An increasing number of employees are using social media for their daily work. But the relationship between social media use and job performance is controversial. To address this issue, this study explores the impact of different social media platform usage on job performance based on different usage purposes. The media synchronicity theory provides the theoretical foundation. Surveys were conducted in an Internet commerce company in China, generating 301 valid responses for analysis. The results showed that both work-related and social-related use of enterprise social media had a U-shape effect on job performance. Also, work-related use of general social media had a U-shape effect on job performance, whereas social-related use of general social media had no effect on job performance. These results offer insights about how organisations may guide their employees in their use of social media to improve job performance.

Scientific collaboration is essential and almost imperative in modern science. However, collaboration may be difficult to achieve because of 2 major barriers: geographic distance and social divides. It is predicted that the advancement of information communication technologies (ICTs) will bring a puzzled conclusion for collaboration in the scientific community: the “Global Village” trend with significantly increased physical distance among collaborated scientists and the “Virtual Balkans” trend with significantly increased social stratification among collaborated scientists. The results of this study reveal that the scientific community evolves towards the Global Village generally on both the geographic and social dimension, but with variations in term of collaboration patterns. The influence of such collaboration patterns on research performance (that is, productivity and impact), however, is asymmetric to each side of collaborators. When researchers from top‐tier and general‐tier institutions collaborate, researchers from top‐tier institutions face a decrease in research productivity and impact, whereas researchers from general‐tier institutions increase in research productivity and impact. Furthermore, the development of ICTs plays an important role in shaping the evolving trends and moderating effects of collaboration patterns. Our findings provide a comprehensive understanding of scientific collaboration in the geographic, social, and technological aspect.

This article opens up the black box of innovation and examines the relationship between functional diversity in software teams and the often neglected dimension of innovation – speed, over the two phases of innovation: creativity and idea implementation. By combining information processing view and social identity theory, the authors hypothesize that when collective team identification is low, functional diversity positively affects the time spent in the creativity phase; however, when collective team identification is high, this relationship is inverted U-shaped. When task cohesion is high, functional diversity negatively affects the time spent in the idea implementation phase; however, when task cohesion is low, this relationship is U-shaped. Results from 96 IT software-teams confirmed the authors' hypotheses. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.

This investigation examines the motivating factors associated with voluntary turnover decisions of information systems (IS) professionals within the context of two different cultures—Singapore and New Zealand. The narrative inquiry approach was employed to interview 35 IS professionals. Ninety-seven turnover episodes were identified, including 42 in Singapore and 55 in New Zealand. The findings indicate that there exist universal turnover factors which are culturally independent. However, there are also factors that are culturally sensitive, which should be considered by managers when dealing with an international workforce.

Abstract Information systems (IS) projects involving multiple organizations are very common today. Knowledge integration in such projects is a complex task of integrating diverse knowledge bases across organizations that may possess distinct strategic goals and even conflicting interests. Prior research has indicated that social capital, a resource based on social relationships, positively influences knowledge integration and interorganizational relationships, but the exact nature of the interaction has been unclear. Based on an in‐depth case study, this article examines a four‐organization (three clients and one IT service provider) collaborative IS project wherein the clients were business partners for 7 years when they embarked on the project. The study explicitly identifies the roles through which social capital can be leveraged for knowledge integration in a collaborative IS project. Findings suggest that social capital can be leveraged as a motivator, an integrator, and a facilitator during the various stages of a collaborative IS project.

Abstract The original article to which this Erratum refers was published in Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 57(12) 2006, 1666–1677.

Abstract Information seeking behavior is an important form of human behavior. Past literature in information science and organizational studies has employed the cost‐benefit framework to analyze Seekers' information‐source choice decision. Conflicting findings have been discovered with regard to the importance of source quality and source accessibility in Seekers' choices. With a focus on interpersonal task information seeking, this study proposes a seeker‐source‐information need framework to understand the source choice decision. In this framework, task importance, as an attribute of information need, is introduced to moderate Seekers' cost‐benefit calculation. Our empirical study finds that in the context of interpersonal task information seeking, first, the least effort principle might not be adequate in explaining personal source choices; rather, a quality‐driven perspective is more adequate, and cost factors are of much less importance. Second, the seeker‐source relationship is not significant to source choices. Third, the nature of information need, especially task importance, can modify Seekers' source choice decisions.

To increase their revenue from electronic commerce, more and more Internet businesses are soliciting personal information from consumers in order to target products and services at the right consumers. But when deciding whether to disclose their personal information to Internet businesses, consumers may weigh the concerns of giving up information privacy against the benefits of information disclosure. This article examines how Internet businesses can motivate consumers to disclose their personal information. Based on a synthesis of the literature, the article identifies seven types of extrinsic or intrinsic benefits that Internet businesses can provide when soliciting personal information from consumers. Through comprehensive conceptual and empirical validation processes, the article develops an instrument that allows Internet businesses to gauge the preference of consumers for the various types of benefits. By testing a set of nomological networks, some ideas are presented to Internet businesses about what types of benefits may be more effective given the personality traits of particular consumer populations. Besides providing a foundation for efforts aimed at developing theories on information, privacy and information disclosure, the results of this research provide useful suggestions to Internet businesses on how best to solicit personal information from consumers. Implications for research and practical application are discussed.

