Information Management Literature Research Articles

An Empirical Study on the Information Formality Motivation, Social Influence, and Goal Commitment of Knowledge Workers

A knowledge worker's goal commitment is critical to the success of system implementation in the organization. This paper investigates an individual's information formality motivation and social influence as important determinants in developing goal commitment in the system implementation based on the social psychology and information management literature. An empirical test of the proposed model was conducted in the field test (n = 148). PLS was used to analyze the model and supported the validity of the results. Social influence and information formality influence knowledge worker's goal commitment (R2 = 0.36) as expected. Social influence has a higher effect on goal commitment than information formality motivation. The results of this study will help us understand the antecedents of goal commitment in the system implementation based on the social influence theory and personal information management model. The paper includes implications for the designers and information system (IS) managers to effectively understand knowledge worker's goal commitment in the organization.

An Integrated Strategic Architectural Framework for AI-Augmented HRM

Scholars currently lack a conceptual framework that explains, from a technology-driven HRM perspective, how Artificial Intelligence(AI) techniques can be acquired, deployed, integrated, and reconfigured to fulfil HRM objectives. To bridge this research gap, this study presents an integrated strategic architectural framework for AI-Augmented HRM. Drawing on management theories and integration process of AI from information management literature, this research presents an integrated strategic architectural framework for HRM(AI) exploring organisational antecedents, the processual mechanism of HRM(AI) architecture, its linkage with HRM domain-specific outcomes, organisational level outcomes and resultant organisational performance. The proposed integrated strategic architectural HRM(AI) framework has the potential to be explored in the form of multiple testable research propositions for future research.

Security breaches and organization response strategy: Exploring consumers’ threat and coping appraisals

We address a long-standing lacuna in the Information Management literature on the relationships among security breaches, organization response strategy as well as consumers’ threat and coping appraisal. Security breaches can involve the leak of sensitive data, and potentially lead to negative consumer reactions. It is, thus, timely and critical to theorize and empirically investigate the ways in which organization can respond effectively to security breaches and how consumers’ threat and coping appraisals vary according to the different response strategies. Our study addresses this lacuna by developing a conceptual model of i) security breach, ii) organization response strategies, and iii) consumer appraisal, grounded on the risk theory and protection motivation theory. We use the principal and agent perspectives to portray the breached organization as the agent providing the coping strategy, and consumers as the principal actors who evaluate the strategy. We incorporated a vignette-based survey to test the model with empirical data. We identify that the variations in the response strategy of organization after a security breach can lead to significantly different consumers’ reactions. We discuss the implications of our findings for theory and practice and delineate an agenda for future research.

Knowledge mapping and visualization of personal information management literature, 1988–2020

This study was designed to examine the structure of the literature on personal information management during the period 1988–2020 through the mapping of author and indexer keywords. The article also examines the volume, quantity and growth of personal information management literature during the period. The Scopus database was searched with the phrase ‘personal information management’ within the title, abstract and keyword fields on 18 February 2021. The annual growth in publications is presented as the number of retrieved documents each year, and the annual growth rate of publications on the subject is analysed. A total of 887 documents have been written on the subject since 1988. The major focus in addressing the problem of personal information management appears to be on technology applications, but research from 2015 onwards starts to address individual factors as they relate to personal information management.

Seven Important Theories in Information Management and Information System Empirical Research: A Systematic Review and Future Directions

AbstractThe fragmentation of fundamental theory has increasingly affected the development of information management (IM) and information system (IS) empirical research, while limited attempts have been made to systematically review the theories which are fundamental to the extant IM and IS literature. Therefore, based on the analysis of the empirical studies in the IM and IS field in the past 20 years, we identify seven relatively important but less summarized theories in the IM and IS field: transactive memory system (TMS), impression management, flow, structural holes, resource dependence theory (RDT), social presence theory (SPT), and the illusion of control (IC). Hence, we try to offer a systematic review of these theories by synthesizing the extant findings while identifying the possible directions for future studies. Our review made several significant contributions to both proposing theoretical and methodological trends in the respective theories.

