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The aim of this study is to investigate how team-level leader-member exchange (LMX) and the instrumental use of artificial intelligence (AI) by team members influence team psychological empowerment and information systems development (ISD) team performance.

A survey approach was employed to collect time-lagged, multi-source data for testing the proposed model of this study (N = 514 responses from 88 teams). PROCESS macro was used to analyze the data to generate empirical results.

The results suggest that instrumental AI use indirectly influences ISD team performance by enhancing team psychological empowerment. Additionally, it moderates the effects of team-level LMX on team psychological empowerment and ISD team performance. Furthermore, the results demonstrate that the interaction effect of LMX and instrumental AI use on ISD team performance is mediated by team psychological empowerment.

While research on ISD consistently demonstrates that teams, data, and technology collectively contribute to the success of these projects. What is less known, however, is how the exchange relationship between ISD teams and their leader, as well as technological factors, contribute to ISD projects. This study draws on LMX theory to propose how team-level LMX and the instrumental use of AI by team members influence team psychological empowerment and ISD team performance. The study puts forth a mediated moderation model to develop a set of hypotheses. It offers valuable contributions to AI and LMX, along with implications for ISD team management.

Existing studies of information systems development (ISD) control commonly examine controller-centric considerations, such as the antecedents and performance impacts of control mode choices. In contrast, little is known about the controllee-centric factors that may influence the effectiveness of control activities. Drawing on institutional theory, the purpose of this paper is to introduce the concept of control legitimacy to the ISD literature – a concept that past organizational research has linked to outcomes such as employee commitment and performance. Specifically, the authors explore how different dimensions of control activities (mode, degree, style) relate to controllee perceptions of control legitimacy in terms of justice, autonomy, group identification, and competence development.

Interviews were conducted with 20 practitioners across three companies. A structured data coding approach was employed and analysis was conducted within and across each case study.

The authors find that the control degree and control style can help explain control legitimacy perceptions better than control modes alone. For example, the results suggest that formal controls enacted in a bilateral style correspond with higher perceptions of justice and autonomy, when compared to formal controls enacted in a unilateral style.

The study results imply that ISD managers should be increasingly mindful of enacting controls in a way that is perceived to be legitimate by subordinates, thereby potentially enhancing both staff well-being and ISD performance.

Owing to their complex and knowledge-intensive nature, information systems development (ISD) projects require effective collaboration between business and technology experts. In this regard, social capital theory may provide a valuable framework and insight into explaining knowledge sharing behavior in an ISD context. The purpose of this paper is to expand the theory of knowledge sharing as developed thus far in the ISD project context using the full-blown team social capital theory.

The expertise and communication effectiveness of business and technology professionals were posited as antecedents of team social capital and knowledge sharing. The research model for this study integrates expertise, communication, knowledge sharing, social capital, and team performance into a structural equation modeling. The research model was empirically tested with a data set from business and technology professional pairs collected from 115 ISD project teams.

The results indicated that team social capital and knowledge sharing have significant influences on team performance. Team social capital appears to have a stronger influence on knowledge sharing than business and technology expertise. Communication effectiveness and technology expertise are important antecedents to raise team social capital.

In this study, the social capital theory is applied toward enhancing the theory of knowledge sharing in ISD project teams. General social capital construct and measures are adopted and modified into the team social capital measures and validated empirically.

Extant literature on design theory has little empirical evidence about how work characteristics affect team interaction processes. This paper examines the knowledge-sharing process in information systems development (ISD) projects.

Task interdependence from work design theory was used as an antecedent of knowledge sharing for collaboration for the empirical analysis. Data were collected from 203 ISD project teams in South Korea to examine team social capital and knowledge sharing among team members.

The results indicate that task interdependence has a statistically significant impact on the knowledge-sharing process. The mediating roles of social capital and knowledge sharing are critical. Additionally, the effects of social capital change over time as long-term projects have different mechanisms than short-term ones.

The paper introduces a novel perspective (i.e. the adoption of task interdependence from work design theory) and integrates it with the research constructs that play important roles in ISD projects: knowledge sharing and teams’ social capital. In an ISD project team, which represents knowledge-intensive collaboration and has heterogeneous team characteristics, task interdependence has a positive impact on the team as predicted by work design theory. It verifies the mediating effect of social capital, particularly the changing influence of social capital with time.

