This paper provides the materials used to conduct the Basoglu, Fuller, and Valacich (2012) study of individuals’ recall of information within technology-mediated teams (i.e., virtual teams). In the Basoglu et al. (2012) study, three input factors—visual artifacts (i.e., a computer-generated image of each team member), team size, and work interruptions—were manipulated to assess their influence on a person’s ability to recall important characteristics of their virtual team members. In the current paper, we provide step-by-step instructions for the experimental design, procedures, consent form, and the questionnaire administered by Basoglu et al. (2012). Our objectives are to provide researchers with the necessary materials to replicate the Basoglu et al. (2012) study and use its methodological techniques to guide their own research.

Research problem: In the educational arena, virtual teams made up of students who are located in more than one country are becoming increasingly commonplace. However, studies of the technological, social, and organizational factors that contribute to the success of these global virtual student teams (GVSTs) have yet to be systematically identified and discussed. In this paper, we seek to address this gap in our knowledge, drawing on several years of experience with GVSTs and addressing the following research question: How can university instructors establish effective GVST projects? Situating the case: The cases that we explore in this paper involve GVSTs with team members located variously in Hong Kong (all four cases), the USA (two cases), the UK (one case), and Singapore (one case). Students are a mix of undergraduate and graduate. How the case was studied: Our pedagogical purpose for running the GVST projects was to expose students to international communication and negotiation practices. The case designs involved situations where the student team members had to work collaboratively on a variety of tasks. We collected observational data and survey data, and required the team members to submit individual reflective reports about their learning experiences. About the case: We examine cultural differences among teams. We also note how issues of time and space vary across these teams, and consider how sufficient trust may be developed between team members to ensure productive work. Conclusion: From the four cases, we elicit 10 pertinent operational factors that should be of value to educators planning GVST projects.

The frequent use of global virtual teams for accomplishing organizational tasks helps explain the continued interest in research designed to identify and disentangle the relationships among factors influencing team performance. Participative goal setting represents one factor that may be particularly important in these settings. 52 self-directed global virtual teams, consisting of 318 participants, were observed during the life cycle of a team project in order to examine these critical relationships. As hypothesized, results reveal that virtual team efficacy (VTE) indirectly relates to goal commitment through the participative process of setting specific and difficult goals. In turn, participatively setting difficult goals and the teams' commitment to those goals directly affects actual performance. These findings extend prior research applying social cognitive theory (SCT) in global virtual team research. Implications for theory and practice, as well as opportunities for future research are discussed.

A computer-simulated software training system (CSSTS) delivers a specific form of computer-based training in which participants are allowed to select various training features within a simulated software environment. Given the growing use of these systems as end-user training (EUT) aids, there is a need for greater understanding of how participants use these systems, as well as whether participant-controlled learning environments are truly effective. The present research examines how a particular learner characteristic, software self-efficacy, drives appropriation in a high learner control, CSSTS environment. Contrary to notions in the literature, results from spreadsheet and database software training courses reveal that pre-training specific software self-efficacy constitutes a significant, negative predictor of faithful appropriations of the CSSTS. This research also establishes a positive relationship between faithful appropriation and increases in software self-efficacy (SSE). In essence, faithful appropriations lead to greater increases in SSE, which influences software skills performance. In addition, the research validates prior EUT research by extending prior findings to a database training environment. A psychometrically sound measure is put forth to capture database self-efficacy.

Over the 12 years since the glory days of the dot com and Y2K phenomena at the turn of the last century, IS departments at many colleges and schools of business have suffered significant declines in student enrolments, elimination from core curricula, reduced faculty numbers, and overall a weakened strategic positioning within the business school. Recent AACSB faculty hiring and salary reports indicate that “CIS” is the only discipline which has seen an overall decline in faculty hiring over the past 10 years, in contrast with significant growth in all other disciplines. Many IS departments have been merged with other disciplines, or closed entirely. In contrast, however, a number of IS departments have continued to enjoy significant growth and success. This panel of five current/recent business school deans and members of the IS community will offer their perspectives on the strategic positioning of IS within the business school, and share their recommendations on what IS departments need to do to strengthen their positioning within the business school across the domains of teaching, research and relationships with the broader academic and business communities.