Platform-based customer agility: An integrated framework of information management structure, capability, and culture

Platform-based customer agility is the ability to leverage the voice of the customer on a platform to achieve market intelligence and to explore competitive action opportunities. Prior studies have indicated the critical role of customer agility in enabling the survival and prosperity of contemporary organizations in a turbulent business environment, although how to develop this capability is not answered. The current research attempts to fill this theoretical gap. Drawing on the information management literature, we propose an integrative information management framework to investigate the process of developing customer agility. By conducting a case study of a leading e-commerce platform in China, we identify three types of platform-based customer agility (i.e. reactive customer agility, proactive customer agility, and coactive customer agility) in different phases of the growth of the platform. Furthermore, a process model is developed from the case study. It shows that platform-based customer agility is achieved by establishing information management structure, developing information management capability, and instilling information management culture. This study contributes to the knowledge on customer agility and information management. Detailed recommendations are also provided for potential practitioners.

The effect of the digital readiness of economies on international M&A performance

PurposeUnderstanding the mechanism through which digital economy is significantly impacting all dimensions of global economy has become a rising priority in recent years. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the critical role of digital readiness of economies around the world on the performance of international M&As as one of the major corporate strategies for firms' global expansion. We also study circumstances under which digital readiness of an economy matters to international M&As.Design/methodology/approachThe authors examined how digital readiness superiority (or inferiority) of the United States in comparison with host countries impact capital market reaction to international M&As announced by US public companies. To do this study, analysis was run on a sample of 1,393 IMAs by publicly traded US firms during the 2010–2016 period.FindingsThe study reveals that those public US companies that target companies in countries, in which the US has superior digital readiness to them, show better performance in terms of investors' reaction (capital market reaction) to the announcement of international M&As. In fact, markets will look at the superiority of US digital readiness to target country as an opportunity for transferring digital capabilities. Moreover, these patterns are pronounced in those M&A deals in which the acquiring company is from high-tech industry. However, interestingly when US companies already have a profitable growth track record or when acquirer and target are in the same industry, the market reacts negatively to this digital superiority.Originality/valueOverall, this study contributes to a better understanding of the mechanisms through which digitalization of economies impact the performance of multinational enterprises. It adds to the information management literature on corporate global strategy and is one of the first to examine the role of digital readiness on international M&As performance.

Stewardship of personal data on social networking sites

The extant Information Management literature highlights the asymmetric distribution of power between users and online platforms, while the issues related to the stewardship of personal data on such platforms remain problematic and largely unresolved. To address that lacuna, we propose a conceptual design that can help to overcome many of the challenges related to storage, analysis, and integrity associated with the stewardship of personal data on online platforms. We adopt a systemic perspective and propose a shift from the current user-platform relationship to one in which users control the level of access to their data, organisations are relieved from the burden of maintaining personal data, and the data are not decoupled from information about their provenance and context of origin. We apply our conceptual design to the context of social networking sites, where we specifically address issues related to privacy, and identity and pave the path to a broader set of possible applications. We discuss the significance and timeliness of our proposed conceptual design for the stewardship of personal data, and the importance of our findings for future research, as well as for the design of online platforms.

Information management research and practice in the post-COVID-19 world

COVID-19 has radically transformed many aspects of human life and global society both now and for many years to come. A key aspect of the transformation has been increased digitalization and the accelerated implementation of previously predicted trends that have been discussed for many years in the information management literature. Human endeavour has encouraged us to adapt to the “new normal” through immediate necessity in areas such as work, education, healthcare, entertainment and leisure, and online commerce. This new environment has provided unprecedented opportunities for the information management research community to develop research that will have a significant impact on practice in these and other areas. We are essentially at the pinnacle of new developments in the digital space and must seek to develop exemplars that can help to signpost the future direction of digital global society for the benefit of all. Notwithstanding, the problems of digitalization have also been exacerbated and must be further understood and ameliorated in the post-COVID world. This paper examines opportunities and problems in information management brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. It details implications for research and practice.

