The 3D printing cloud platform (3DPCP) plays a pivotal role in breaking down the information silos between supply and demand, effectively reducing waste through information integration and intelligent production. However, due to the complexity of 3DPCP scheduling in green scenes and the multidynamic information perturbations, unveils problems in traditional task scheduling methods in 3DPCP. These issues manifest as incomplete considerations, subpar green performance, and weak adaptability to dynamic changes. There is an urgent need to design practical methods to realize the multidynamic information perturbations in green scenes within 3DPCP. Therefore, this article first defines the 3DPCP task scheduling problem for multidynamic information perturbation in green scenes. Second, the article proposes a task scheduling model and a heuristic task scheduling strategy to minimize both the average cost and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions per unit of quality product. Finally, the article validates effectiveness and superiority of the proposed strategy through simulation experiments.

This research investigates the opportunities and challenges of integrating generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) into business higher education, drawing insights from an asynchronous focus group research study with doctoral students who serve dual roles as both learners and educators. Key opportunities identified through thematic analysis include knowledge acquisition, intelligent co-ideation, supportive augmentation, and personalized learning. Challenges identified include AI trustworthiness, cognitive dependency, human value, policy and instruction, assessment integrity, and identity management. This study clarifies GenAI's specific role in business education and provides practical insights for effectively integrating GenAI to enhance learning outcomes and address emerging challenges. An analysis theory on the opportunities and challenges of GenAI on business higher education is developed and described in the paper. The potential impact of Agentic Artificial Intelligence (autonomous AI agents) and Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) on education is also discussed.

Metaverse entrepreneurship has emerged as an innovative topic alongside the development of generative AI, agentic AI and metaverse. This study conceptualizes meta-entrepreneurship as a novel form of entrepreneurial activity that enables value creation within virtual and physical realms and proposes an analytical theoretical framework based on a systematic literature review, observations, and focus group study. Our framework is structured around three layers (infrastructure, content, and experience) and two domains (metaverse-based operational domain and AI-based production domain), aims to conceptualize “what is meta-entrepreneurship” and identify new possibilities. The research highlights the multifaceted impact of meta-entrepreneurship on individuals, corporations, industries, societies, and countries. Further, we delineate three pathways to achieve meta-entrepreneurship, analyze nine critical challenges, and propose potential future research directions to contribute to the theoretical foundation of this emerging field.

Universities play a critical role in improving the economic prosperity and social well-being of a country. Many countries have invested heavily in higher education and funding university education for their citizens. Does more investment enhance universities' performances? What other factors contribute to universities' productivity? This research used the data envelopment analysis methodology to study the total factor productivity (TFP) of 60 Chinese universities from 2006 to 2016. The study found the values of TFP fluctuated between 0.950 and 1.050 and were relatively stable. Contrary to common belief about productivity improvements, universities with more investment from the Chinese government did not show better performances. Nevertheless, the study found evidence that human resources (e.g., postgraduate-teacher ratio), physical resources (e.g., campus areas), and policy factors (e.g., tenure of the presidents, mergers) have a positive impact on universities' productivity.

IS/IT plays an important role in our everyday life, especially in today's Internet era. This article discusses the roles of IS/IT in providing services and support on information gathering, analysis, and management during major public emergencies and pandemic crises such as the battle against the new coronavirus. The five selected papers in this special issue introduce advanced methods on data collection and social media user analysis to deal with the challenges brought by the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper also presents future research directions on the use of IS/IT in emergency and pandemic management such as IS control and governance, intelligent health care, enhancing people's lives and mental health, and knowledge management.

Artificial intelligence (AI)-based technology has achieved many great things, such as facial recognition, medical diagnosis, and self-driving cars. AI promises enormous benefits for economic growth, social development, as well as human well-being and safety improvement. However, the low-level of explainability, data biases, data security, data privacy, and ethical problems of AI-based technology pose significant risks for users, developers, humanity, and societies. As AI advances, one critical issue is how to address the ethical and moral challenges associated with AI. Even though the concept of “machine ethics” was proposed around 2006, AI ethics is still in the infancy stage. AI ethics is the field related to the study of ethical issues in AI. To address AI ethics, one needs to consider the ethics of AI and how to build ethical AI. Ethics of AI studies the ethical principles, rules, guidelines, policies, and regulations that are related to AI. Ethical AI is an AI that performs and behaves ethically. One must recognize and understand the potential ethical and moral issues that may be caused by AI to formulate the necessary ethical principles, rules, guidelines, policies, and regulations for AI (i.e., Ethics of AI). With the appropriate ethics of AI, one can then build AI that exhibits ethical behavior (i.e., Ethical AI). This paper will discuss AI ethics by looking at the ethics of AI and ethical AI. What are the perceived ethical and moral issues with AI? What are the general and common ethical principles, rules, guidelines, policies, and regulations that can resolve or at least attenuate these ethical and moral issues with AI? What are some of the necessary features and characteristics of an ethical AI? How to adhere to the ethics of AI to build ethical AI?