Metrics are essential for the advancement of research and practice in an area. In knowledge management (KM), the process of measurement and development of metrics is made complex by the intangible nature of the knowledge asset. Further, the lack of standards for KM business metrics and the relative infancy of research on KM metrics points to a need for research in this area. This article reviews KM metrics for research and practice, and identifies areas where there is a gap in our understanding. It classifies existing research based on the units of evaluation such as user of knowledge management systems (KMS), KMS project, KM process, KM initiative, and organization as a whole. The article concludes by suggesting avenues for future research on KM and KMS metrics based on the gaps identified.

Abstract Knowledge is a critical resource that can help organizations to sustain strategic advantage in competitive environments. Organizations in Asia and elsewhere are turning to knowledge management (KM) initiatives and technologies to leverage their knowledge resources. As a key component of KM initiatives, electronic knowledge repositories (EKRs) are deployed by organizations to store codified knowledge for future reuse. Although EKRs have been used for some time, there is a lack of understanding of what motivate employees' usage of an EKR. This study formulates and empirically tests a theoretical model relating potential antecedents to EKR usage for knowledge seeking. The model was operationalized and the survey instrument subjected to a conceptual validation process. The survey was administered to 160 knowledge professionals in public‐sector organizations in Singapore who had accessed EKRs in the course of their work. Results reveal that perceived output quality directly affects EKR usage for knowledge seeking. Further, resource availability affects EKR usage for knowledge seeking particularly when task tacitness is low and incentives affect EKR usage particularly when task interdependence is high. Implications of these results for further research and improving EKR implementation are discussed.

A laboratory experiment was carried out to partially test the task-medium fit proposition in a GSS environment. Communication medium was varied using a face-to-face GSS and a dispersed GSS setting. Task type was varied using an intellective and a preference task. Group decision outcome variables of interest were (actual and perceived) decision quality, decision time, decision satisfaction, and decision process satisfaction. With the intellective task, there were no significant differences between face-to-face GSS and dispersed GSS groups for all group decision outcome variables. With the preference task, face-to-face GSS groups performed significantly better than dispersed GSS groups for all group decision outcome variables. These findings suggest that group decision outcomes in a GSS environment tend to be adversely affected when the communication medium is too lean for the task but not when the communication medium is too rich for the task. Consequences of providing groups with too rich and too lean a communication medium for their task are discussed. Implications of these findings, and other related results, for practice and for future revisions of media richness theory are explored.

This study investigates the impact of the electronic communication capability of a group support system (GSS) on status differentials in small groups. A laboratory experiment was used to answer the research questions. Three support levels were studied: manual, face-to-face GSS, and dispersed GSS. Two task types were examined: intellective and preference. Five dependent variables reflecting different aspects of status differentials were measured: status influence, sustained influence, residual disagreement, perceived influence, and decision confidence. The results show that manual groups had higher status influence, sustained influence, and decision confidence, but lower residual disagreement than face-to-face GSS and dispersed GSS groups. Preference task groups also produced higher status influence and sustained influence, but lower residual disagreement compared to intellective task groups. In addition, manual groups working on the preference task reported higher perceived influence than face-to-face GSS and dispersed GSS groups working on the same task. These findings suggest that when groups are engaged in activities for which status differentials are undesirable, a GSS can be used in both face-to-face and dispersed settings to dampen status differentials. Moreover, when a task amplifies status differentials, the use of a GSS tends to produce corresponding stronger dampening effects.

This study investigates the impact of the electronic communication and anonymity capabilities of a group support system (GSS) on group polarization. Three support levels were studied: verbal support, identified GSS support, and anonymous GSS support. Information exposure was varied at two levels: exposure to positions without arguments and exposure to positions with arguments. The dependent variables were preference change and choice shift. Anonymous GSS groups produced higher choice shift than verbal groups. Anonymous GSS groups who were exposed to positions with arguments also had higher preference change than groups in other treatments. These results indicate that the anonymity and electronic communication capabilities of a GSS can be used conjointly to stimulate group polarization, especially when groups exchange mutual positions and arguments.

This study investigates the effects of a GSS on the decision outcome of five-person, face-to-face groups performing two distinct but related task types. A controlled laboratory experiment with a 3/spl times/2 factorial design was employed. The independent variables were support level and task type. A total of 68 groups were randomly assigned to different support levels (no support, structure support, of GSS support). Half of these groups performed an intellectual task while the other half performed a preference task. The empirical findings show that task type affects consensus change and influence equality. Moreover, support level and task type jointly affect decision scheme satisfaction. This paper attempts to reconcile the body of empirical findings from related GSS studies. It discusses the implications of task type for GSS design and use.>