Previous research has emphasized online decisions by individual owners about disclosure of private information. Less is known about the disclosure of co-owned information by romantic partners in digital environments, despite such sharing being common and risky. We posit that in digitally mediated contexts, individuals’ decisions to share co-owned information are shaped not only by their self-centered privacy concerns and perceived benefits, but also by dyadic privacy norms. These norms, we posit, act beyond individual-level, self-centered privacy reflections in two significant ways: (1) They directly influence co-owned information disclosure and (2) they influence the weights assigned to individual privacy concerns. We further theorize that dyadic privacy norm accessibility is impacted by social identity salience, which can be manipulated through priming. The findings based on a realistic paradigm largely support our assertions but also produce surprising results. They highlight the need for further study of the role of dyadic privacy norms and social identities in multilevel privacy management.

While it is clear that business analytics (BA), on average, adds value to firms, it is less clear why some firms perform better than others in leveraging their data assets. To a large degree, prior research has attributed such differences to the human factor. Nevertheless, there is still limited knowledge concerning what impact competencies of key personnel have on generating value from BA initiatives, and to what extent such outcomes complement a firm’s investment in BA. To examine these questions, this study explores the complementary relationship between BA capabilities and π-shaped skills. It posits that the concurrent presence of both indirectly influences innovation outcomes by fostering a data-driven culture. We build on a sample of 185 individuals with supervisory positions in Turkey to unpack this process. The findings revealed that BA capabilities and π-shaped skills influence a firm’s data-driven culture, which in turn impacts the firms’ marketing innovation, and subsequently its innovative performance. That is, data-driven culture and firms’ marketing innovation are relevant underlying serial mechanisms by which BA capabilities and π-shaped skills influence innovative performance.

Artificial intelligence (AI) tools are unique pedagogical agents, in that (1) they can generate novel insights, and (2) they tend to be treated differently by humans, because they are opaquer and more intelligent than traditional technologies. Thus, it is not clear if and how people learn novel insights through AI feedback, and if the learning process and outcomes differ compared to when the source of insights and feedback is humans. Here, we seek to address this gap with four preregistered experiments (total n=1,766). They use a learning paradigm in which we manipulate the feedback source, feedback valence, and test instructions. The key finding is that people learn novel insights better when they receive negative feedback from AI than from humans. There is no difference in recall for positive feedback. This implies that AI as pedagogical agents are likely to outperform human feedback sources (peers or experts), or at least, be no worse. Our results further reveal that (1) people present typical human-human learning biases when receiving negative feedback from AI, namely mnemic neglect, and (2) ego bruising (as manifested in reduction in state self-esteem) and anger mediate such effects when receiving negative feedback from AI.

Driven by the ubiquity of smartphones, sports gambling has intensified globally. Most mobile gambling apps are mandated to offer harm minimisation features which are IT tools designed to help prevent harmful gambling activity. Existing research on the effectiveness of gambling harm minimisation features often overlooks the fact that individuals engage with multiple IT tools to varying extents to achieve a single goal. As an initial step, and to reflect actual user engagement, we conduct an exploratory factor analysis on a range of opt-in harm minimisation features. Next, aligned with the dualistic model of passion, we theorise and empirical test how direct and indirect harm minimisation features moderate the translation of different passions for mobile gambling into the well-being outcome of subjective vitality. Our findings suggest that indirect harm minimisation features, but not direct features, are effective in protecting the well-being of obsessively passionate mobile gamblers. For harmoniously passionate mobile gamblers, the opposite situation holds – direct harm minimisation features strengthen the effect of a harmonious passion on vitality whereas indirect features have no significant effect.

Digital detox is gaining increasing attention as a method of self-control to address the adverse effects of prolonged leisure information and communication technology (ICT) use. However, the existing literature on this matter uses inconsistent terminology and reports mixed empirical results due to different understandings of what constitutes a digital detox strategy. Based on a theoretical review of existing literature, this study (1) introduces a consolidated definition of digital detox that integrates elements of synonymous concepts, (2) develops a theoretical framework for digital detox strategies, and (3) proposes a research agenda based on this framework. These contributions allow researchers to derive digital detox interventions systematically, make them comparable across studies, and thereby advance this important line of scholarly inquiry. Practitioners may build on our findings to derive individual and organizational measures such as routines and policies that prevent negative side effects of leisure ICT in both work and private life domains.

Through a systematic literature review, we unravel current theorizing on private information disclosure (PID). We note that existing models of PID have mainly taken an individual-level perspective. In line with current understanding of privacy management, we posit that PID should be more systematically understood as a multilevel phenomenon, for two reasons. First, the disclosed information sometimes concerns multiple stakeholders beyond oneself. Second, disclosing private information can often be affected by hierarchically structured (nested) humans within social units. To this end, we propose a multilevel theoretical framework together with future recommendations, aimed at inspiring future multilevel PID research.