The purpose of this study is to examine tacit knowledge sharing within information systems development (ISD) projects by exploring the combination of social interdependence theory and regulatory focus theory (RFT).

A survey was conducted on 198 ISD professionals to investigate the effect of social interdependence on tacit knowledge sharing. The survey data were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), and the results were discussed.

This study reveals that team members tend to share tacit knowledge in a way characterized by cooperative interdependence, and different patterns of social interdependence have an impact on tacit knowledge sharing. The RFT explains the disparities in attitude toward tacit knowledge sharing. Specifically, individuals with a prevention-focused orientation positively moderate the impact of competitive interdependence on tacit knowledge sharing, while those with a promotion-focused orientation have a negative moderating effect on the effect of competitive interdependence on tacit knowledge sharing. Moreover, promotion-focused individuals negatively moderate the effect of cooperative interdependence on tacit knowledge sharing.

The study identifies important aspects of social interdependence in ISD projects that affect the management of tacit knowledge. Furthermore, the study shows that the influence of cooperative and competitive interdependence on tacit knowledge sharing is moderated by the regulatory focus of an individual, providing new insights into ISD knowledge management.

Though prior research has recognized business skills as one of the keys to successful information system development, few studies have investigated the determinants of an IS developer’s behavioral intention to learn such skills. Based on the motivation-ability-role perception-situational factors (i.e. the MARS model), the purpose of this paper is to argue that the intention of IS developers to acquire business skills is influenced by learning motivation (M), learning self-efficacy (A), change agent role perception (R), and situational support (S).

Data collected from 254 IS developers are analyzed using the partial least squares technique.

Results show that a developer’s intention to learn business skills is positively influenced by intrinsic learning motivation and both absolute and relative learning self-efficacy. Furthermore, in comparison to two other change agent roles, the advocate role leads to a significantly higher level of learning intention. Finally, work and non-work support positively influence both extrinsic and intrinsic learning motivation. Notably, non-work support has a greater impact on both absolute and relative learning self-efficacy.

Though many of the proposed hypotheses were supported, results showed several interesting and unexpected findings. First, regarding the change agent role perception, people who perceived themselves as advocates displayed a higher level of intention to learn business skills than did those who identified with the other two roles (i.e. traditionalist and facilitator). Second, when compared to extrinsic learning motivation, intrinsic learning motivation contributed more to the intention to learn business skills. Third, the study contributes to the literature by finding that, in terms of direction and magnitude, the two types of self-efficacy have similar influence on an IS developer’s behavioral intention to learn business skills. Finally, work support was found to have a positive impact on both extrinsic and intrinsic learning motivation. However, it was interesting to note that work support did not lead to significantly higher levels of relative and absolute learning self-efficacy.

The findings of this study provide several critical implications for practitioners seeking to encourage IS developers to learn b-skills. First, organizations should strongly encourage IS developers to take on the advocate role in ISD projects, and urge them to acquire business skills through formal education and on-the-job training. Second, organizations should also help IS developers understand how learning business skills is important for their future work and potential self-growth, rather than focusing solely on extrinsic benefits such as promotion or remuneration. Third, organizations can also make use of the strategies to enhance IS developer’s learning self-confidence and beliefs, which will, in turn, increase their intention to learn business skills. Finally, support from others is influential in the formulation of positive work attitudes and behaviors, so organizations will benefit when employees are well supported.

While prior research has emphasized the importance of business skill possession for IS developers during the system development process, few studies have explored the factors affecting an IS developer’s behavioral intention to learn those business skills. This study intends to bridge this gap by investigating factors that drive IS developers’ intention to learn business skills. The findings of this study are useful to researchers in the development and testing theories related to IS developer learning behavior, and to practitioners to facilitate business skill learning for their IS development staff.

