The proliferation of Voice Controlled Smart Assistants (VCSAs) is increasing, and this is expected to continue in the future. There is much promise in how the growing capabilities of these Artificial Intelligence-powered devices can affect user experiences, usage and habit yet little is known about these areas. This study aims to contribute to knowledge in these areas by utilizing an interpretive philosophy and a qualitative approach. A tri-phased data collection process was utilized which included the collation of diary data from fourteen participants over an eight-week period. This short paper provides insight into the key findings identified which highlight: how usage evolves over time, and factors that affect this evolution. The paper also discusses further steps the researchers will take to progress this study.

With the rapid evolution of data over the last few years, many new technologies have arisen with artificial intelligent (AI) technologies at the top. Artificial intelligence (AI), with its infinite power, holds the potential to transform patient healthcare. Given the gaps revealed by the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic in healthcare systems, this research investigates the effects of using an artificial intelligence-driven public healthcare framework to enhance the decision-making process using an extended model of Shaft and Vessey (2006) cognitive fit model in healthcare organizations in Saudi Arabia. The model was validated based on empirical data collected using an online questionnaire distributed to healthcare organizations in Saudi Arabia. The main sample participants were healthcare CEOs, senior managers/managers, doctors, nurses, and other relevant healthcare practitioners under the MoH involved in the decision-making process relating to COVID-19. The measurement model was validated using SEM analyses. Empirical results largely supported the conceptual model proposed as all research hypotheses are significantly approved. This study makes several theoretical contributions. For example, it expands the theoretical horizon of Shaft and Vessey's (2006) CFT by considering new mechanisms, such as the inclusion of G2G Knowledge-based Exchange in addition to the moderation effect of Experience-based decision-making (EDBM) for enhancing the decision-making process related to the COVID-19 pandemic. More discussion regarding research limitations and future research directions are provided as well at the end of this study.

As the world aims to start ‘getting back to normal’ following the hopeful decline of the pandemic, many organisations and employees are questioning whether they will ever return to the old normal, where work for many was conducted within a designated office space. Drawing upon data from a wider study utilizing diary data of 29 participants that was conducted in the early stages of the lockdown, this short paper aims to highlight findings that not only suggest that individuals struggled with managing technology and work, but also that individuals were beginning to develop more control over their use of technology. This short paper ends by highlighting future research that the authors aim to develop.

Building on the global branding literature, brand relationship theory and social identity theory, this study investigates the relationship between perceived brand globalness (PBG) and user engagement (active/passive) on global social networks (GSN). Additionally, the study investigates the mediating effects of two distinct forms of user identification (i.e., user identification with the GSN brand and user identification with the GSN community) as well as the moderating effects of user global identity on the relationship between PBG and user engagement with such brands. Covariance-based structural equation modeling was used to analyse data collected from users of a GSN (i.e., Facebook) in the United Kingdom (UK) and India. The results indicate that PBG significantly influences both active and passive user engagement. This relationship is mediated by users' identification with a GSN brand and community. Additionally, the findings indicate that the associations between PBG and user engagement (active/passive) on GSN vary as a function of users' global identity. The results also demonstrate some country-specific variations in key relationships. Finally, the study offers useful recommendations for social media managers to rethink and redesign their user engagement strategies, keeping in mind global cultural diversity.

This study aims to examine the drivers and impact of et-moone on relational governance within B2B relationships in the Arab Asian region. Building on commitment and trust theory, this study proposes how et-moone could be driven by IT-enabled interactions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were collected using an online questionnaire survey from the food, pharmaceutical, detergent and sterilizer industries in Jordan and Saudi Arabia. A two-stage structural equation modelling approach was used to test the model. The results largely support the significant impact of et-moone predictors. A strong and significant relationship was also found between et-moone and relational governance. This study expands the theoretical horizon of et-moone by considering a new driver (i.e., IT-enabled interactions) and its consequences in terms of relational governance. The outcomes of the current study also make contributions for both practitioners and researchers who are interested in socio-cultural values (i.e., et-moone) in Arabic countries. An in-depth discussion on the above is presented in the subsections on theoretical and practical implications.

As far back as the industrial revolution, significant development in technical innovation has succeeded in transforming numerous manual tasks and processes that had been in existence for decades where humans had reached the limits of physical capacity. Artificial Intelligence (AI) offers this same transformative potential for the augmentation and potential replacement of human tasks and activities within a wide range of industrial, intellectual and social applications. The pace of change for this new AI technological age is staggering, with new breakthroughs in algorithmic machine learning and autonomous decision-making, engendering new opportunities for continued innovation. The impact of AI could be significant, with industries ranging from: finance, healthcare, manufacturing, retail, supply chain, logistics and utilities, all potentially disrupted by the onset of AI technologies. The study brings together the collective insight from a number of leading expert contributors to highlight the significant opportunities, realistic assessment of impact, challenges and potential research agenda posed by the rapid emergence of AI within a number of domains: business and management, government, public sector, and science and technology. This research offers significant and timely insight to AI technology and its impact on the future of industry and society in general, whilst recognising the societal and industrial influence on pace and direction of AI development.

This chapter consists of several sections which contain contributions from members of IFIP Technical Committee 8 (Information Systems). We highlight the accomplishments of Technical Committee 8 (TC8) and its working groups over its 50 years history, and then envisage possible strategies for the future of information systems (IS) in a post-COVID world. This chapter begins with an overall view of the diverse and changing roles of the IS field then moves forward to foresee environmental sustainability and digital glocalization in a post-COVID-19 world. Next, we review the achievements of TC8, the establishment of the working groups within it, and predict what TC8 has to offer into the future. Lastly, we identify the individual working groups of TC8 to detail their activities as important conduits of research and practice in the field of IS over the past 50 years, then imagine the roles of the TC8 working groups in a post-COVID landscape.

