Information systems development is a complex, knowledge-intensive process. Companies struggle with achieving IS development goals of delivering information systems within time, on budget, and with promised functionalities. This paper suggests that to achieve these goals, IS development teams need to cultivate a climate of collective ownership in the team. We collect qualitative data and use a multimethod approach combining multi-case study and grounded theory techniques to understand the collective ownership concept in the context of agile software development. We find that collective ownership in IS development varies from the standard conceptualization found in the literature. Collective ownership is manifested as more of a balanced, collaborative approach where the original developer is involved throughout the process and is empowered through inclusion in the process of change. We find that overall, individual ownership helps collective ownership but, in some scenarios, it may also impede ownership at the collective level. We also find that there is a reciprocal relationship between collective ownership and collaboration, and that perceived control and a shared understanding of the tasks also help develop ownership at the collective level.

Software development requires intense collaboration within, across teams, and with the client. Since the popularization of agile software development in the 2000s, the virtuous effects of transparent collaboration have been emphasized. However, some studies have alluded to concerns with full information disclosure and mentioned that teams may benefit by withholding some information. We used case studies to explore such situations. We adopted a privacy theoretical lens because it is antithetical to the information disclosure lens and offers frames to comprehend how professional information can be retained by individuals, shared to restricted circles or entirely divulged. We found situations when the disclosure paradigm is challenged in agile processes. There is ambiguity in the disclosure message because individual and collective information retention do play a role in agile development. Our findings help refine information systems development philosophies and practices. We also extend our understanding of the communication privacy management theory to a context where full disclosure is preferred to privacy, and where control over privacy depends on allowances granted by a third party, which can generalize to other settings (e.g., social media platforms).

A local disruption can propagate to forward and downward through the material flow and eventually influence the entire supply chain network (SCN). This phenomenon of ripple effect, immensely existing in practice, has received great interest in recent years. Moreover, forward and backward disruption propagations became major stressors for SCNs during the COVID-19 pandemic triggered by simultaneous and sequential supply and demand disruptions. However, current literature has paid less attention to the different impacts of the directions of disruption propagation. This study examines the disruption propagation through simulating simple interaction rules of firms inside the SCN. Specifically, an agent-based computational model is developed to delineate the supply chain disruption propagation behavior. Then, we conduct multi-level quantitative analysis to explore the effects of forward and backward disruption propagation, moderated by network structure, network-level health and node-level vulnerability. Our results demonstrate that it is practically important to differentiate between forward and backward disruption propagation, as they are distinctive in the associated mitigation strategies and in the effects on network and individual firm performance. Forward disruption propagation generally can be mitigated by substitute and backup supply and has greater impact on firms serving the assembly role and on the supply/assembly networks, whereas backward disruption propagation is normally mitigated by flexible operation and distribution and has bigger impact on firms serving the distribution role and on distribution networks. We further analyze the investment strategies in a dual-focal supply network under disruption propagation. We provide propositions to facilitate decision-making and summarize important managerial implications.

To achieve economies of scope, most motor carriers combine long-term contracts with shippers and brokers with periodic spot assignments found on electronic marketplaces (EMs). While previous research has addressed how carriers adopt an EM, we know little about factors that influence carriers to adopt multiple EMs. Given the rise of the platform economy of the trucking industry, we chose to address this gap and generate mid-range theory on adopting multiple EMs in a logistics context. To do this, we applied grounded theory and conducted 23 interviews with motor carriers and EM experts in North America and Europe until we reached theoretical saturation. Our findings reveal that many motor carriers adopt a portfolio of different EMs, and that their awareness of platforms, expected and realized benefits, attitude, and vigilance determine how they configure their EM portfolios. The implication for existing theory is that, while previous studies depicted EM adoption from a single-system perspective, we found that it is actually a continuous selection process that follows a portfolio perspective. Our paper also has implications for practice in that it illuminates the rationales behind EM portfolio development and identifies actionable factors that can help managers configure stronger portfolios.

Management science professors who teach large classes often assess students with multiple-choice questions (MCQs) because it is efficient. However, traditional MCQ formats are ill-fitted for constructive feedback. We propose the reward for omission with confidence in knowledge (ROCK) format as an original formative assessment technique to help guide feedback associated with MCQs in an introductory undergraduate management science course. Our study contributes to theory by empirically showing that students can self-assess their state of knowledge, signal it to the professor, and use proper answering options. In practice, ROCK is an easily implementable MCQ format that allows professors to gain information on student learning based on answers selected. ROCK identifies lack of knowledge or misinformation at both individual and collective levels thus providing opportunities for better feedback in class and during office hours. Limitations of the application of ROCK are also discussed.

PurposeThis research aims at understanding the routes public e-marketplaces take, in the motor carrier spot market, to generate trust among participants.Design/methodology/approachThis work borrows cue signaling theory and an e-marketplace content analysis instrument from information systems literature. Our primary data captures differences in usage of a broad spectrum of cues between motor carrier spot e-marketplaces and a control sample.FindingsTransportation e-marketplaces use graphical cues more frequently than the control sample, display these cues on their “operational path” (where users click to conduct transactions) and try to generate beliefs in participants' integrity and competence.Research limitations/implicationsThe motor carrier online spot market constitutes a relevant test bed for trust-related theories. Several levels of trust-building conceptualizations are tested; the cue level shows the most potential. This paper extends cue signaling theory in the transportation e-marketplace context and calls for further work on operational path cues to enrich swift trust theories.Practical implicationsThis study helps e-marketplace designers by identifying essential and facultative cues for the motor carrier spot market.Originality/valueResearch on public spot e-marketplaces in the motor carrier context is scant. The context is described in detail to show its specificities in structures and behaviors. This helps to contribute to both practice and research. By evolving an existing research instrument from information systems literature, this study ensures replicability (problematic in academic research) .

