often perpetuated by users who share information without verification. This study investigates the information verification behaviors of social media users in the context of fake news. Drawing upon the Elaboration Likelihood Model, we propose a research model to explore individuals' verification behaviors and test 11 hypotheses using a survey of active social media users. Results confirm all proposed hypotheses, revealing that online news quality, news source credibility, trust in social media information, fake news awareness, perceived cost of verification, and truth-seeking motive significantly influence information verification behaviors. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed in detail in light of these findings.
Software development work often requires a developer to simultaneously engage two organizations. Outsourcing, consulting, and open-source software (OSS) development exemplify such situations. These work arrangements involve challenges and benefits, particularly for developers' attachment to organizations. We synthesize job embeddedness theory with the concept of symbolic capital to understand how a developer's engagement with two organizations influences the developer's relationship with their primary employer and their movement between employers. We test our model with two studies using survey and archival data from 608 developers. We find developer embeddedness in an OSS community increases turnover from their employer and increases job mobility. Further, our results show symbolic capital (via knowledge and social standing) links OSS embeddedness to job mobility.