Given the distributed nature of modern organizations, the use of technology-mediated teams is a critical aspect of their success. These teams use various media that are arguably less personal than face-to-face communication. One factor influencing the success of these teams is their ability to develop an understanding of who knows what during the initial team development stage. However, this development of understanding within dispersed teams may be impeded because of the limitations of technology-enabled communication environments. Past research has found that a limited understanding of team member capabilities hinders team performance. As such, this article investigates mechanisms for improving the recall of individuals within dispersed teams. Utilizing the input-process-output model to conceptualize the group interaction process, three input factors—visual artifacts (i.e., a computer-generated image of each team member), team size, and work interruptions—are manipulated to assess their influence on a person's ability to recall important characteristics of their virtual team members. Results show that visual artifacts significantly increase the recall of individuals' information. However, high-urgency interruptions significantly deteriorate the recall of individuals, regardless of the visual artifact or team size. These findings provide theoretical and practical implications on knowledge acquisition and project success within technology-mediated teams.

This architectural and urban design project was conducted as part of the Brisbane Airport Corporations master-planning Atelier, run in conjunction with City Lab. This creation and innovation event brought together approximately 80 designers, associated professionals, and both local and state government representatives to research concepts for future development and planning of the Brisbane airport site. The Team Delta research project explored the development of a new precinct cluster around the existing international terminal building; with a view of reinforcing the sense of place and arrival. The development zone explores the options of developing a subtropical character through landscape elements such as open plazas, tourist attractions, links to existing adjacent waterways, and localised rapid transport options. The proposal tests the possibilities of developing a cultural hub in conjunction with transport infrastructure and the airport terminal(s).

The use of causal indicators to formatively measure latent constructs appears to be on the rise, despite what appears to be a troubling lack of consistency in their application. Scholars in any discipline are responsible not only for advancing theoretical knowledge in their domain of study but also for addressing methodological issues that threaten that advance. In that spirit, the current study traces causal indicators from their origins in causal modeling to their use in structural equation modeling today. Conclusions from this review suggest that unlike effect (reflective) indicators, whose application is based on classical test theory, today's application of causal (formative) indicators is based on research demonstrating their practical application rather than on psychometric theory supporting their use. The authors suggest that this lack of theory has contributed to the confusion surrounding their implementation. Recent research has questioned the generalizability of formatively measured latent constructs. In the current study, the authors discuss how the use of fixed-weight composites may be one way to employ causal indicators so that they may be generalized to additional contexts. More specifically, they suggest the use of meta-analysis principles for identifying optimum causal indicator weights that can be used to generate fixed-weight composites. Finally, the authors explain how these fixed-weight composites can be implemented in both components-based and covariance-based statistical packages. Implications for the use of causal indicators in academic research are used to focus these discussions.

This study examines the effects of trustworthiness perceptions and trustor dispositions on trust and distrust as well as the downstream influence of trust and distrust on intention to use online banking. More than 500 college students located across two universities completed a survey to provide data for the study. The findings from this study suggest that the oblind trusto and oblind distrusto perspectives used in isolation are incomplete and that a more comprehensive model of trust requires the inclusion of both perspectives. As hypothesized, results also support the assertion that trust and distrust are distinct constructs and that the established e-retailing trust nomological network holds in an online banking context. The study also contributes to the literature by establishing several distrust antecedents, as well as illustrating distrust's negative effect on intention to use online banking. Finally, the study illustrates how the influence of trust can overwhelm the effect of distrust in an online banking context.

Two dominant theories—trust and technology acceptance—have been employed in numerous information systems research studies to help understand consumer behavior in e-commerce environments. In this context of voluntary Web site adoption and use, we provide a more precise understanding of the nomological network related to the cognitive variables (both beliefs and attitudes) that precede this use. Designers and engineers need to be concerned not just with building an objectively better Web site but also with building a Web site that conveys desirable characteristics. Although the theory of reasoned action has been acknowledged as the underlying theory for technology acceptance and some trust research, past studies integrating these two theories have omitted important variables from their models and have posited different causal relationships among model variables. This research argues for the reinclusion and/or clarification of belief and attitude constructs relevant to technology acceptance and trust research streams, explains why these constructs are critical for understanding causality in such models, proposes an integration model that is consistent with this argument, and finally tests this model in a context exploring initial reactions to an e-vendor and evaluates the relative importance of trust and technology acceptance variables in predicting user intentions.