The implementation of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and autonomous technologies in the mining industry started about a decade ago with autonomous trucks. Artificial intelligence, machine learning, and autonomous technologies provide many economic benefits for the mining industry through cost reduction, efficiency, and improving productivity, reducing exposure of workers to hazardous conditions, continuous production, and improved safety. However, the implementation of these technologies has faced economic, financial, technological, workforce, and social challenges. This article discusses the current status of AI, machine learning, and autonomous technologies implementation in the mining industry and highlights potential areas of future application. The article presents the results of interviews with some of the stakeholders in the industry and what their perceptions are about the threats, challenges, benefits, and potential impacts of these advanced technologies. The article also presents their views on the future of these technologies and what are some of the steps needed for successful implementation of these technologies in this sector.

The exponential advancement in artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, robotics, and automation are rapidly transforming industries and societies across the world. The way we work, the way we live, and the way we interact with others are expected to be transformed at a speed and scale beyond anything we have observed in human history. This new industrial revolution is expected, on one hand, to enhance and improve our lives and societies. On the other hand, it has the potential to cause major upheavals in our way of life and our societal norms. The window of opportunity to understand the impact of these technologies and to preempt their negative effects is closing rapidly. Humanity needs to be proactive, rather than reactive, in managing this new industrial revolution. This article looks at the promises, challenges, and future research directions of these transformative technologies. Not only are the technological aspects investigated, but behavioral, societal, policy, and governance issues are reviewed as well. This research contributes to the ongoing discussions and debates about AI, automation, machine learning, and robotics. It is hoped that this article will heighten awareness of the importance of understanding these disruptive technologies as a basis for formulating policies and regulations that can maximize the benefits of these advancements for humanity and, at the same time, curtail potential dangers and negative impacts.

Virtual worlds are three-dimensional, computer-generated worlds in which team collaboration can be facilitated through the use of shared virtual space and mediated using avatars. This article examines the effect of task complexity on team collaboration. A puzzle game in Second Life was used as the collaborative task and task complexity was manipulated by varying the number of pieces in the puzzle. The hypotheses are that task complexity influences team trust, and team trust influences team process satisfaction in virtual team collaboration. The experimental results indicate that task complexity has significant effects on team trust and team process satisfaction, and team trust fully mediates the relationship between task complexity and team process satisfaction.

Organizations increasingly depend on virtual teams in which geographically distributed individuals use sophisticated technology to interact and collaborate. With the advancement of mobile and wireless technology, mobile support for collaboration among virtual team members is becoming increasingly important and popular. In this research, we study the values of mobile support for virtual team members. Using the qualitative technique, Value-Focused Thinking approach, proposed by Keeney, we interviewed 30 subjects who were involved in information systems development teams and asked them the values of mobile support for virtual collaboration. This study uses Alter's Work Systems Theory as the conceptual foundation.

Many higher education institutions have used Internet technology to develop virtual education for a new generation of college students. In this research, the authors assessed the relative effectiveness of two technology-mediated learning environments for synchronous higher education compared to a traditional face-to-face learning environment. Specifically, they assessed the effects of these three learning environments on interactivity, perceived learning, and satisfaction when different instructional strategies were used. The authors' findings suggest that learning environments interact with instructional strategies to affect the learners' perception of learning and satisfaction. Their findings also support the proposition that the new generation of college students prefer to interact with others using technology.

This paper reviews cognitive neuroscience and several neurophysiological tools (e.g., fMRI, PET, EEG, MEG, and eye tracking). The strengths and weaknesses of such tools for information systems research are presented. The paper provides examples of existing cognitive neuroscience studies in varies areas, such as neuroeconomics, neuromarketing, and eye tracking. In addition, this paper provides an overview of brain areas that response to various mental processes, and discusses the localization and functionality of each brain area. Because of the popularity of eye-tracking research in information systems, measurements and metrics related and derived from eye-tracking technique (e.g., fixation, saccades and scanpath) are described and discussed in this paper. Opportunities for applying cognitive neuroscience techniques to IS research as well as future research directions are also discussed.