Modern information technology (IT) features aimed at helping users can also increase the complexity of IT. The impact of this emergent complexity on employee behavior remains unknown. Using the transactional theory of stress, we propose that people cope with IT complexity by cutting corners. An experimental study involving 130 data analysts revealed (1) data analytics tools’ complexity increases distress, (2) distress fully mediates the impact of data analytics tools’ complexity on cognitive dissonance, (3) cutting corners negatively moderates distress–cognitive dissonance relationship, and (4) cognitive dissonance reduces perceived decision quality. These findings illuminate how employees navigate challenges using modern, complex IT.

The purpose of this paper is to test a model that captures the duality of big data in explaining decision-making quality in firms. Whereas existing literature has examined the impact of big data on firm decision-making quality, the findings have not been consistent. In this study, we examine key conditions that help translating the availability of big data into improvements in decision-making quality and hence resolve existing tensions. While the availability of big data affords data analytics use and indirectly contributes to increased decision-making quality, it also increases work stress and indirectly diminishes decision-making quality. We examine the model with data from 299 managers. The findings show that big data is a double-edged sword that can indirectly increase and reduce decision-making quality; and that these effects depend in part on the levels of autonomy and employee skills. The results were further validated and enriched with applicability checks.

Focusing on social networking site (SNS) users, this research conceptualizes, theorizes on and tests information systems (IS) use reduction herein defined as users’ attempt to reduce their use of an IS to levels that seem reasonable to them to avoid negative implications. IS use reduction is more realistic for many users than full discontinuance, more prevalent than many other corrective behaviors, and can have many desirable outcomes. Yet, knowledge regarding this behavior has been limited. It therefore warrants more attention in IS research and a growing need to develop interventions aimed at helping users reducing excessive IS use such as SNSs. We suggest that IS use reduction can be motivated by negative consequences of excessive SNS use and that the way users translate such states into SNS use reduction intentions can be explained by a contextual and nuanced adaptation of Bandura’s self-regulation of motivation and self-reactive framework. A survey study (study 1, n=257) was used to theorize and test the determinants of SNS use reduction intentions, and a longitudinal experimental study (study 2, n=127) extended the validity of the survey study findings, established causality and examined whether the manipulation the survey study predictors can produce actual SNS use reduction.

Today, the healthcare industry is challenged with promoting health and disease prevention through various customer outreach initiatives. Social media tools enable customers to aquire health information without the need to visit their doctor. Yet, healthcare providers do not understand what motivates customers to use such technology for health-related purposes. In this study, an online survey was conducted with 4,058 participants. Using SEM techniques, the results indicate that previous experience with online health-related searches serves as a direct and indirect motivational driver. While the direct relationship between prior experience with online health-related searches can be mostly positive, it can be weakened and impacted by inhibitors that create online use concerns (e.g., privacy and confidentiality). Furthermore, health condition may determine the level of interest people may have for health-related social media sites as well. This research provides a deeper understanding about motivational factors that impact the intent to use health-related social media.

This study takes a relational perspective to introduce the concept of organizational citizenship behavior regarding security (OCB-S) and to examine its predictors. Utilizing social exchange and role theories, we develop a model explicating the indirect effects of the way information systems (IS) departments lead IS initiatives and manages its relationships with end-users on end-users’ OCB-S. Based on survey data from 223 employees of Chinese firms, we demonstrate that IS departments’ management approaches play an important role in influencing business users–IS department exchange (BIX) and user perceptions regarding whether IS security is their responsibility (extra-role perceptions regarding security). These factors, in turn, influence the extent to which end-users engage in OCB-S. Theoretically, this study advances our understanding of end-user security-related behaviors and their antecedents. Practically, this study highlights the importance of business users–IS department relationships and role perceptions for improving organizational security management.

The discontinuance of the use of hedonic information systems (IS) has become somewhat prevalent. Nevertheless, little is known about why some individuals might decide to discontinue using a technology which they often use frequently and the use of which is typically intrinsically rewarding. Prior research has alluded to the ideas that (1) IS discontinuance merits its own theorizing, possibly separate from continuance and that (2) guilt feelings is a unique driver of IS discontinuance decisions. However, the literature still lacks cohesive models that explain discontinuance and especially the complex processes through which guilt influences such decisions, and perhaps that further illuminate differences between the processes underlying IS discontinuance and continuance. This study bridges these gaps and proposes and examines a model that explicates the complex effects of guilt and theory of planned behavior (TPB) predictors on the discontinuance of an instance of mostly hedonic IS, namely Social Networking Sites (SNS). In order to develop this model it is proposed that guilt, which is a self-reflective moral emotion that can influence cognition, is associated with attitudinal, normative, and control perceptions regarding the discontinuance act in a complex network of partial-mediation and moderation effects. The proposed model was tested and largely validated with structural equation modeling applied to data collected from 487 SNS users. It also pointed to possible unique features of the TPB as applied to IS discontinuance. Applicability checks further illuminated sources of guilt in this context. Decomposing the guilt effects on discontinuance and integrating them with the TPB is important since it not only extends theory both in IS and social sciences and hints at differences in planned behavior processes between IS continuance and discontinuance, but also because the findings point to mechanisms which can be used for attenuating guilt and planned behavior effects on IS discontinuance. Overall, this study validates a rationale-based theory of IS discontinuance, and can serve as a platform for further studying this notable, yet under-examined corrective behavior.

