Despite many years of research examining the turnover of IT professionals, turnover rates in the IT workforce remain consistently high. In this paper, we assume that it is not single factors and their individual interactions, but the exact combination of these factors that drive turnover behavior. We, therefore, examine configurations of four known push and pull factors that influence turnover decisions of IT professionals, namely shocks, job embeddedness, job satisfaction, and job alternatives. We use fsQCA to analyze data gathered from 612 IT professionals to examine the role of combinations of these factors in predicting high and low turnover intentions. Our results introduce seven types of IT professionals with different combinations of push and pull factors and their resulting level of turnover intention. The paper highlights the crucial role of shock events, in isolation but also in combination with job satisfaction and organizational embeddedness, and provides valuable insights and guidance for companies looking to mitigate their IT professionals' desire for alternative employment opportunities.

PurposeThis paper investigates the dynamics between state affect and trusting cognitive beliefs on post-adoptive information technology (IT) use behaviors in the form of intention to explore and deep structure usage. That state affect can influence behaviors is recognized in practice. In fact, some studies examine the impact of affective constructs, but the way state affect impacts how individuals use IT remains largely unexplored. The authors theorize that state affect, in the form of positive and negative affect, will influence trusting cognitive beliefs regarding an IT artifact (in terms of perceived helpfulness, capability and reliability) and, more importantly, directly influence intention to explore and deep structure usage.Design/methodology/approachThe authors test the model using a sample of 357 IT users. Survey items were derived from established measures, and the data were analyzed using structural equation modeling.FindingsResults of this study suggest that positive affect and negative affect impact trusting cognitive beliefs. Trusting cognitive beliefs positively impact intention to explore with an IT and deep structure usage of an IT. Even in the presence of trusting beliefs, though, positive affect directly impacts intention to explore. Positive affect and negative affect both also have various indirect, mediated effects on intention to explore and deep structure usage.Originality/valueIn order to maximize value from workplace IT, the results suggest managers foster an authentic, positive work environment in order to harness or redirect employees' emotional energies.

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Disclosure StatementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Additional informationNotes on contributorsMichael DingerMichael Dinger, is an associate professor of Information Systems and Business Analytics in the Hankamer School of Business at Baylor University. He received a Ph.D. in Management Information Systems from Clemson University. His research interests include IT workforce management, social media, and virtual communities. His work appears in Information Systems Research, Journal of the Association for Information Systems, Journal of Management Information Systems, MIS Quarterly, and other outlets. He currently serves as an Associate Editor for Communications of the Association for Information Systems.Julie T. WadeJulie T. Wade, is an associate professor of Management in the Johnson College of Business and Economics at the University of South Carolina Upstate. She received a Ph.D. in Management Information Systems from Clemson University. Her research interests include social media and virtual communities. Her work appears in MIS Quarterly, Internet Research, Communications of the AIS and other outlets.Jason Bennett ThatcherJason Bennett Thatcher, holds the Milton F. Stauffer Professorship in the Department of Management Information Systems at the Fox School of Business of Temple University. He received a BA in History and BS in Political Science from the University of Utah and his M.P.A. and Ph.D. from Florida State University. Dr. Thatcher's research examines the influence of individual beliefs and characteristics on technology use, cybersecurity, and strategic issues tied to information technology use in organizations. His work appears in the MIS Quarterly, Information Systems Research, Journal of Applied Psychology, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, and Journal of the AIS. He has served as Senior Editor at MIS Quarterly, Information Systems Research, and Journal of the Association for Information Systems. His current projects include writing a cookbook, making a killer cheesesteak, and learning the low country shag.