We study a problem, in which workers must be assigned to jobs over a number of time periods and each assignment incurs a job dependent ergonomic risk for the worker. The risks of the same worker are summarised over the time periods. The objective is to minimise the maximum risk of all workers. The problem has an interesting combinatorial structure such that it is not immediately clear if it is polynomially solvable or NP-hard. Its computational complexity remained open for 35 years. We prove its NP-hardness and discuss polynomially solvable special cases, in which either the number of workers is fixed or optimal solutions are attained at a lower bound. The results can be used in production planning approaches considering elimination of excessive ergonomic risks as one of the objectives.

People using online social networks (OSNs) exchange information through posts of multimedia content, which may contain others' information. Our study contributes to the privacy literature by examining individuals' perceptions of the risk their OSN activity poses to others' information. We introduce the concept "perceived shared risk," which includes OSN users' perceived severity and susceptibility of exposing others' information. Results indicate culture, concerns regarding one's own information, and Facebook information disclosure self-efficacy influence both risk components. We also identify a correlation between perceived shared risk and the use of OSN privacy controls.

Individuals often fail to perform the security behaviors their organizations request to protect informational assets. However, forcing individuals into the compliance can trigger undesired behaviors. We propose a model grounded in Theory of Planned Behavior and information security literature to study determinants of early conformance toward technology-enforced security policies. The model was tested with 535 respondents from a university that implemented new password policies. The results show support for all the proposed relationships, except that subjective norm does not affect intentions. This important finding is explained by the leading role of early conformers, which highlights the importance of context-specific theorizing by researchers.

Interviewee:Frederic Girardeau-Montaut heads Deloitte Consulting’s U.S. SAP S2P & Ariba practice capability with a focus on supply chain systems. In his role, he has direct contact with CIOs and CP...

The Internet and social computing technology have revolutionized our ability to gather information as well as enabled new modes of communication and forms of self-expression. As the popularity of social computing technologies has increased, our society has begun to witness modifications in socialization behaviors. Social psychology theory suggests that technological changes can influence an individual’s expectation of privacy, through adaptive behaviors resulting from use (Laufer and Wolfe in J Soc Issues 33(3): 22–42 (1977)). We adapt traditional privacy theory to explore the influence of developmental and environmental factors on the individual’s inner privacy identity, which is comprised of the individual’s belief in his or her right to control (1) personal information and (2) interactions with others, and is continuously shaped by privacy experiences. We then use the inner privacy identity to examine interpersonal behaviors in the online context. We find that individuals’ belief in their right to control their information impacts their information disclosure practices when consequences are implied and that their belief in their right to control the interaction impacts their online information sharing practices. We do not find support for a relationship between the interaction management component of the IPI and online interaction behavior, which considered in the presence of the relationship between interaction management and online information sharing, suggests that interaction behavior is more complicated in the online context. Insights from the model developed in this study can inform future studies of situational privacy behaviors.

Privacy concerns in online social network (OSN) use include the desire to control both information and interaction, leading to the “dual privacy decision” in which individuals choose what information to release and also who may view it. OSN privacy controls now offer users more choices in this arena. We assess motivations that may override a user's concept of privacy, and we present four key motivations for OSN use: ability (1) to seek information, (2) to socialize, (3) to express oneself to others, and (4) to meet social expectations or to please others. We find that the privacy calculus constructs influence the manner in which OSN users handle different informational categories.

Easily accessible patent databases and advances in technology have enabled the exploration of organizational innovation through the analysis of patent records. However, the textual content of patents presents obstacles to gleaning useful information. In this study, we develop an expert system framework that utilizes text and data mining procedures for analyzing innovation through textual patent data. Specifically, we use patent titles representing the innovation activity at one company (SAP) and perform a bibliometric analysis using our proposed framework. Enterprise software, of which SAP is a pioneering developer, must serve a wide assortment of functions for companies in many different industries. In addition, SAP's sole focus is on enterprise software and it is a market leader in the category with substantial patent activity over the last decade. Using our framework to analyze SAP's patent activity provides a demonstration of how our bibliometric analysis can summarize and identify trends in innovation in a large software company. Our results illustrate that SAP has a breadth of innovative activity spread over the three-tier software engineering architecture and a lack of topical repetition indicative of limited depth. SAP's innovation is also seen to emphasize data management and quickly integrate emerging technologies. Results of an analysis on any company following our framework could be used for a variety of purposes, including: to examine the scope and scale of innovation of an organization, to examine the influence of technological trends on businesses, or to gain insight into corporate strategy that could be used to aid planning, investment, and purchasing decisions. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

— Concerns about privacy in the online environment are quite prevalent and continue to increase with the use of the Internet for both commercial and social activities. Research concerning online privacy has rightfully focused on e-commerce applications and, therefore, on companies' collection and usage of personal information. Therefore, the assumed threat of misusing information has traditionally been viewed as coming from a company. With the introduction of social media, we are increasingly using the Internet for socialization. In this case, we have transferred concerns of improper use of information in social situations from a face-to-face environment to an electronic one. The threats to unwanted disclosure are increasingly coming from third party use of our information. In this paper, we examine how we perceive Facebook use as constituting a threat to others and drivers of this perception. We survey 403 students at a major public US university who are Facebook users. We find that self-efficacy and personal privacy concerns increase one's perception of the severity of the threat to other people caused by the disclosure of one's personal information as a result of online activity, while frequency of use tends to decrease that same perception. We also find that personal privacy concern increases one's perception of the susceptibility of such threats and that the perception of susceptibility increases the threat severity perception.