Investigation of IS professionals’ intention to practise secure development of applications

It is well known that software errors may lead to information security vulnerabilities, the breach of which can have considerable negative impacts for organizations. Studies have found that a large percentage of security defects in e-business applications are due to design-related flaws, which could be detected and corrected during applications development. Traditional methods of managing software application vulnerabilities have often been ad hoc and inadequate. A recent approach that promises to be more effective is to incorporate security requirements as part of the application development cycle. However, there is limited practice of secure development of applications (SDA) and lack of research investigating the phenomenon.Motivated by such concerns, the goal of this research is to investigate the factors that may influence the intention of information systems (IS) professionals to practise SDA, i.e., incorporate security as part of the application development lifecycle. This study develops two models based on the widely used theory of planned behaviour (TPB) and theory of reasoned action (TRA) to explain the phenomenon. Following model operationalization, a field survey of 184 IS professionals was conducted to empirically compare the explanatory power of the TPB-based model versus the TRA-based model.Consistent with TPB and TRA predictions, attitude and subjective norm were found to significantly impact intention to practise SDA for the overall survey sample. Attitude was in turn determined by product usefulness and career usefulness of SDA, while subjective norm was determined by interpersonal influence, but not by external influence. Contrary to TPB predictions, perceived behavioural controls, conceptualized in terms of self-efficacy and facilitating conditions, had no significant effect on intention to practise SDA. Thus, a modified TRA-based model was found to offer the best explanation of behavioural intention to practise SDA. Implications for research and information security practice are suggested.     

A process model for analyzing and managing flexibility in information systems

Competitive pressures are forcing organizations to be flexible. Being responsive to changing environmental conditions is an important factor in determining corporate performance. Earlier research, focusing primarily on IT infrastructure, has shown that organizational flexibility is closely related to IT infrastructure flexibility. Using real-world cases, this paper explores flexibility in the broader context of the IS function. An empirically derived framework for better understanding and managing IS flexibility is developed using grounded theory and content analysis. A process model for managing flexibility is presented; it includes steps for understanding contextual factors, recognizing reasons why flexibility is important, evaluating what needs to be flexible, identifying flexibility categories and stakeholders, diagnosing types of flexibility needed, understanding synergies and tradeoffs between them, and prescribing strategies for proactively managing IS flexibility. Three major flexibility categories, flexibility in IS operations, flexibility in IS systems & services development and deployment, and flexibility in IS management, containing 10 IS flexibility types are identified and described.     

SaaS模式的CRM用户接受度研究

客户关系管理是提高企业核心竞争力的关键之一,传统客户关系管理模式无法满足广大中小企业的需求。在讨论SaaS模式的CRM优势基础上,基于技术接受模型（TAM）,提出了SaaS模式的CRM用户接受度模型。利用结构方程模型方法,通过实证分析,得出结论：感知有用、感知易用、环境因素和用户因素是SaaS模式CRM用户接受度的4个具有显著影响的因素。     

Determinants of software quality: A survey of information systems project managers

Software quality is important for the success of any information systems (IS). In this research, we find the determinants of software quality. We used five attributes for software quality: system reliability, maintainability, ease of use, usefulness, and relevance. By surveying 112 IS project managers, we collected data about their perceptions on the software quality attributes and their determinants. We arrived at six factors through exploratory factor analysis. We determined the individual factors that impacted the software quality attributes; for example, reliability is associated with responsiveness of IS department; ease of use is influenced by the capabilities of users and attitude of management; and usefulness is impacted by capabilities of IS department and responsiveness of IS department. We show that organizational factors are more important than technical factors in impacting software quality in IS projects. We provide implications of our research to practice and to future research.     

A longitudinal experimental study on the interaction effects of persuasion quality, user training, and first-hand use on user perceptions of new information technology

While prior research has investigated the main effects of external factors on user perceptions of a new IT, little work has been into the interaction effect of external factors on user perceptions. In a longitudinal experimental study, we examined the effect of the quality of persuasive argument, user training, and first-hand use on user perceptions of the new technology over time. We found that the effect of argument quality on users’ perceived ease of use was greater when users had no training. However, we did not find the same effect occurred due to perceived usefulness. We also found that first-hand use changed users’ perceived usefulness more over time when users received high quality arguments or when they had no training. While we found that first-hand use changed users’ perceived ease of use more when users received high quality arguments, first-hand use did not change users’ perceived ease of use differently whether they had or had not received prior training.     

‘Requirements-Uncertainty’: Is it best formulated as a latent,aggregate or profile construct?