Over the course of their careers, IT professionals become embedded in their workplace. In the organizational behavior literature, research has found that job embeddedness provides direct, positive benefits for employers, including lower turnover intentions, lower levels of withdrawal behaviors, lower actual turnover, and more. In this paper, we present a more nuanced view, namely that embeddedness among IT professionals may influence the development of professionalized mindsets, which, in turn, has a mix of positive and negative consequences. To understand these relationships, we introduce a concept called workgroup embeddedness (WGE). WGE captures how IT professionals become embedded in their organizational workgroup or unit. We report a multiphase study that (1) developed a measure of WGE, (2) established the validity of WGE, and (3) evaluated the implications of WGE among 150 IT professionals using data collected at two points in time. We found that WGE drives an increase in professionalism, which, in turn, increases work-life conflict. Also, we found that both WGE and professionalism positively influence organizational citizenship behaviors. These findings indicate that WGE may play a role in socializing and driving more professionalized mindsets among IT professionals, such as professional identification, which leads to positive outcomes like citizenship behaviors but may come at the expense of negative consequences in professionals’ nonwork lives. Post hoc findings highlight that belief in public service and identification with the IT profession influence work-life conflict and organizational citizenship. We conclude with implications for research and practice.

In this work, we investigate how social media has changed hiring processes, an important internal activity of organizations. Specifically, we probe how viewing job-relevant and job-irrelevant social media content influences hiring managers ' ratings of job applicants. To do so, we conducted an experiment that manipulated the presence of social media content on political issues and job-relevant information as well as the social media platforms on which they appear. We balanced job-relevant and job-irrelevant content because we were interested in assessing whether information about political issues continued to have effects even in the presence of information relating to a job applicant's knowledge, skills, and abilities. We found that social media posts that convey information about political issues do have effects, even in the presence of job-relevant information. We also found that, for some issues, the source of social media content matters, with platform effects impacting the assessment of job applicants. This work has timely implications, suggesting that managers be made aware that both social media content and the platform on which it is viewed can contaminate hiring processes. We suggest a need for future research at the intersection between social media and hiring policies.

In this study, we study negative public affiliation, which we define as discomfort with being publicly linked to a potentially socially stigmatized group or interest. We investigate how users who feel negative public affiliation form feelings of belonging to a virtual community. We also consider the impact that brand congruity (how much a user identifies with an interest or brand) has on feelings of belonging. To investigate negative public affiliation, we drew a sample from members of Twilight-themed virtual communities and evaluated the interrelationship between negative public affiliation, brand congruity, and belongingness (how well users feel they fit in virtual communities). Our results indicate that high negative public affiliation and high brand congruity with Twilight positively impacted feelings of belonging: users who felt Twilight reflected their identity but felt uncomfortable publicly discussing their interest felt a stronger sense of belonging in relation to their virtual communities. Our study offers practical implications for firms seeking to design and maintain virtual communities that support the broadest possible group of users. Of equal importance, our study provides a new direction for information systems research on virtual communities and suggests a need to study users who participate in socially uncomfortable, stigmatized, or unacceptable communities.

This paper considers the strategic uncertainties and impacts created by high-profile data breaches and discusses the unique strategic problem presented by information security breaches for organizational executives. Based on theory regarding strategic uncertainties, we develop a framework depicting a strategic perspective on breaches within and outside the firm. Then, within the major categories outlined by the framework, this research evaluates instances of 17 public disclosures of high-profile data breaches over the past four years. Based on our discussion of these 17 cases, we identify six major issues complicating strategic decision-making regarding security breaches and discuss guidance for managers.

This chapter revisits and considers the application of Web 2.0 technologies in contemporary business environments. Web 2.0 refers to a general category of internet technologies and content development that lean on the contributions of many individual users to create value. These technologies are characterized by rich media, a dynamic nature, social networking elements, and distributed contributions. The chapter presents three major Web 2.0 archetypes: blogs, wikis, and social networking sites. It concludes with a value-oriented framework designed to guide firms in the development of Web 2.0 initiatives.

Many firms are developing virtual customer environments (VCEs) that provide customers the opportunity to submit, discuss, and vote for new ideas. Some studies show that VCEs promote the development of incremental improvements in existing products and services (i.e., exploitative innovation). However, other studies find that customers working in VCEs will often suggest radical ideas for brand new products and services (i.e., exploratory innovation). Exploration and exploitation are often incompatible; thus, we address this paradox by investigating whether the design of a firm's VCE architecture is related to the firm's exploratory innovation activity and exploitative innovation activity. Using matched data collected from VCEs and managers, we show that two-way information exchange VCE tools facilitate exploratory innovation, and one-way information exchange VCE tools enhance exploitative innovation. We also find that absorptive capacity positively moderates the latter relationship. Our findings have implications for research and practice in VCEs, organizational innovation, and organizational learning.