The recent debate on measurement item mis-specification has renewed interest in the construct explication process; however, the focus of this debate has been the interaction between latent variables and their measures (“how”), instead of between latent variables and the constructs they represent (“what”). This paper highlights the problems created when framing the formativereflective discussion in terms of “how” instead of “what.” We argue it is necessary to precede measurement item construction (or appropriation) with careful construct definition and operationalization by focusing first on what is being measured, rather than on how it will be measured. Two solutions for better understanding measurement item construction are proposed: 1) carefully defining assumptions and boundary conditions of a construct in its theoretical context , and 2) carefully defining assumptions and boundary conditions of a latent variable in its measurement context . Recommendations regarding correct interpretation of the measurement process by authors, reviewers, and editors are offered.

Interfaces now employ a variety of media-rich, social, and advanced decision-making components, including recommendation agents (RA) designed to assist users with their tasks. Social presence has been identified as a key consideration in website design to overcome the lack of warmth, social cues, and face-to-face interaction, but few studies have investigated the interface features that may increase social presence. Recent research on RAs has similarly acknowledged social presence as a key factor in the design of online RAs and in building trust in this technology, but there has been limited empirical work on the topic. In this study an experiment was conducted to explore how social technology cues, media capabilities, and individual differences influence social presence and trust in an RA. RA personality (extraversion), vividness (text, voice, and animation), and computer playfulness were found to influence social presence, with social presence serving in a mediating role and increasing user trust in the RA. Vividness also had a moderating effect on the relationship between RA extraversion and social presence such that increased levels of vividness strengthen this relationship.

The paper offers a critique of traditional methodical approaches to Information Systems Development (ISD), arguing that a number of assumptions (for example, universality and rationality) underlying these approaches lead to incomplete ontological and epistemological considerations, and thereby contribute to IS failures in many cases. The paper proposes that ethical analysis undertaken in conjunction with traditional ISD approaches may be a way to address some of the limitations experienced during traditional ISD. Drawing upon ideas from postmodern ethics formulated by Zygmunt Bauman, the paper argues that increased focus on the moral responsibility of key ISD players (such as the team of analysts) may improve the ISD process. Finally, this paper suggests how, consistent with the postmodern stance, such moral responsibility can be implemented in the context of ISD. The paper concludes with the contributions and future implications of this research.

Considering the ongoing concerns regarding enrollments in MIS programs, it is necessary for MIS educators to understand the underlying motivations that influence student choices of major, as well as how students view the field of MIS related to these factors. To address this problem, a series of focus group sessions were conducted on three distinct samples of students which examined the following questions: (1) What factors influence a business student's selection of a field of study and/or career? (2) What factors encourage or deter a business student's choice to enter the field of MIS? and (3) What strategies can an MIS department employ to increase awareness about MISrelated careers among business students? Results from these focus groups suggest that most students rated job scope as an important issue in their deciding on a major; however, students with little or no knowledge of MIS perceived this career path as narrowly focused (e.g., sitting at a computer and coding all day). Results also suggest that non-MIS majors held more negative perceptions of the characteristics associated with MIS professionals, whereas freshman and sophomore students declaring MIS as their future major held more positive perceptions than non-MIS majors, and junior and senior MIS majors held even more positive perceptions.

Financial and accounting tasks require high levels of concentration as well as cognitive capacity. Today, advanced technology can help facilitate the effective and efficient completion of such tasks. At the same time, however, these same technologies can interrupt work flow and create work-related stress, thus having a deleterious effect on task performance. These interruptions can be characterized across a number of different dimensions, including frequency, complexity, duration, and relevance to the primary task, to name a few. This study examines the effects of interruption frequency, task complexity, and individual characteristics on cognitive load and subsequent decision-making performance on financial tasks. As hypothesized, the results indicate the significant influence of interruption frequency and order of task complexity on cognitive load which influences performance. This research has implications on the design and use of information systems by accounting professionals in order to reduce potential negative effects.