This paper identifies the strategies that experienced information systems (IS) project managers say they use to cope with requirements-uncertainty (RU) when managing development projects for external clients. It is shown that project managers (PMs) claim to use different strategies for coping with the different dimensions of requirements-uncertainty, as this notion has been formulated in IS literature. Based on this finding, it is proposed that perhaps requirements-uncertainty should be formulated as a profile construct, and not as a latent or aggregate construct, if it is to have pragmatic validity as a guide to action for project managers.     

Perceived importance of information system success factors: A meta analysis of group differences

Factors influencing the success or failure of an information system (IS) have been discussed frequently in the literature. This study identifies several additional factors and proposes that the existing ones be classified into eight different dimensions. These encompass, not only the system aspect, but also the human aspect of IS success (ISS). The study further uses data from past ISS studies and also those collected from a field survey to analyze the differences in the perceived importance of ISS factors between four groups of subjects from North America, namely, the user staff, the IS staff, and the managers of the two groups. It reveals that the rank orders of ISS factors between IS staff and IS managers and between user staff and user managers are not significantly different. However, the rank orders between IS personnel and user personnel are significantly different. Based on these, the top and the least important ISS factors are identified. The findings have several implications for IS management practice.     

Understanding the successful adoption and use of IS/IT in SMEs: an explanation from Portuguese manufacturing industries

Abstract. The objectives of the research were to identify factors enabling or inhibiting the adoption and use of information systems and technology (IS/IT) in Portuguese manufacturing small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) and understand how these factors interrelate in determining relative success in the adoption and use of IS/IT. This research elicited factors from previous quantitative and qualitative research, which had been shown to influence IS/IT adoption in SMEs in other contexts. A strategic change framework was used to structure the factors and ensure that comprehensive evidence about their nature and effects could be obtained in the empirical research. Further factors were identified by initial fieldwork, before carrying out 12 in‐depth case studies, across a range of situations – different industries, different levels of adoption and a range of degrees of success in IS/IT use. The pattern that emerged from the analysis of the data shows that certain factor combinations and relationships appear to determine the relative degrees of IS/IT success across the firms. This pattern can also be explained by interpreting the roles and relationships of the key actors involved in the process of IS/IT adoption and use. Top management perspectives and attitudes towards IS/IT adoption and use play an important role in the development of internal IS/IT competencies and provide an important contribution to the development of a context that enables IS/IT success.     

The relation of interface usability characteristics,perceived usefulness,and perceived ease of use to end-user satisfaction with enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems

Over the past few years, firms around the world have implemented enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems to have a standardized information system (IS) in their respective organizations and to reengineer their business processes. While millions of dollars have been spent on implementing ERP systems, previous research indicates that potential users may still not use them. This study, based on data from 51 end-users in 24 companies examines various usability factors affecting end-user satisfaction with ERP systems. The results indicate that both perceived usefulness and learnability are determinants of end-user satisfaction with ERP systems. In addition perceived ease of use and system capability affect perceived usefulness, while user guidance influences both perceived usefulness and learnability. Implications of these findings are discussed and further research opportunities described.     

Understanding determinants of information systems users’ behaviour: a comparison of two models in the context of integrated accounting and budgeting software

This study examines determinants that affect the behaviour of information systems (IS) users, and influence of the users’ decisions to continue using IS by two models: the technology acceptance model (TAM) and the expectation-confirmation model of IS continuance (ECM-IS). The behaviour of professionals who utilise complex software solutions for performing their working tasks has been in the focus of this research. Based on data gathered from questionnaires filled-out by users of the integrated accounting and budgeting software (IABS), the confirmatory factor analysis has shown that both models demonstrate good factor, convergence and discriminatory validity, respectively. The comparison of the obtained results has been performed, and it shows that ECM-IS has a larger explanatory power (R²) over TAM, explaining 49% of the dependent variable (IS continuance intention) in relation to 29%. The IS continuance intention is determined by the users’ satisfaction and perceived usefulness. The user satisfaction is influenced by perceived usefulness and confirmation. The confirmation of the user's expectations has had a positive influence on perceived usefulness. The perceived ease of use has not exerted a significant influence on the user's intention of IS continuance.     