Perceived information pollution: conceptualization, measurement, and nomological validity

PurposeCurrently, employees are facing information explosion in the presence of disruptive information and communication technologies of industry 4.0. With the prevalent nature of information pollution, employees are suffering to process large volume of information in order to access quality information. The objective of present study is to develop a measurement scale of perceived information pollution in the context of workplace. Furthermore, this study aims to assess the nomological validity of the proposed construct.Design/methodology/approachThis study has employed a sequential exploratory mixed-method design to develop and validate the measurement scale of perceived information pollution. The population of the present study comprised of the employees who work in the operations and credit department of banking sector. The present study has used exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to analyze data in AMOS.FindingsThe present study has developed the second-order measurement scale of perceived information pollution. The perceived information pollution comprises of five dimensions – accessible, intrinsic, contextual, representational, and distractive information pollution. This study has also confirmed the nomological validity of the information pollution in relation to employee's job satisfaction, work effort, and learning effort.Research limitations/implicationsManagement may employ the five dimensions as a benchmark in revealing polluted information as well as enhancing information quality through information processing.Originality/valueThis study has contributed to the literature of information management by providing a five-dimensional scale of perceived information pollution and confirming its nomological validity.

Bridging BIM and building (BBB) for information management in construction

Purpose How to make an effective use of building information modeling (BIM) for information management (IM) is a challenging question in the field of construction project and asset management. Chen et al. (2015) answered this question by developing a conceptual framework of “bridging BIM and building (BBB).” However, the underlying mechanism through which BBB can truly impact IM remains unclear. The purpose of this paper is thus to demystify the mechanism linking BBB and IM. Design/methodology/approach Drawing upon the IM literature, this paper proposes three IM requirements, namely, requirements on information quantity, quality and accessibility, as the significant mediators between BBB and IM. To verify this proposition, a two-year, participatory case study was conducted based on a real-life construction project in which a BBB system was implemented. Findings The results of the case study supported the proposition that by enhancing the information quantity, quality and accessibility BBB could favorably contribute to IM in construction. Practical implications This paper provides knowledge about system architecture, components and their linkage in an operable BBB system. It also provides empirical experience about BBB implementation. Originality/value This study is among the first attempts to streamline the theoretical discourses relating to BBB for IM in a construction context. It contributes to the construction IM by directing attention to key IM requirements and processes rooted in the IM literature.

Understanding SaaS adoption: The moderating impact of the environment context

In the information management literature, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is recognized as a technology capable of providing operational and financial benefits to firms, and it is rising as the dominant IT service delivery model. Considered to be a promising solution it is garnering interest among researchers and professionals. However, SaaS can represent a vulnerability to firms due to its nature. The weighing of the pros and cons leads to firms’ uncertainty regarding SaaS adoption. Through the lenses of technology-organization-environment (TOE) framework we examine the contextual factors that influence the adoption of SaaS. Furthermore, this study explores the moderating effects of the environmental context in the adoption of SaaS and how it shapes the direct influences of technological and organizational contexts of the TOE framework. Data collected from 259 firms were used to test the proposed model. The study found the significance of the technology, organization, and environment context for SaaS adoption. Moreover, it was found the moderator influence of the environment context between the organization context and SaaS adoption. This study contributes to a deepest understanding of the determinants of SaaS adoption by providing a holistic theoretical lens, advancing newer paths of approaching the TOE framework.