Phishing attacks are at a record high and are causing billions of dollars in losses. To mitigate phishing's impact, organizations often use rule-based training to teach individuals to identify certain cues or apply a set of rules to avoid phishing attacks. The rule-based approach has improved organizational defenses against phishing; however, regular repetition of rule-based training may not yield increasing resistance to attacks. To expand the toolkit available to combat phishing attacks, we used mindfulness theory to develop a novel training approach that can be performed after individuals are familiar with rule-based training. The mindfulness approach teaches individuals to dynamically allocate attention during message evaluation, increase awareness of context, and forestall judgment of suspicious messages-techniques that are critical to detecting phishing attacks in organizational settings, but are unaddressed in rule-based instruction. To evaluate the efficacy of our approach, we compared rule-based and mindfulness training programs in a field study at a U.S. university that involved 355 students, faculty, and staff who were familiar with phishing attacks and received regular rule-based guidance. To evaluate the robustness of the training, we delivered each program in text-only or text-plus-graphics formats. Ten days later, we conducted a phishing attack on participants that used both generic and customized phishing messages. We found that participants who received mindfulness training were better able to avoid the phishing attack. In particular, improvement was observed for participants who were already confident in their detection ability and those who reported low e-mail mindfulness and low perceptions of Internet risk. This work introduces and provides evidence supporting a new approach that may be used to develop anti-phishing training.

Research problem: Organizations are increasingly investing in virtual customer communities that reduce communication barriers between organizations and customers. However, little is known regarding how virtual customer communities might affect a firm's learning and innovation activities. Research question: What effects do virtual customer communities have on the relationship between absorptive capacity and organizational innovation? Literature review: Research has shown that virtual customer communities promote knowledge creation and knowledge sharing by facilitating communication within a virtual customer community. We investigate the extent to which interactivity in virtual customer communities influences the relationship between a firm's absorptive capacity (the ability to identify, assimilate, and apply external knowledge) and the extent to which a firm develops incremental and radical innovations. Methodology: We test this model with a quantitative survey-based research design that involves 102 firm-sponsored virtual customer communities. We use hierarchical regression techniques to test our hypotheses. Results: Absorptive capacity is positively related to incremental innovation and negatively related to radical innovation. Furthermore, virtual customer community interactivity moderates the relationship between absorptive capacity and incremental innovation. Conclusions: Virtual customer communities are transforming communication relationships between organizations and customers in ways that influence a firm's learning and innovation activities. One limitation of our study is the use of a single respondent for our survey. We recommend that future research examine how virtual customer communities affect organization-customer communication channels.

We attempt to understand why and when physicians avoid electronic medical record (EMR) systems in a turbulent environment. Set in the context of the United States military's combat operations, we develop a research model based on theories of ambivalence in organizations and our particular context. We test our model with 30,677 data points collected from an EMR system. Our results show that avoidance is lower when the potential for information reusability is strong, yet avoidance is higher in urgent care situations. Our study has implications for research, practice, and policy in the area of turbulent health-care environments.

This paper investigates the role of professionalism in the information technology (IT) workforce. We develop a model that describes how professionalism relates to attitudes, perceptions, and behaviors among IT professionals. Specifically, we hypothesize that dimensions of professionalism influence attitudes (including intrinsic motivation, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment), perceived job alternatives, job performance, and turnover. We test the research model with data, which includes supervisor evaluations and actual turnover data drawn from 214 IT professionals. Results show that some dimensions of professionalism demonstrate a positive relationship with intrinsic motivation, job satisfaction, and job performance. Other dimensions have no effect or positively influence awareness of job alternatives, driving turnover intention. As the IT workforce grows increasingly professional, managers may benefit from more satisfied, harder-working IT personnel at the cost of having a workforce more connected to the labor market.