Tomorrow’s ethics and today’s response: An investigation into the ways information systems professionals perceive and address emerging ethical issues

This paper explores the question of how foresight and futures research can identify and address ethical issues in the field of Information Systems (IS). Starting from the premise that such IS are part of socio-technical systems, the interaction between technology and human actors raise ethical concerns. Early recognition of these concerns can address ethical issues and improve the use of the technology for a range of social and organisational goals. This paper discusses research conducted in two futures research projects. Both projects investigated emerging information and communication technologies (ICTs) and ethics. The first project established approaches for identifying future technologies and their related ethical concerns. This led to the identification of 11 emerging ICTs and their associated ethical concerns. The second project took these general ethical concerns and focused on their role in IS. Specifically, how IS professionals view future emerging technologies, their associated ethical concerns, and how they think these concerns could be addressed. The key findings are that IS professionals are primarily interested in the job at hand and less so in the ethical concerns that the job might bring; ethics is a concern that is best left for others to deal with. This paper considers the implications of research on ethics in emerging ICTs and draws general conclusions about the relevance of future technologies research in IS.     

Understanding post‐adoption IS usage stages: an empirical assessment of self‐service information systems

Organisations have invested in self‐service information systems (IS) to provide a direct interface for service delivery. Enriching the usage of these systems can provide organisations with immense benefits. However, limited research has been directed towards understanding post‐adoption IS usage behaviour in general and specifically in the context of self‐service IS. This study proposes post‐adoption IS usage behaviour as a broader concept constituting feature level usage of IS, integration of IS in the work system and exploration of new uses of IS. We evaluate how the new conceptualisation can be used to classify users at different stages of self‐service IS usage. Further, we examine user perceptions that differentiate among the users situated at different self‐service IS usage stages. Data were collected in the context of a self‐service Web‐based IS to validate the post‐adoption IS usage constructs and to examine the proposed thesis. The newly developed conceptual structure and measures for post‐adoption IS usage behaviour exhibit strong psychometric properties. The analysis shows three distinct post‐adoption IS usage stages and highlights that usefulness, user‐initiated learning, ease of use, satisfaction and voluntariness of use differentiate users at the different stages of post‐adoption IS usage. The results show that these variables aggregate into value confirmation and learning orientation as two higher‐level concepts. Further, we evaluate the predictive efficacy of the research model in classifying users into different post‐adoption self‐service IS usage stages. Implications are drawn for future research.     

IT infrastructure services as a requirement for e-learning system success

Evaluation of e-learning systems success is an essential process in managing and developing these types of systems. There are still arguments about the factors can be used to evaluate the success of e-learning systems. Inadequate attention has been paid to investigate the role of IT infrastructure services as a foundation to create the success of e-learning systems. The focus of this study is the role of IT infrastructure services in terms of the success of e-learning systems. A model is proposed which includes five constructs: IT infrastructure services; perceived usefulness; user satisfaction; customer value; and organizational value. A quantitative study was conducted at an Australian University, with survey responses from 110 Academic staff members and 720 students who use the e-learning system. The empirical study confirmed that an IT infrastructure services is a valid and reliable construct to measure e-learning systems success. In addition, this study provides evidence of the critical role of IT infrastructure services in the success of e-learning systems via its significant effect on perceived usefulness, user satisfaction, customer value, and organizational value.     

Automating and informating: roles to examine technology’s impact on performance

Previous studies on the impact of technology on performance (usefulness) have looked at the Information System (IS) in its role as supplier of information (informating role) and thus they have studied the influence of information quality and system quality on usefulness. However, an IS also has a role in the automation of tasks (automating role), which these studies do not take into account. Accordingly, this paper proposes a factor model that (1) includes explicitly both roles; (2) considers that informating and automating roles mediate the relation between these technological factors (information quality and system quality) and usefulness and (3) includes a system’s level of intervention (i.e. the degree to which technology participates in carrying out the tasks) as an additional factor that determines usefulness. Using a questionnaire, data were gathered on 229 Enterprise Resource Planning system users from different organisations and functional areas and structural equations model was used for analysis. Results show that information quality explains usefulness through both roles. System’s level of intervention explains usefulness through the automating role and system quality explains usefulness through the informating role. The factors’ differentiated effects through each role may help managers to establish more effective criteria and priorities in the various stages of an IS’s life cycle.     