A comparison of 17 article-level bibliometric indicators of institutional research productivity: Evidence from the information management literature of China

Periodically ranking institutional research productivity is necessary not only to understand the status of the development of related fields but also to identify gaps and take appropriate corrective steps. Many bibliometric indicators contribute to the assessment of institutional research productivity, but the appropriateness of the indicator and the relationships between different indicators are topics that have not been addressed. For this reason, an indicator framework for the ranking of institutional research performance, which consists of a count of published articles and quality weighted dimensions, is developed. Based on the literature review, 17 indicators in the framework are chosen for study. Based on these indicators, experiments are conducted to rank Chinese institutions in the field of Information Management. Kendall's tau rank correlation coefficient (τ) is calculated, and all pairwise correlations are between 0.34 and 0.98. There are three primary findings: (1) among the article count indicators, the Straight count indicator is significantly different than others; (2) the rankings based on the indicators which are weighted by quality are consistent with those based on the indicators using article count; and (3) the Paper citation weighted indicator is sensitive to the procedure used for institutional ranking.

Robust optimization of uncertain multistage inventory systems with inexact data in decision rules

In production-inventory problems customer demand is often subject to uncertainty. Therefore, it is challenging to design production plans that satisfy both demand and a set of constraints on e.g. production capacity and required inventory levels. Adjustable robust optimization (ARO) is a technique to solve these dynamic (multistage) production-inventory problems. In ARO, the decision in each stage is a function of the data on the realizations of the uncertain demand gathered from the previous periods. These data, however, are often inaccurate; there is much evidence in the information management literature that data quality in inventory systems is often poor. Reliance on data “as is” may then lead to poor performance of “data-driven” methods such as ARO. In this paper, we remedy this weakness of ARO by introducing a model that treats past data itself as an uncertain model parameter. We show that computational tractability of the robust counterparts associated with this extension of ARO is still maintained. The benefits of the new model are demonstrated by a numerical test case of a well-studied production-inventory problem. Our approach is also applicable to other ARO models outside the realm of production-inventory planning.

Challenges of Knowledge and Information Management during New Product Introduction: Experiences from a Finnish Multinational Company

Efficient knowledge and information management is essential for companies to prosper in the rapidly changing global environment. This article presents challenges of a large Finnish multinational company relating to their current knowledge and information management practices and systems. The focus is on New Product Introduction (NPI) process. The study is based on interviews and facilitated workshops in the Research and Development (R&D) and Production departments. Furthermore, the identified challenges are reflected to the findings presented in knowledge and information management literature. The results gained from the company case study were well in line with the findings in the literature. Three main topics, which can be generalized to cause challenges for knowledge and information management in most companies, were recognized: 1) Issues related to human behavior, individual characteristics and capabilities, different backgrounds, and professional vocabulary; 2) Codifying tacit knowledge into explicit information, which can be saved to company information system; 3) Lack of interoperability between different information systems. The study provides the management of the case company, and other similar organizations, focus points while seeking for better knowledge and information management. From a scientific perspective, the main contribution of this article is to give practical examples of how the theoretical findings presented in literature manifest themselves in real industrial practices.

Construction Organizational-Level Information Management Framework

AbstractComprehensive organizational-level information management (IM) performance assessment has the potential to improve IM performance in construction organizations. However, the organizational-level IM components and key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure each component are not adequately developed in construction IM literature. This paper proposes an organizational-level IM framework, which identifies the IM components, IM activities, and KPIs required for comprehensive organizational-level IM performance measurement in construction-owner organizations. The eight IM components (IM processes, ICT resources, practice resources, people resources, IM inputs, IM outputs, IM constraints, and IM objectives) are developed and defined on the basis of the analysis of 55 documents related to IM frameworks published from 1990 to 2010 inclusive. In addition, a total of six IM activities and 40 lagging and leading KPIs are developed and defined on the basis of the analysis and synthesis of IM characteristics...

