Search results

This paper reports the panel discussion on the topic of artificial intelligence (AI) and robots in our lives. This discussion was held at the Digitization of the Individual (DOTI) workshop at the International Conference on Information Systems in 2019. Three scholars (in alphabetical order: Ting-Peng Liang, Lionel Robert and Suprateek Sarker) who have done AI- and robot-related research (to varying degrees) were invited to participate in the panel discussion. The panel was moderated by Manuel Trenz.

This paper introduces the topic, chronicles the responses of the three panelists to the questions the workshop chairs posed and summarizes their responses, such that readers can have an overview of research on AI and robots in individuals' lives and insights about future research directions.

The panelists discussed four questions with regard to their research experiences on AI- and robot-related topics. They expressed their viewpoints on the underlying nature, potential and effects of AI in work and personal life domains. They also commented on the ethical dilemmas for research and practice and provided their outlook for future research in these emerging fields.

This paper aggregates the panelists' viewpoints, as expressed at the DOTI workshop. Crucial ethical and theoretical issues related to AI and robots in both work and personal life domains are addressed. Promising research directions to these cutting-edge research fields are also proposed.

Knowledge has been considered a crucial organizational asset for gaining competitive advantages. It is critical for a firm to maintain a knowledge composition that is productive. This study aims to examine the applicability of the diversity–stability principle in ecology to knowledge management and further investigate the impact of knowledge diversity on firm performance.

A theoretical framework for knowledge diversity and firm performance is proposed; a questionnaire survey was conducted to evaluate the research framework. Fifty-eight valid responses from experts were collected to measure knowledge strength and diversity of 20 enterprises in four industries, and financial indexes of the 20 enterprises from 2008 to 2012 were collected to analyze the research model.

The results show that higher information technology (IT) capabilities in a firm lead to higher levels of knowledge strength and diversity. The strength and diversity of knowledge in a company can improve average company performance and reduce performance variations.

This paper presents a new perspective that applies the ecological concept of diversity to examine the value of knowledge in organizations. The findings expand our understanding of the role of IT and knowledge in organizational performance. A limitation is that the sample size is relatively small, which may limit the generalizability of the findings.

CEOs and chief knowledge officers can apply the findings herein to assess their organizational knowledge profiles and maintain a healthy knowledge ecology in strategic planning. They should be aware that both knowledge strength and knowledge diversity are crucial to the stability of firm performance.

The ecological view of knowledge management stresses the importance of maintaining a healthy intensity and diversity of knowledge at the macro level and indicates a new direction for knowledge management.

This paper aims to study the adoption of mobile technology in business and its determinants. A diagnostic tool for proper adoption of mobile technology is developed.

Grounded on the fit‐viability framework, the paper uses a multi‐case study via the fit and viability dimensions to examine the success or failure of mobile technology applications in business.

By drawing upon multiple streams of theory building, the paper is able to develop a set of measurement instruments to assess the fit and viability in adopting mobile technology. The findings demonstrate that the fit‐viability model (FVM) provides useful guidelines for enterprises in their decisions on whether to adopt a mobile technology.

First, the theoretical generalizability of the FVM needs to be more carefully observed in future studies. Second, the findings are exploratory and more extensive studies may be necessary.

Chief information officers and managers can use the developed instrument to measure the fitness and viability of implementing mobile technology in organizations. This should be able to increase the possibility of success.

This is one of the first papers to combine the fit and viability aspects and to empirically demonstrate the value of this two‐dimensional model.

Recently, program trading has allowed arbitrageurs to take advantage of the discrepancies in the futures market and the stock market. The key that enables program trading is computer technology. This article presents the design of PROTRADER ‐ an expert system prototype for program trading implemented in M.1. In particular, a learning mech‐anism that allows the system to adapt to the changes in the market is presented.