Much research has been devoted to the early adoption and the continued and habituated use of information systems (IS). Nevertheless, less is known about quitting the use of IS by individuals, especially in habituated hedonic settings, that is, IS discontinuance. This study focuses on this phenomenon, and argues that in hedonic IS use contexts (1) IS continuance and discontinuance can be considered simultaneously yet independently by current users, and that (2) IS continuance and discontinuance drivers can have differential effects on the respective behavioral intentions. Specifically, social cognitive theory is used to point to key unique drivers of website discontinuance intentions: guilt feelings regarding the use of the website and website-specific discontinuance self-efficacy, which counterbalance the effects of continuance drivers: habit and satisfaction. The distinctiveness of continuance and discontinuance intentions and their respective nomological networks, as well as the proposed research model, were then empirically validated in a study of 510 Facebook users. The findings indicate that satisfaction reduces discontinuance intentions directly and indirectly through habit formation. However, habit can also facilitate the development of ‘addiction’ to the use of the website, which produces guilt feelings and reduces one’s self-efficacy to quit using the website. These factors, in turn, drive discontinuance intentions and possibly the quitting of the use of the website.

The use of some hedonic information systems (IS) can be addictive and lead to addiction-like symptoms. This study seeks to examine the “vicious cycle” in such situations, i.e., the ways in which past growth of hedonic system use facilitate the development of one's current level of addiction, which in turn drives further system use. These links are explicated using the theories of rational addiction and neural incentive sensitization. The resultant model is then tested with structural equation modeling (SEM) techniques applied to data collected at two points in time from 284 Facebook users. The findings suggest that increases in hedonic IS activity over the past three months facilitate the development of higher levels of technology-related addiction at time 1 (t1), which in turn influences five dimensions of system use at time 2 (t2). These include general use frequency, active use frequency, use duration, usage comprehensiveness, and access device heterogeneity.

Research on the strategic management of Information Technology (IT) resources has mostly focused on the oversight provided by the management team as a means to increase organizational performance. In recent years, boards of directors have also increased their involvement in IT matters, and various theoretical lenses suggest that this oversight too has the potential to influence organizational performance. Hence, this study synthesizes the resource-based and contingency views of MIS with corporate governance theories, and examines key antecedents and consequences of board-level IT governance (ITG) using a multi-method approach. Structural Equation Modelling analysis applied to organization-level data collected from 171 board members suggested that the level of ITG exercised by boards was contingent upon the organization's ‘IT use mode’, along the two dimensions of need for (a) fast and reliable IT, and (b) new innovative IT. But, the findings further suggested that the contingency approach may be suboptimal because it can cause new ways of leveraging IT to be ignored. High levels of board-level ITG, regardless of existing IT needs, increased organizational performance. This phenomenon was illuminated with applicability checks. Moreover, content analysis and structured interviews with board members further enriched these insights.

Many studies have shown that trust is an important cognition that drives the continued use of information systems. The theoretical reasoning behind this effect has been that trust helps people rule out undesirable, yet possible, opportunistic behaviors, and ultimately makes users more at ease regarding transacting with a website. In this study, we build on the relationship marketing literature and argue that trust may have an even broader role in post-adoption contexts than previously assumed. Not only can trust influence system use intentions directly (a dedication mechanism), but also indirectly through the promotion of social investment in a relationship with a system and its users. This social investment represents a procedural-relational switching cost (a constraint mechanism) which further increases continuance intent. Data collected from 382 social networking website users support the hypotheses and validate the proposed dual-role of trust. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Information Systems enjoyment has been identified as a desirable phenomenon, because it can drive various aspects of system use. In this study, we argue that it can also be a key ingredient in the formation of adverse outcomes, such as technology-related addictions, through the positive reinforcement it generates. We rely on several theoretical mechanisms and, consistent with previous studies, suggest that enjoyment can lead to presumably positive outcomes, such as high engagement. Nevertheless, it can also facilitate the development of a strong habit and reinforce it until it becomes a ‘bad habit’, that can help forming a strong pathological and maladaptive psychological dependency on the use of the IT artifact (i.e., technology addiction). We test and validate this dual effect of enjoyment, with a data set of 194 social networking website users analyzed with SEM techniques. The potential duality of MIS constructs and other implications for research and practice are discussed.

Online game addiction has become a common phenomenon that affects many individuals and societies. In this study we rely on the functionalist perspective of human behavior and propose and test a balanced model of the antecedents of online game addiction among adolescents, which simultaneously focuses on motivating, and prevention and harm reduction forces. First, a sample of 163 adolescents was used for validating and refining a survey instrument. Second, survey data collected from 623 adolescents were analyzed with Partial Least Squares techniques. The findings point to several functional needs (e.g., need for relationship and need for escapism) that drive online game playing and addiction, as well as to several prevention and harm reduction factors (e.g., education, attention switching activities) that reduce game playing time and alleviate online game addiction. The effects of motivation and prevention factors on online game addiction are often partially mediated by online game playing. Implications for research and practice are discussed.