The impact of IT implementation on quality of shared information and its effect on firm performance: evidence from China

Issues relating to quality of shared information have received increasing attention from scholars and practitioners in recent years. However, our knowledge of the antecedents and consequences of quality of shared information is still limited. This study extends the organisational information processing theory, social exchange theory and knowledge-based view established in Western information management literature through examining the impact of IT implementation on quality of shared information with customers and suppliers, and the mediating effect of operational performance on the relationship between quality of shared information and financial performance. We propose and empirically test a model using data collected from 176 manufacturing companies in China. The results indicate that IT implementation is important in improving the quality of shared information with customers and suppliers. Furthermore, both quality of shared information with customers and quality of shared information with suppliers positively impact operational performance, which, in turn, leads to improvements in firms' financial performance. These findings provide a new perspective for information sharing and highlight the importance of high quality of shared information.

Dimensions of Anticipated Reaction in Information Management: Anticipating Responses and Outcomes

Many models, theories, and frameworks of information management (e.g., privacy, disclosure, secrets) incorporate the concept of receiver response, both anticipated and actual. Although most if not all information management literature highlights the importance of the response variable, each perspective conceptualizes and/or operationalizes response differently. The lack of consistency across perspectives limits research design, theory testing, and scholars' ability to make comparisons among and across theoretical frameworks, as well as their ability to evaluate research findings within the broader context of information management theory. This project presents a review and synthesis of receiver response within the context of information sharing and decision making, including both immediate responses and longer-term outcomes of sharing the information.

Adjustable Robust Optimization with Decision Rules Based on Inexact Revealed Data

Adjustable robust optimization (ARO) a technique to solve dynamic (multistage) optimization problems. In ARO, the decision in each stage a function of the information accumulated from the previous periods on the values of the uncertain parameters. This information, however, often inaccurate; there much evidence in the information management literature that even in our Big Data era the data quality often poor. Reliance on the data is may then lead to poor performance of ARO, or in fact to any data-driven method. In this paper, we remedy this weakness of ARO by introducing a methodology that treats past data itself as an uncertain parameter. We show that algorithmic tractability of the robust counterparts associated with this extension of ARO still maintained. The benefit of the new approach demonstrated by a production-inventory application.

Bridging indistinct relationships and online loyalty: evidence from online interest-based communities

Purpose – Bridging indistinct relationships and online loyalty has become an important strategy for online interest-based communities' operators and firms. The objective of this study is to draw on the elaboration likelihood model (ELM) to advance our understanding of the influences on the development of relationship quality and the consequent impact on members' loyalty to online communities. Design/methodology/approach – To test the hypotheses the authors identified and selected four interest-based online communities in Taiwan. The online survey yielded 331 completed questionnaires from members of interest-based online communities and the authors analysed the results using the structural equation modelling approach. Findings – The findings show that argument quality and source credibility positively affect members' perceived relationship quality, which has a positive and significant effect on behavioural loyalty, and personal relevance and user expertise positively moderate the relationship between argument quality and relationship quality and negatively moderate the relationship between source credibility and relationship quality. Research limitations/implications – While this study has produced meaningful insights for investigating the informational processing influences on relationship quality and subsequent behavioural loyalty through the ELM perspective, the samples may not allow researchers to draw more general conclusions across different types of community contexts. The data were collected only from interest-based communities. Examining this model across different types of online communities, such as transaction-, relationship-, or fantasy-based ones, would help establish the generalisability of these results beyond the current context. Practical implications – The present study can help managers of online communities recognise the differential effects of these information processes across a user population and customise optimal strategies that best fit the unique characteristics of their community members. For making argument quality more convincing, Toulmin's (1958) model of argumentation could serve as an appropriate mechanism. Moreover it is crucial to provide various indicators of source credibility for information content. Originality/value – The paper addresses a gap in the research by using ELM to better understand the influences on the development of relationship quality and the impact on members' loyalty. Understanding these dynamics is critical since it: enriches the relationship marketing and information management literature by addressing the role of information content in the management and success of online communities; helps online community managers customise optimal strategies for their members, thereby fostering members' loyalty and their platform's competitive advantage; and illuminates two influential processes that can achieve the desired attitude change in the context of online communities.