Towards integrating acceptance and resistance research: evidence from a telecare case study

There is wide agreement that acceptance and resistance are crucial factors in information system (IS) adoption. Research has yielded many theories that have focused on either acceptance or resistance, often implicitly assuming that these are opposites. This paper proposes a two-factor view on acceptance and resistance, and shows how this idea may advance our knowledge of IS adoption. In developing a user reactions framework, we take a first step towards integrating the IS literature on acceptance and on resistance. This framework distinguishes between two behavioural dimensions, namely, acceptance, ranging from high use to non-use, and a dimension that ranges from enthusiastic support to aggressive resistance. Combining the two dimensions leads to four categories of user reactions. We show the framework's usefulness by analysing data from a telecare implementation project. The findings identify ambivalent reactions. Many clients are identified as supporting but non-using, while we also find telenurses and care coordinators that show themselves to be resisting but using. These findings support the view that non-acceptance and resistance are conceptually non-equivalent. Our data suggest voluntariness as one determinant of the variation in behavioural reactions encountered. We argue that the concepts are also functionally different: IS implementers will have to adapt their strategies to the different reactions described.     

Examining influencing factors of post-adoption usage of mobile internet: Focus on the user perception of supplier-side attributes

Key supplier-side factors that affect the usage level of mobile Internet were identified and the procedural mechanism among the independent and dependent variables was investigated. For this, a research model was introduced to describe associations among four external variables (access quality, service variety, cost rationality, and ease of use), an intermediate variable (usefulness) and a dependent variable (the usage level of mobile Internet). Through the on-line survey, data were gathered from actual mobile Internet users. Confirmatory factor analysis and path analysis were applied to test the overall integrity of the research model and of proposed hypotheses. All four external variables affected user perceptions on the usefulness of mobile Internet. Among them, service variety and cost rationality had a relatively larger influence on perceived usefulness. Perceived usefulness of the mobile Internet had a positive effect on its usage, confirming the important role of usefulness as a significant mediator between the four external variables and the dependent variable. Meanwhile, the cost rationality was the only external variable with direct influence on the MI usage. Theoretical and practical implications of the study results are discussed.     

An exploratory study into whether to or not to include users in the development of industrial hypermedia applications

While there is agreement among both information system (IS) practitioners and IS researchers as to the value of user participation in IS development, the correlation between user participation and actual use or user satisfaction (surrogate measures of IS success) has been equivocal. A possible reason for the contradictory findings could be that user participation is being utilised, regardless of the levels of complexity of either the system or the task. This paper describes two exploratory case studies to test this hypothesis. Industrial hypermedia applications (IHA) were developed and qualitative data collected, through usability trials, to see the effect of user participation on user perception (extrinsic motivations of use) of the system, rather than IS success. The findings show that users should participate in the development when both the IS and the task are complex. On the other hand, when both the system and the task are not complex, user participation can be kept to a minimum. Furthermore, it is recommended that user participation should not be evaluated against IS success, but against system features.

A model of organizational employees’ e-learning systems acceptance

This study examines the factors that influence employees’ adoption and use of e-learning systems and tests the applicability of the technology acceptance model (TAM) in the organizational context. We examined the relationship of employees’ perceptions of their behavioral intention to use e-learning systems in terms of four determinants (individual, organizational, task characteristics, and subjective norm), to further explore the effects of management and organizational support on the subjective norm. Data were 357 valid questionnaires from four industries in Taiwan. The findings indicate that organizational support and management support significantly affected perceived usefulness and intention to use. Individuals’ experience with computers and computer self-efficacy had significantly positive effects on perceived ease of use. Task equivocality significantly influenced perceived usefulness. Organizational and management supports significantly impacted the subjective norm, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and intention to use. Additionally, the results suggest that external variables that affect perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and intention to use, need to be considered as important factors in the process of designing, implementing, and operating e-learning systems. The results provided a more comprehensive insight of individual, organizational, and task characteristics in predicting e-learning acceptance behavior in the organizational contexts, rarely tested in previous studies. By considering these identified factors, practitioners can take corresponding measures to predict or promote organizational employees’ e-learning systems acceptance more effectively and efficiently. Furthermore, by explaining employees’ acceptance behavior, the findings of this research help to develop more user-friendly e-learning systems and provide insight into the best way to promote e-learning systems for employees.     

Exploring Factors Affecting the Adoption of Internet of Things Services

The Internet of things (IoT) is seen as a potentially effective means of integrating multiple technologies to improve the quality of life. However, little attention has been paid to factors that may have a significant effect on a user’s intention to use the IoT services. This study applies the value-based adoption model to examine the influences of benefits (i.e. perceived usefulness and perceived enjoyment) and sacrifices (i.e. perceived privacy risk and perceived costs) on the user’s perceived value of and intention to use the IoT services. A structural equation modeling approach is applied to a survey of 489 IoT users, with results indicating that perceived usefulness and perceived enjoyment significantly affect behavioral intention through perceived value. Moreover, perceived privacy risk also plays a key factor in determining IoT adoption. The implications of this study are discussed.