The 2022 impact factor (announced end of June 2021) for ISJ is 7.767. This is one of the highest impact factors of any IS Journals. See past ISJ impact factors and the Editor’s comment on impact factors here. The next impact factor (2023) will not be available until around mid June 2024.

Abstract

Organisational information security (ISec) protection is undergoing a turbulent shift in the workplace environment. In an environment of ever-increasing risks of insider threats and external cyberattacks, individual employees are often expected to take the initiative to solve organisational security problems. This study therefore focuses on employees’ proactive information security behaviours (ISBs)—behaviours that are self-initiated, change-oriented, and future-focused—and the motivations that compel employees to protect organisational assets. We ground our study in Parker et al. (2010) proactive motivation theory (ProMT) and develop an integrated multilevel model to examine the respective effects of proactive motivational states, that is, can-do, reason-to, and energised-to motivations, on employees’ proactive ISBs. We also explore the roles of individual differences and contextual factors—namely, proactive personality and supervisory ISec support—and their influences on proactive motivational states. Data were collected from 210 employees situated in 55 departments distributed among multiple organisations located in China. The results show that supervisory ISec support positively influences employees’ proactive motivational states and thereby boosts employees’ proactive ISBs. Proactive personality negatively moderates the effect of supervisory ISec support on flexible security role orientation (reason-to motivation). By identifying the antecedents of employees’ proactive ISBs, we make key theoretical contributions to ISec research and valuable practical contributions to organisational ISec management.

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It is well known that corporations rely on open source software as part of their product development lifecycle. Given these commitments, understanding the health of open source communities is a central concern in today’s business setting. Our research uses social comparison theory as a framework for understanding how open source communities consider community health beyond any single metric within any single open source community—including a broader view of how others are using these health indicators in practice. Using methods from engaged field research, including 38 interviews, we examine practices of social comparison as an advancement in understanding open source community health—and subsequently engagement with open source communities. The results of this study show that open source community health is not a single set of discrete metrics but is an ongoing social construction. Through our study, we advance theoretical and applied knowledge regarding issues of open source community health, open source community engagement, and social comparison.

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Abstract

Prosocial punishments by social media bystanders could block the path from misinformation spread to social media-induced polarization (SMIP). However, prosocial punishments are inadequate for SMIP management because of the personal costs, and few studies propose effective ways to mobilize bystanders. The Chinese government implemented a regulation in 2017 to mobilize bystanders on social media through allocating accountability to act as misinformation supervisors. In China’s guanxi culture, prosocial punishments are less observed considering the additional personal costs caused by breaking guanxi. Therefore, assessing the effectiveness of China’s cyberspace accountability mobilization can help identify an effective tool for other governments to mitigate SMIP. We used a vignette survey experiment to collect data from WeChat users and applied a random regression model to analyse the data. Accountability mobilization significantly promotes bystanders’ prosocial punishment to block the misinformation-spread-to-SMIP path. Guanxi negatively moderates the relationship between accountability mobilization and prosocial punishment to the above path. The government could encourage the public to actively take prosocial punishments by using the new tool of accountability mobilization. Guanxi culture reduces the effectiveness of the tool.

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One factor receiving contemporary interest from virtual team researchers is collective-level efficacy, that is, a team’s shared belief in its collective abilities to work effectively. However, our understanding of this literature leads to two concerns. First, depending on traditional team-focused collective-level efficacy concepts conveys an indifferent view of technology that ignores decades of research explaining how virtual teams’ reliance on collaborative technologies differentiates them from traditional teams. Second, the information systems literature has largely ignored the concept of collective-level efficacy in virtual team research. That collective-level efficacy is underexamined in IS research is disappointing, given the growing recognition (outside the IS literature) that it is crucial to virtual team success. This absence becomes even more concerning given that IS researchers developed the concept of virtual team efficacy (VTE) specifically for virtual team settings. Unlike collective-level efficacy measures designed for traditional team settings, VTE incorporates technology into its conceptual definition and the operationalization of its measurement indicators. Thus, it is a stronger predictor of virtual team outcomes. To demonstrate its importance to IS research, we used a deductive theory-driven approach to propose and empirically evaluate whether VTE indirectly acts on virtual team effectiveness through the critical concepts of trust and participants’ perceptions of problems associated with the collaboration inhibitors of time difference, geographical separation, and cultural differences. This research contributes significantly to the literature by confirming VTE’s relationship to important virtual team success factors and informing IS researchers about the appropriate choice of constructs when studying collective-level efficacy in virtual team settings.

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Abstract

There is no doubt that digital technologies have an impact on boundary work, that is, the practices individuals develop to work up boundaries between ‘work’ and ‘life’. However, related research is still dominated by the integration–segmentation framework which may restrict our understanding of contemporary practice. To address this limitation, we use the concepts of hybridity (fusion) and liminality (in-betweenness) in combination to explore how their interplay may promote more nuanced accounts of how individuals work up their boundaries in contemporary everyday life. Our analysis of video diaries and follow-up interviews undertaken by 30 UK-based workers reveals an ‘agentic interplay’ of hybridity and liminality that is understood as an ongoing dynamic practice, sometimes enabling and sometimes undermining desired boundary work outcomes. We make three contributions, collectively offering a critical advancement in the work–life debate and the hybridity and liminality literatures: (a) further developing an understanding of boundary work as situated, creative and dynamic; (b) unpacking the agentic potential of the ‘black box’ of the hybridity–liminality interplay; and (c) expanding current understandings and applications of the concepts of hybridity and liminality.