The rapid proliferation of the Internet has allowed many firms to use this new technology to run Web‐based electronic stores to expand their markets and to enhance the operational performance. Therefore, it is interesting to investigate why electronic commerce benefits some industries more than others, and what factors affect the impact of using e‐Stores on performance in different industries. This paper reports findings on the effect of industrial characteristics, as portrayed by product information content and information intensity of the value chain, and e‐commerce models on firm performance. The results indicate that both industrial characteristics and e‐commerce models have significant effects on firm performance. Among the industrial characteristics, information content of the product and information intensity of the value chain have been found to have a significant impact on firm performances.

Computer self‐efficacy (CSE) is generally considered to have a positive effect on information systems use. Its effect on using executive support systems (ESS), however, has not been studied. This research elucidates the effect of CSE on ESS use by undertaking a field study on a group of 16 executives in the construction industry. The results indicate that executives with a lower CSE prefer more powerful systems (i.e. ESS with both analytical and intuitive tools). Executives with a higher CSE, on the other hand, prefer systems consisting of tools that can cognitively fit the task they perform. Implications for future application and research are discussed.

This research seeks to investigate the relationship between knowledge diversity (KD) in software teams and project performance. Previous research has shown that member diversity affects team performance; most of that work, however, has focused on diversity in personal or social attributes, such as gender or social category. Current research targets at the knowledge level aim to facilitate the implementation of knowledge management in organizations.

A research framework was developed based on conflict theory and empirically tested on software teams in Taiwan.

It was found that KD increases task conflict, which in turn has significant positive effects on team performance and that value diversity (VD) increases relationship conflict, which in turn negatively affects team performance.

The findings indicate that task conflict can enhance team performance, while relationship conflict can reduce team performance. Therefore, it is important to maintain healthy relationships among team members.

This research concludes that KD is beneficial and that VD is harmful to project outcome in software development. It is, therefore, useful for managers to form teams whose members encompass a broad knowledge base.

This paper proposes a novel way to measure knowledge and VD in teams and reports the effects of these attributes on team performance. The work also shows that a proper level of task conflict in a software team is necessary for achieving high performance.

In the past several decades, Taiwanese companies have been successful in the world market. However, knowledge about how these firms use information technology is very limited. Investigates the application of decision support systems (DSS) and executive information systems (EIS) in Taiwan. Two mail surveys were conducted to explore who used the system, where the systems were applied, what decision models were used and reasons for not using these systems. The results indicate that: more than 20 per cent of the firms already used DSS or EIS and an additional 37 per cent had plans to adopt them shortly; 87 per cent of the firms considered DSS and EIS to be important to their competitiveness; middle‐ and lower‐level managers were major DSS and EIS users; half of them used the system every day; the most troublesome problem in developing DSS/EIS was the difficulty in determining information requirements; and information aggregation and what‐if analysis were major functions for decision support. Furthermore, quantitative models were employed only in large and old companies. The most popular models included linear programming, PERT/CPM, and regression analysis, whereas the most popular domains for application were finance and production management.

The purpose of this paper is to aggregate previous research that adopts the resource‐based view (RBV) to examine whether information technology (IT) and organizational resources have significant effect on firm performance.

A framework that includes direct and indirect‐effect models is proposed. A meta‐analysis was conducted on 42 published empirical studies to examine how different factors in the RBV affect firm performance.

First, it was found that the mediated model that includes organizational capabilities as mediators between organizational resources and firm performance can better explain the value of IT than the direct‐effect model without organizational capabilities. Second, technology resources can improve efficiency performance but may not enhance financial performance directly. Third, internal capabilities affect performance but it is external capabilities that affect financial performance.

The limitation of meta‐analysis is that findings are based on prior research conducted on different sources at different times. This may cause observation biases. Nonetheless, the large sample size can also increase the robust of the findings.

The findings indicate that companies should focus on how IT resources can be used to enhance their capabilities, which will result in better performance.

The findings provide strong evidence that IT has contributed to both financial performance and organizational efficiency through strengthening organizational capabilities. The IT has been effectively used so far and the suspected productivity paradox does not exist.

The paper contributes to information management by increasing the theoretical and practical understanding of how IT resources affect organizational capabilities and firm performance. The findings provide valuable guidelines for future research on IT investment and firm performance.