Phishing is a major threat to individuals and organizations. Along with billions of dollars lost annually, phishing attacks have led to significant data breaches, loss of corporate secrets, and espionage. Despite the significant threat, potential phishing targets have little theoretical or practical guidance on which phishing tactics are most dangerous and require heightened caution. The current study extends persuasion and motivation theory to postulate why certain influence techniques are especially dangerous when used in phishing attacks. We evaluated our hypotheses using a large field experiment that involved sending phishing messages to more than 2,600 participants. Results indicated a disparity in levels of danger presented by different influence techniques used in phishing attacks. Specifically, participants were less vulnerable to phishing influence techniques that relied on fictitious prior shared experience and were more vulnerable to techniques offering a high level of self-determination. By extending persuasion and motivation theory to explain the relative efficacy of phishers' influence techniques, this work clarifies significant vulnerabilities and lays the foundation for individuals and organizations to combat phishing through awareness and training efforts.

This paper investigates two actors in IT recruitment: IT job seekers and IT employers. Signaling theory and image theory inform this research. Signaling theory suggests that there are unique groups of IT job seekers and IT employers. Image theory explains the implications of groups of IT job seekers' have images of firms. Based on a closet qualitative study, we identify three images that IT job seekers use to classify employers: IT consulting firms, IT vendors, and non-IT-oriented firms that require in-house IT workers. To evaluate these images, we conduct two studies. Study 1 evaluates job seekers. Analysis of data collected from 491 entry-level IT job seekers suggests that unique groups of IT job seekers exist that possess distinct preferences for IT employers, firm and job characteristics as well as report different levels of preparatory job search activity. Study 2 focuses on the IT employers' perspective. We segment IT employers based on the IT job seekers' images. Results from a survey of 412 firm recruiters indicate that IT employers do not prefer different types of IT job applicants or engage in significantly different recruitment activities. Taken together, our studies provide a rich understanding of how IT job seekers view employers and how employers view job seekers.

Absorptive capacity is a firm's ability to identify, assimilate, transform, and apply valuable external knowledge. It is considered an imperative for business success. Modern information technologies perform a critical role in the development and maintenance of a firm's absorptive capacity. We provide an assessment of absorptive capacity in the information systems literature. IS scholars have used the absorptive capacity construct in diverse and often contradictory ways. Confusion surrounds how absorptive capacity should be conceptualized, its appropriate level of analysis, and how it can be measured. Our aim in reviewing this construct is to reduce such confusion by improving our understanding of absorptive capacity and guiding its effective use in IS research. We trace the evolution of the absorptive capacity construct in the broader organizational literature and pay special attention to its conceptualization, assumptions, and relationship to organizational learning. Following this, we investigate how absorptive capacity has been conceptualized, measured, and used in IS research. We also examine how absorptive capacity fits into distinct IS themes and facilitates understanding of various IS phenomena. Based on our analysis, we provide a framework through which IS researchers can more fully leverage the rich aspects of absorptive capacity when investigating the role of information technology in organizations.

The costs associated with the turnover of information technology (IT) professionals continue to draw the attention of IT managers and researchers. Although a weak labor market has limited the quantity of turnover, organizations' most skilled IT personnel are still coveted and valuable resources. These IT professionals are also those most equipped to leave their firm and find new work. In order to reduce costs, retain key employees, and manage turnover, managers need to understand the factors that drive quitting behavior. The research model suggests that the utility of present and alternative IT work are key cognitive influences on an IT professional's decision to search for new employment, intention to quit, and, ultimately, turnover. We test the research model using longitudinal data that include actual turnover behavior. The research model explains 44% of the variance in intention to quit and 13% of the variance in actual turnover. After establishing the influence of utility on the quitting process, we conduct additional analyses to identify the elements of present and alternative job utility that are the most salient for IT professionals' quitting processes. From the additional analyses, we derive specific guidance to practice on the management of IT professionals.