With the overnight growth in Working from Home (WFH) owing to the pandemic, organisations and their employees have had to adapt work-related processes and practices quickly with a huge reliance upon technology. Everyday activities such as social interactions with colleagues must therefore be reconsidered. Existing literature emphasises that social interactions, typically conducted in the traditional workplace, are a fundamental feature of social life and shape employees’ experience of work. This experience is completely removed for many employees due to the pandemic and, presently, there is a lack of knowledge on how individuals maintain social interactions with colleagues via technology when working from home. Given that a lack of social interaction can lead to social isolation and other negative repercussions, this study aims to contribute to the existing body of literature on remote working by highlighting employees’ experiences and practices around social interaction with colleagues. This study takes an interpretivist and qualitative approach utilising the diary-keeping technique to collect data from twenty-nine individuals who had started to work from home on a full-time basis as a result of the pandemic. The study explores how participants conduct social interactions using different technology platforms and how such interactions are embedded in their working lives. The findings highlight the difficulty in maintaining social interactions via technology such as the absence of cues and emotional intelligence, as well as highlighting numerous other factors such as job uncertainty, increased workloads and heavy usage of technology that affect their work lives. The study also highlights that despite the negative experiences relating to working from home, some participants are apprehensive about returning to work in the traditional office place where social interactions may actually be perceived as a distraction. The main contribution of our study is to highlight that a variety of perceptions and feelings of how work has changed via an increased use of digital media while working from home exists and that organisations need to be aware of these differences so that they can be managed in a contextualised manner, thus increasing both the efficiency and effectiveness of working from home.

Contemporary information technologies such as social media have invigorated the way knowledge is shared within organizations to the extent that we have to rethink and reassess our understanding of the role and in-fluence of technology in organizational processes and knowledge sharing. This paper uses the strategy as practice lens guided by the interpretivist philosophy to understand the influence of informal social media practices on knowledge sharing and work processes within an organization. The paper uses empirical evidence from the case study of a telecom organization in Tanzania to gain theoretical insight into informal social media practices and knowledge sharing. This research contributes to the Information Systems (IS) literature by asserting that orga-nizational processes are achieved by mundane knowledge sharing mediated by informal social media use within the organization. Also, the study contributes to IS literature by highlighting how emerging informal practices are essential to daily processes within organizations.

With the rapid adoption of homeworking by organisations across the world owing to Covid-19, employees have been separated from their informal, social networks in the traditional office space. This paper explores how individuals maintain social interaction with colleagues when working remotely. A diary study technique was employed and snowball sampling was used. Initial results from the diaries of 29 participants are presented. The findings highlight various challenges that homeworkers face, including task-related inefficiencies relating to technology-enabled communications in the absence of face-to-face interaction. The paper ends by briefly highlighting how the study analysis will proceed.

Lack of trust can have a negative influence on consumers’ willingness to use electronic retail (e-tail) platforms especially in countries with weak regulations and poor consumer rights. This paper examined factors that can be employed to build consumer trust and continuance intention to use e-tail platforms in Sub-Saharan Africa. Survey data was collected from 207 respondents and analyzed using structural equation modeling with the PLS software. The results show that information quality, perceived usefulness, hedonic motivation, and perceived risk have a significant influence on consumers’ trust in e-tail platforms. The study contributes to the existing body of knowledge that guides efforts for the implementation of actions in weak institutional contexts characterized by institutional voids such as those experienced in Sub-Saharan African countries. Finally, the study provides insights that can help managers of e-tail platforms to effectively foster the development of trust in their communities.

This short, developmental paper outlines the rationale and design of a future study relating to women's political participation on social media. The impact of social media upon women's political participation is a topic that has gained some momentum. The affordances of social media now potentially enable women to create, access and distribute content relating to political issues and participate in an online space freely. This article highlights the role that social media can play in enabling more balanced participation and also highlights that despite the potential, there is a lack of IS literature exploring women's use of social media for political participation. This article outlines the aim of the study: to explore what types of platforms women prefer to use for political participation and the factors that influence women's participation in political issues on social media. The research focuses on the case of Tanzania and proposes steps going forward.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many organisations to undergo significant transformation, rethinking key elements of their business processes and use of technology to maintain operations whilst adhering to a changing landscape of guidelines and new procedures. This study offers a collective insight to many of the key issues and underlying complexities affecting organisations and society from COVID-19, through an information systems and technological perspective. The views of 12 invited subject experts are collated and analysed where each articulate their individual perspectives relating to: online learning, digital strategy, artificial intelligence, information management, social interaction, cyber security, big data, blockchain, privacy, mobile technology and strategy through the lens of the current crisis and impact on these specific areas. The expert perspectives offer timely insight to the range of topics, identifying key issues and recommendations for theory and practice.

Although electronic retail platforms offer a more efficient means for providing goods and services, its adoption by users in developing countries remains encumbered with deep skepticism. Despite substantial investments, many users are reluctant to use electronic retail websites due to trust and risk issues. The objective of this study therefore is to develop and empirically test a model for predicting the factors affecting users’ acceptance of electronic retail websites. We adapted the revised United Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model to evaluate the importance of risk and trust factors on the behavioral intentions and use of e-tail websites within a sub-Saharan African context. For this purpose, we employed the variance-based Structural Equation Model (SEM) to analyze survey data collected from 207 e-tail users in Nigeria. The proposed model explained 67.5% of the variance in behavioral intention and 43.5% in use behavior. While our empirical results show that behavioral intention and use of electronic retail websites are mainly influenced by habit, the risk-trust inter-relationships to behavioral intention portray mixed findings.