Much research on information technology (IT) emphasizes the rational aspects of IT use. However, cultural analyses have considered IT as a symbolic artifact open to social interpretation. This article presents findings from ethnographic studies of two large insurance organizations to illustrate how cultural assumptions about IT are implicated in IT management. We employ the metaphor of magic as an interpretive lens to generate five archetypes of IT culture: the revered, controlled, demystified, integrated, and fearful IT cultures. Each of these archetypal cultural patterns reflects different assumptions about the “magic” of IT and the “wizards” who control its powers. These patterns are similar to social responses to the unknown that have been found in human cultures for hundreds of years. The metaphor itself was drawn from the language of the two organizations. All five archetypes were manifest in both of the companies studied, suggesting that organizations do not necessarily develop unified symbolic meanings of IT. Although separately each archetype invites novel insights into the management of IT in organizations, together they reveal even deeper interpretations consistent with contemporary theories of cultural differentiation and fragmentation.

Contemporary offshore information system development (ISD) outsourcing is becoming even more complex. Outsourcing partner has begun “re-outsourcing” components of their projects to other outsourcing companies to minimize cost and gain efficiencies. This paper aims to explore intra-organizational information asymmetry of re-outsourced offshore ISD outsourcing projects.

An online survey was conducted to get an overall view of information asymmetry between principal and agents (as per the agency theory).

Statistical analysis showed that there are significant differences between the principal and agent on clarity of requirements, common domain knowledge and communication effectiveness constructs, implying an unbalanced relationship between the parties. Moreover, the authors' results showed that these three are significant measurement constructs of information asymmetry.

In this study the authors have only considered three main factors as common domain knowledge, clarity of requirements and communication effectiveness as three measurement constructs of information asymmetry. Therefore, researches are encouraged to test the proposed constructs further to increase its precision.

The authors' analysis indicates significant differences in all three measurement constructs, implying the difficulties to ensure that the agent is performing according to the requirements of the principal. Using the agency theory as theoretical view, this study sheds light on the best contract governing methods which minimize information asymmetry between the multiple partners within ISD outsourcing organizations.

Currently, to the best of the authors' knowledge, no study has undertaken research on intra-organizational information asymmetry in re-outsourced offshore ISD outsourcing projects.

Looking at the Scandinavian information systems development (ISD) approach in contrast to more traditional ISD approaches, this paper reflects on experiences of the roles of the participants in an ISD process. The study aims to demonstrate how the theoretical knowledge of academic researchers together with the pragmatic approach of practitioners can be integrated in the ISD process – particularly in a new and more refined way, through a heightened awareness of the different roles.

Based on case study methodology, the study focuses on the roles of human resource academics and human resource practitioners in an ISD process developing an intra‐ and inter‐organizational web‐based knowledge‐sharing portal.

The study demonstrates that in order to secure the success of the ISD process, new roles must be performed and properly orchestrated. Also, the study demonstrates how a constant crosschecking of “real‐world” experiences against “the laboratory” in the ISD process can benefit the participating partners, the process, and the end‐product.

Based on a single‐case study, the context and process imposed constraints. The findings are context specific with implications for the application of findings to other ISD processes.

The study highlights the human tasks in a particular ISD process and explains how insights from the Scandinavian and more traditional ISD approaches can be used to enhance the role identification and consequently help address the mediator problem. The study suggests that researchers act as mediators through the fulfillment of the roles, which naturally stem from the Scandinavian approach and the traditional software engineering approach to ISD.

During the past several years, research and studies in the field of solar energy have been continuously increased. One of the substantial applications of solar energy is related to industrial utilization for the drying process by efficient heat transfer methods. This study aims to upgrade the overall performance of an indirect solar dryer using a solar absorber extension tube (SET) equipped with ball-type turbulators.

In this work, three various SETs including hollow (SET Type 1), 6-balls (SET Type 2) and 10-balls (SET Type 3), have been simulated using Fluent software to evaluate heat transfer characteristics and flow structure along the air passage. Then, the modified solar drying system has been manufactured and tested at different configurations.

The findings indicated that adding a SET improved the performance notably. According to the results, using turbulators in the tube has a positive effect on heat transfer. The highest overall thermal efficiency was found in the range of 51.47%–64.71% for the system with SET Type 3. The maximum efficiency increment of the system was found as 19% with the use of SET. Also, the average specific moisture extraction rate, which is a significant factor to survey the effectiveness of the dehumidification system was found between 0.20 and 0.38 kg kWh⁻¹.

In the present study, a novel SET has been developed to upgrade the performance of the solar dehumidifier. This new approach makes it possible to improve both thermal and drying performances.