........................................................................................................................................ ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ..................................................................................................................... iv List of Figures ............................................................................................................................... xi List of Tables .............................................................................................................................. xiv CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 17 1.0 Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 17 1.1 Research Questions ................................................................................................................. 22 1.2 Research Framework ............................................................................................................... 23 1.3 Empirical Setting ...................................................................................................................... 25 1.4 Contributions ........................................................................................................................... 27 1.4.1 Contributions to Research ................................................................................................ 27 1.4.2 Contributions to Practice .................................................................................................. 30 1.5 Structure of Dissertation ......................................................................................................... 31 CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF LITERATURE ...................................................................................... 32 2.0 Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 32 2.1 Embeddedness: Current Definition ......................................................................................... 33 2.2 Field Theory ............................................................................................................................. 36 2.3 Review of Constructs in Network Space .................................................................................. 41 2.3.1 Internal Forces .................................................................................................................. 42 2.3.1.1Internal Forces: Attributes ......................................................................................... 44 2.3.1.2 Internal Forces: Skills ................................................................................................. 48 2.3.1.3 Internal Forces: Attitudes .......................................................................................... 51 2.3.1.4 Summary of Internal Forces ...................................................................................... 57 2.3.2 External Forces ................................................................................................................. 58 2.3.2.1 Social Forces .............................................................................................................. 59 2.3.2.2 Environmental Forces ................................................................................................ 61 2.3.2.3 Summary of External Forces ...................................................................................... 68 2.3.3 Interactional Forces .......................................................................................................... 70 2.3.3.1 Complementary Fit .................................................................................................... 70 2.3.3.2 Supplementary Fit ..................................................................................................... 71 2.3.3.3 Summary of Interactional Forces .............................................................................. 72 2.4 Chapter Summary .................................................................................................................... 73 CHAPTER THREE: THEORETICAL DEVELOPMENT ........................................................................... 75 vi 3.0 Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 75 3.1 Embeddedness: Conceptualizing an Updated Construct ........................................................ 76 3.1.1 Field Theory ...................................................................................................................... 77 3.1.2 Social Links: Explained by Belongingness Theory ............................................................. 78 3.1.3 Fit: Explained by Complementary and Supplementary Fit ............................................... 82 3.1.4 Sacrifice: Explained by Utility Theory ............................................................................... 85 3.1.5 Summarizing the Updated Embeddedness Construct ..................................................... 88 3.2 Developing Embeddedness Theory ......................................................................................... 90 3.2.1 Professional and Organizational Fields ............................................................................ 91 3.2.1.1 The Professional Field ................................................................................................ 92 3.2.1.2 The Organizational Field ............................................................................................ 96 3.2.1.3 The Profession-Specific Organizational Field ............................................................ 99 3.2.1.4 The Job Field ............................................................................................................ 104 3.2.2 Defining the Forces and Behaviors Leveraged in Embeddedness Theory...................... 107 3.2.2.1 Internal Forces: Skills ............................................................................................... 107 3.2.2.2 External Forces: Job Opportunities ......................................................................... 109 3.2.2.3 Organizational Behaviors......................................................................................... 110 3.2.2.4 Summary of Constructs ........................................................................................... 112 3.2.3 Assumptions Underlying Embeddedness Theory ........................................................... 112 3.2.4 Embeddedness Theory Propositions .............................................................................. 114 3.2.4.1 Proposition One: The Temporal Development of Embeddedness .......................... 114 3.2.4.2 Proposition Two: The Effect of Embeddedness on Leaving .................................... 118 3.2.4.3 Proposition Three: The Effect of Embeddedness on Performance Behaviors ........ 121 3.2.4.4 Proposition Four, Five and Six: Labor Markets ........................................................ 125 3.2.4.5 Propositions Seven and Eight: Skills ........................................................................ 131 3.3 Chapter Summary .................................................................................................................. 136 CHAPTER FOUR: RESEARCH MODEL ............................................................................................ 138 4.0 Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 138 4.1 Research Constructs .............................................................................................................. 139 4.1.1 Types of Embeddedness ................................................................................................. 140 4.1.1.1 Professional Embeddedness .................................................................................... 141 4.1.1.2 Organizational Embeddedness ................................................................................ 143 4.1.1.2 IT Role Embeddedness ............................................................................................ 145 4.1.1.1 Job Embeddedness .................................................................................................. 148 4.1.1.5 Summary of Embeddedness Types ......................................................................... 150