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Abstract

Gatekeepers, including prerogative elites and institutions, possess multifaceted tools for controlling information. Historically, these gatekeepers have systematically instrumentalized visual information to shape audience perceptions in alignment with specific agendas. However, the advent of social media platforms has disrupted these power dynamics, empowering audiences through user-driven visual information exchanges. This has led to visual audience gatekeeping whereby users act as audience gatekeepers by selectively disseminating visual content, thus shaping information diffusion. While this democratisation of gatekeeping holds considerable promise for user empowerment, it also presents risks. These risks stem from the inherently persuasive yet manipulative qualities of visual content, compounded by users’ susceptibility to unconscious biases, especially during polarising events. Therefore, we critically investigated visual audience gatekeeping in the context of the Russo–Ukrainian War, specifically focusing on a Reddit subforum devoted to Russia-related discussions. We find that visual audience gatekeeping operates within a paradigm that reflects the social reality the audience embraces. Audience gatekeepers disseminate visual information both to reproduce and defend an idealised conception of this social reality. Collectively, they produce a visual echo chamber characterised by low information diversity, which, in turn, reinforces and perpetuates the incumbent paradigm. However, heightened social tensions can trigger a paradigm shift and amplify the reproduction and defence processes, increasing the potential for the diffusion of more radical and extreme visual narratives. Based on our findings, we propose a theoretical model of visual audience gatekeeping, which has important implications for research on visuals, gatekeeping and social media platforms.

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Abstract

Journal hijacking, which refers to the attempted brand takeover of a journal by a third party, is a nascent threat confronting the information systems (IS) community, as evidenced by cybercriminals having established an online presence, masquerading as the Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems (SJIS). The SJIS hijacking damages the journal’s reputation, leads to payment and publication scams, involves identity theft among unsuspecting IS researchers, and results in tarnished author reputations. Beyond SJIS, journal hijacking presents a threat, not only to the IS community, but also to science and academic integrity in general if researchers and readers cannot distinguish between fake publications by hijacked journals and real publications by legitimate journals. In this opinion article, we relate the story of the SJIS hijacking from the victims’ perspectives. We describe its many aspects, draw attention to the key factors that contribute to the problem, and offer our perspectives on different response strategies in the absence of simple solutions. We hope to create awareness about the problem and stimulate a discussion in the IS community, not least in the face of digital innovations, such as ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence technologies that may inadvertently support paper mills and the production of fake research results.

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Information Systems Journal, EarlyView. Source

Abstract

Social factors play a critical role in motivating player participation and commitment to online multiplayer games. Many popular mobile massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) adopt social network embeddedness (SNE) functions to optimise players’ social play experience. SNE changes the traditional pattern of MMOG social play by porting acquaintance relationships (e.g., Facebook friends) from social networking sites to the virtual game world. However, little understanding exists on how SNE impacts mobile MMOG players’ game participation results such as play performance and play frequency. Drawing on the affordance framework and social capital literature, this research proposes a theoretical model that integrates the factors of SNE technology affordance (identity transparency and information transparency), players’ social experience (social interaction, social support, shared vision, and social pressure), plus affordance effects (play performance and play frequency). The model was validated through a longitudinal field study, in which both subjective and objective data were collected from Game for Peace players. Our findings indicate that identity transparency and information transparency positively correlate with social interaction, social support, shared vision, and social pressure, which, taken together, significantly affect play frequency. The results also show that social interaction and shared vision positively impact players’ play performance. The study enhances the theoretical understanding of social relationships in players’ game participation results from the SNE aspect. Finally, we lend insights on how game operators can improve player game experience and stickiness.

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This paper contributes to the IS misfits and workarounds literature by demonstrating how “work system–technology” misfits and workarounds can be mutually related. In the context of electronic health record (EHR) systems, this study examines when misfits experienced between an EHR system and health professionals’ work practices lead to workarounds with negative consequences in terms of aggravating misfits. Our qualitative study was conducted in two tertiary hospitals in The Netherlands that had implemented an off-the-shelf EHR system. We analysed the “misfit experience???response???consequence” sequences that emerged from interviews complemented with observations and documents. Experienced misfits between the EHR and other work system components induced highly varied responses, among which workarounds. While workarounds can be beneficial, we found occasions where workarounds resulted in aggravated misfits. We conceptualise three underlying misfit-aggravating EHR-use patterns emerging from (1) a non-routine practice’s perceived exceptionality, (2) collective separatism in incompatible routine practices, and (3) individual deviancy in routine work practices. These patterns differ in terms of the work practices’ routineness, professionals’ misfit experiences, and in how this combination provokes an individual or collective workaround that is non-compliant with both the designed technology use and the organisational intent. To understand how these patterns emerge, we discuss the interplay among work practice routineness, misfit characteristics, and non-compliant workaround behaviours.

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