In this introductory piece to the special issue on design science research (DSR) in information systems, the authors probe the past research in DSR, introduce the papers in the special issue, discuss their contributions to the field, and conclude the paper by highlighting some potential directions for future research. To provide a good overview of the research domain, the authors review the key research approaches (or processes) that have been proposed and identify the concrete products of DSR that come in the form of artifacts. As the production of artifact is only part of the DSR process, the authors discuss the role of theorizing about these results and propose avenues for future design-oriented research. It is the authors’ strong belief that DSR should be at the heart of information systems discipline because it invites people to research the issues surrounding the development and organizational implementation of new systems.

The global open source movement has provided software users with more choices, lower software acquisition cost, more flexible software customization, and possibly higher quality software product. Although the development of open source software is dynamic and it encourages innovations, the process can be chaotic and involve members around the globe. An Open Source Software Development (OSSD) process model to enhance the survivability of OSSD projects is needed. This research uses the grounded theory approach to derive a Phase-Role-Skill-Responsibility (PRSR) OSSD process model. The three OSSD process phases -- Launch Stage, Before the First Release, and Between Releases -- address the characteristics of the OSSD process as well as factors that influence the OSSD process. In the PRSR model, different roles/actors are required to have different skills and responsibilities corresponding to each of the three OSSD process phases. This qualitative research contributes to the software development literature as well as open source practice.

Many higher education institutions have set up virtual classrooms in the 3-D virtual world. In this research, the authors assess the relative effectiveness of a 3-D virtual world learning environment, Second Life, compared to traditional face-to-face learning environment. They also assess the effects of instructional strategies in these two learning environments on interactivity, perceived learning, and satisfaction. The authors’ findings suggest that learning environment interacts with instructional strategy to affect the learners’ perceived learning and satisfaction. Specifically, when interactive instructional strategy is used, there is no significant difference for perceived learning and satisfaction between the 3-D virtual world and face-to-face learning environment. However, when a direct instructional strategy is used, there is a significant difference for perceived learning and satisfaction. They also assessed whether or not technology helps increase learner and instructor interaction. The result suggests that in interactive instructional sessions, students experienced a higher level of classroom interactivity in Second Life than in face-to-face classroom.

Data modeling is the sine quo non of systems development and one of the most widely researched topics in the database literature. In the past three decades, semantic data modeling has emerged as an alternative to traditional relational modeling. The majority of the research in data modeling suggests that the use of semantic data models leads to better performance; however, the findings are not conclusive and are sometimes inconsistent. The discrepancies that exist in the data modeling literature and the relatively low statistical power in the studies make meta-analysis a viable choice in analyzing and integrating the findings of these studies.

Information systems development (ISD) is a complex process involving interconnected resources, stake holders, and outcomes. Understanding factors contributing to ISD success has attracted keen interest from both researchers and practitioners, and many research studies have been published in this area. However, most studies focus on one or two factors affecting ISD success. A holistic view of factors impacting ISD success is missing. This paper synthesizes past research on the topic and proposes a unified model on ISD success through a systematic and comprehensive literature review. The unified model highlights that ISD is a complex and interactive process involving individual, team, and organization factors, as well as ISD methodology. These factors impact the ISD process as well as its success.

One of the most successful and useful implementations of 3D virtual worlds is in the area of education and training. This paper discusses the use of virtual worlds in education and describes an innovative 3D visualization design project using one of the most popular virtual worlds, Second Life. This ongoing project is a partnership between IBM and three universities in the United States: the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Iowa State University, and Wright State University. More than 400 MBA students have participated in this project by completing a creative design project that involves co-creation and collaboration in Second Life. The MBA students from the three universities worked in pairs to create designs to represent concepts related to IBM Power Systems, a family of IBM servers. The paper discusses observations and reflections on the 3D visualization design project. The paper concludes with a discussion of future research directions in applying virtual worlds in education.

Abstract Personal Web portfolios have become a popular information source and an effective method for individuals to present themselves to others in cyberspace. Thus, the quality of personal Web portfolios is critical and affects the perception that others have of the individuals. But how do we measure quality of personal Web portfolios? What are the important factors affecting quality of personal Web portfolios? This study presents the development of an instrument measuring factors affecting information quality of personal Web portfolios. The proposed instrument, based on the Information Quality framework, was refined and validated to assess its construct validity, convergent validity, and discriminant validity. The proposed instrument can be used to guide those who want to design their personal Web portfolios and also to help those who need to evaluate the quality of personal Web portfolios.

Service-oriented architecture (SOA), Web services, and service-oriented computing (SOC) have become the buzz words of the day for many in the business world. It seems that virtually every company has implemented, is in the midst of implementing, or is seriously considering SOA projects, Web services projects, or service-oriented computing. A problem many organizations face when entering the SOA world is that there are nearly as many definitions of SOA as there are organizations adopting it. Further complicating the issue is an unclear picture of the value added from adopting the SOA or Web services paradigm. This article attempts to shed some light on the definition of SOA and the difficulties of assessing the value of SOA or Web services via return on investment (ROI) or nontraditional approaches, examines the scant body of evidence empirical that exists on the topic of SOA, and highlights potential research directions in the area.

Three-dimensional virtual world environments are providing new opportunities to develop engaging, interactive experiences in education. These virtual worlds are unique in that they allow individuals to interact with others through their avatars and with objects in the environment, and can create experiences that are not necessarily possible in the real world. To assess the impact that these virtual worlds are currently having on education, a literature review is conducted to identify current applications, benefits being realized, as well as issues faced. Based on this review, virtual world capabilities, experiences, and factors associated with educational opportunities are presented as well as gaps in meeting pedagogical objectives. Practical and research implications are then addressed. Virtual worlds are proving to provide unique educational experiences, with its potential only at the cusp of being explored.

Drawing on social network theories and previous studies, this research examines the dynamics of social network structures in open source software (OSS) teams. Three projects were selected from SourceForge.net in terms of their similarities as well as their differences. Monthly data were extracted from the bug tracking systems in order to achieve a longitudinal view of the interaction pattern of each project. Social network analysis was used to generate the indices of social structure. The finding suggests that the interaction pattern of OSS projects evolves from a single hub at the beginning to a core/periphery model as the projects move forward.

Information mediation is an approach used to resolve heterogeneity of online information sources. This article discusses the concept of information mediation and several related research projects that use a typical mediation model. The problems and issues with existing approaches are discussed. This article then proposes the use of metamodels as an advanced architecture for information mediation, where XML is a main driving force. The new architecture is partly established on the common warehouse metamodel (CWM), a standard adopted by the Object Management Group (OMG). Illustrative examples are presented in the article to describe and discuss the new architecture.

Information requirements determination is a critical task in system development projects. Many human issues may hinder the efforts to accurately capture and clearly understand users' information requirements. In this paper, we review the cognitive underpinnings of some human issues, which are discussed in existing literature and relevant to information requirements determination. We then propose the use of cognitive mapping techniques in the process of information requirements determination. Three widely used cognitive mapping techniques - causal mapping, semantic mapping, and concept mapping – are briefly introduced in this article. A case is used to illustrate how to use these cognitive mapping techniques to supplement Unified Modeling Language (UML) and Unified Process (UP) in information requirements determination. The potential of using cognitive mapping techniques to overcome some cognitive limitations and communication obstacles during information requirements determination is then discussed.

As governments at different levels and all around the world are increasingly using the Web to enhance and improve their services, understanding e-government development and exploring factors that affect e-government development have become important research topics. The purpose of this research is to investigate factors explaining e-government development in terms of social development lenses. Based on growth and regional development theories, the paper hypothesizes that income level, development status, and region are three factors that differentiate e-government development in countries. Group comparison tests are conducted using secondary data from the United Nations and the United Nations Development Programme. The results support the hypotheses that significant differences in e-government development exist between countries with respect to the three categorical variables mentioned above. In addition, the paper applies planned post-hoc tests to further investigate the differences. The results of this research are valuable to e-government scholars and practitioners. As the research involves data from more than a hundred countries, the research contributes to understanding e-government development factors on a global scale.

While there are many claims for the successful use of extreme programming (XP) and agile modeling (AM), and the proponents can often be vocal in the extreme regarding their supposed benefits, research evidence supporting proponents‘ claims is somewhat lacking. Currently, the only research appearing to investigate the phenomena consists of two prominent streams. A small number of case studies and experience reports that generally promote the success of XP in various development environments, and a well-established stream of research into pair programming has generated results that in part support the idea of XP. Research into AM appears to be even more sparse than that for XP. Case studies, comparative analyses, and experience reports comprise the majority of the research in the area, while very few empirical research efforts have been conducted. This article reviews the state of research in XP and AM, and recommends areas that could benefit from further study. Since nearly all empirical XP research relates to pair programming, a closer look into the unstudied XP core practices would be beneficial, although interaction between related core practice areas could confound such efforts. It might also be possible to group related core XP concepts and study the groups individually. Finally, there are those who claim that XP and AM, or even agility in general, are really nothing more than a repackaging of old concepts. This claim needs to be investigated.

Unified Modeling Language (UML) is the standard visual modeling language for Object Oriented (OO) systems development, but it has been criticized for its complexity, inconsistent semantics, and ambiguous constructs. A set of complexity indices for UML and the nine diagramming techniques in UML was compiled recently. The complexity analysis is formulated based on the number of constructs, associations, roles, and so forth, in a modeling method. We argue that this set of metrics provides an indication of the theoretical complexity of the modeling methods. On the other hand, the theoretical complexity of the modeling methods does not necessarily relate to the practical complexity. We hypothesize that UML’s complexity is not as daunting as the metrics imply, because not all the constructs are used all the time. Thus, in addition to theoretical complexity, a set of metrics for estimating practical complexity can be developed, based on the most commonly used constructs (instead of all constructs). In this research, we use secondary data to test our hypothesis that practical complexity is different from theoretical complexity.

An effective and efficient supply chain is vital to the competitiveness and the survival of an organization. With the emergence of the e-business era, supply chain systems need to be able to extend beyond the traditional boundaries. This paper proposes integrated supply chain architecture (SCA) that combines the benefits of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and the various supply chain applications. Some necessary criteria for an integrated supply chain include completeness, security, flexibility, scalability, and interoperability. The enabling technologies for such a supply chain system include XML, DCOM, CORBA, SOAP, .Net, and Semantic Web. Wireless and mobile technologies could further extend the supply chain by enabling any time, any place accessibility.

Information modeling methods are key to the success of IS development projects. The problem in the software engineering field is not the lack of modeling methods, but the proliferation of modeling methods with little theoretical foundation and empirical evidence to support their usefulness. Evaluation techniques are, therefore, necessary to compare and contrast these modeling methods. In this paper, we suggest an evaluation approach based on the human information processing paradigm and the theory of equivalence of representations. This evaluation approach proposes that modeling methods can be evaluated and compared using two criteria: informational and computational equivalence.

Unified Modeling Language (UML) has emerged as the software industry’s dominant modeling language. It is the de facto modeling language standard for specifying, visualizing, constructing, and documenting the components of software systems. Despite its prominence and status as the standard modeling language, UML has its critics. Opponents argue that it is complex and difficult to learn. Some question the rationale of having nine diagramming techniques in UML and the raison d’être of those nine techniques in UML. Others point out that UML lacks a comprehensive methodology to guide its users, which makes the language even more convoluted. A few studies on UML can be found in the literature. However, no study exists to provide a quantitative measure of UML complexity or to compare UML with other object oriented techniques. In this research, we evaluate the complexity of UML using complexity metrics. The objective is to provide a reliable and accurate quantitative measure of UML complexity. A comparison of the complexity metrical values of UML with other object-oriented techniques was also carried out. Our findings suggest that each diagram in UML is not distinctly more complex than techniques in other OO methods. But as a whole, UML is very complex - 2-11 times more complex than other OO methods.

Advances in wireless technology increase the number of mobile device users and give pace to the rapid development of e-commerce using these devices. The new type of e-commerce, conducting transactions via mobile terminals, is called mobile commerce. Due to its inherent characteristics such as ubiquity, personalization, flexibility, and dissemination, mobile commerce promises businesses unprecedented market potential, great productivity, and high profitability. This paper presents an overview of mobile commerce development by examining the enabling technologies, the impact of mobile commerce on the business world, and the implications to mobile commerce providers. The paper also provides an agenda for future research in the area.

Information modeling is the cornerstone of information systems analysis and design. Information models, the products of information modeling, not only provide the abstractions required to facilitate communication between the analysts and end users, but they also provide a formal basis for developing tools and techniques used in information systems development. The process of designing, constructing, and adapting information modeling methods for information systems development is known as method engineering. Despite the pivotal role of modeling methods in successful information systems development, most modeling methods are designed based on common sense and intuition of the method designers with little or no theoretical foundation or empirical evidence. Systematic scientific approach is missing! This paper proposes the use of cognitive psychology as a reference discipline for information modeling and method engineering. Theories in cognitive psychology are reviewed in this paper and their application to information modeling and method engineering are also discussed.Request access from your librarian to read this article's full text.