Motivating information system engineers’ acceptance of Privacy by Design in China: An extended UTAUT model

Given the serious issues caused by privacy leakage, Privacy by Design (PbD) is gaining the attention of professionals as a new privacy protection paradigm with enormous potential. This study proposes a UTAUT-based integrated model from the perspective of information system (IS) engineers, and explores the determinants of PbD implementation. The implementation of PbD and privacy protection measures relay heavily on IS engineers. However, there is a paucity of research exploring IS engineers’ acceptance of PbD, particularly research that considers engineers’ individualized factors and personal attitudes. Empirical data collected from 261 IS engineers in China demonstrate the rationality of proposed model and the importance of integrating conceptual constructs. The findings suggest that IS engineers’ attitude towards PbD implementation significantly impacts both their behavioral intention and their implementing behavior. IS engineers’ awareness of PbD is a predictor of their effort and performance expectancies, and intention to implement; IS engineers’ effort and performance expectancies concerning PbD usage have significantly impact on their attitude towards PbD. This study reveals the factors that motivate IS engineers to implement PbD into their workflow and proposes for the first time that IS engineers’ attitude towards PbD usage is the key factor for PbD implementation.     

Engineering Privacy by Design: Are engineers ready to live up to the challenge?

Organizations struggle to comply with legal requirements as well as customers’ calls for better data protection. On the implementation level, incorporation of privacy protections in products and services depends on the commitment of the engineers who design them. We interviewed six senior engineers, who work for globally leading IT corporations and research institutions, to investigate their motivation and ability to comply with privacy regulations. Our findings point to a lack of perceived responsibility, control, autonomy, and frustrations with interactions with the legal world. While we increasingly call on engineers to go beyond functional requirements and be responsive to human values in our increasingly technological society, we may be facing the dilemma of asking engineers to live up to a challenge they are currently not ready to embrace.     

A “Grand Challenge”: Measuring Information Societies

Even though there has been a proliferation of e-society measures in recent years, analyses of the metrics of the “information society” are still far from responsive to the needs of many stakeholders and continue to suffer from a number of serious limitations. Issues in eight critical areas are briefly presented. They include: definition of the universe to be measured; definition of the objects and phenomena to include in the universe; need to establish measurements based upon solid theories; units of measurements; data sources and collection; methods of analysis and construction of indicators; target audiences; and purpose and utilization of measurements. An organized collective effort, which could provide the impetus for the development of a coherent academic field of study, is called for to address this “grand challenge.”     

Privacy lost: The Net, autonomous agents, and ‘virtual information’

The positive qualities of the Internet--anonymity, openness, and reproducibility have added a new ethical dimension to the privacy debate. This paper describes a new and significant way in which privacy is violated. A type of personal information, called virtual information is described and the effectiveness of techniques to protect this type of information is examined. This examination includes a discussion of technical approaches and professional standards as ways to address this violation of virtual information.     

A Reviews of: “Towards a Sustainable Information Society: Deconstructing WSIS”

Abstract

In an effort to confront the key issue of where the information society is leading us, this essay begins where most discussions leave off: if advanced industrial societies are dedicating increasingly greater resources to the use of information services and technologies, what is the value of information in organizational and governmental processes? To assess the value of information: information technology, information/library science, information resource management, value/burden, organizational theory, and the economic theory of information. Based on this overview, we propose a conceptual framework which is sensitive to the major objectives and assumptions of previous approaches, but which also attempts to expand the criteria for the assessment of information value.     

A Review of: “The Information Revolution and Developing Countries”

There is an increasing rhetoric from politicians for universities to become more involved in policy analysis and policy research. In this article, we reflect on our experiences of the analysis we conducted into the legislation to introduce biometric identity cards in the United Kingdom. We highlight how our work had direct consequences for the ongoing policy deliberation around this controversial piece of legislation. In particular, we highlight our role in the debate surrounding the government's figures for identity fraud and the concerns about the likely cost of the scheme to the government and taxpayer. We end the article by discussing some of the practical realities of such a foray into real politik.     

Investigating consumers’ online social shopping intention: An information processing perspective

Online social media is transforming the way customers communicate and exchange product information with others. Consumers increasingly rely on the opinions and recommendations from social media members when making purchasing decisions. However, information received from social media may have different meanings and social implications for consumers. Based on the theory of informational social influence and heuristic-systematic model (HSM), we develop a model to understand the relative importance of informational social influence, normative social influence, and perceived information quality on the consumer’s social shopping intention under different levels of product involvement. The results of the structural equation modeling (SEM) using a sample of 503 consumers in the Facebook brand fan pages indicate that social influences have a greater impact on the consumer’s social shopping intention than perceived information quality. Three social interactional factors (perceived similarity, familiarity, and expertise) have a positive effect on social shopping intention via the mediation of informational, normative social influence and perceive information quality. The multiple-group analysis suggests that high product-involved consumers are motivated to exert more cognitive effort to evaluate the product information. In contrast, low product-involved consumers are more susceptible to informational social influence. We draw on these findings to offer implications for researchers and practitioners.     

Design and environmental technologies: Does ‘green-matching’ actually help?

This paper investigates whether a green kind of design helps firms increase their capabilities for inventing in the environmental domain and whether it does so more than ‘standard’ design. It also investigates whether the effect of ‘green-matching’ between new design and technologies is conditional on firms’ innovative capabilities, as reflected by their R&D expenditure. We address these research questions with respect to the world's top R&D investors, looking at their intellectual property rights at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and proposing an original textual identification of green designs and trademarks. We find that green design increases environmental inventions by top R&D investors, and to a greater extent than non-environmental ones. Standard design also stimulates environmental inventions, but to a lesser extent than green design. The ‘green-matching’ actually helps, but internal innovative capabilities are required to make it effective: a green-tech ‘prize’ emerges from green design, but only once a minimum threshold of R&D expenditure has been reached.     

Customers’ purchase decision-making process in social commerce: A social learning perspective

The proliferation of social commerce has changed customers’ purchase decision-making process. However, few studies have investigated the roles of social commerce factors on customers’ purchase decision-making. Based on the social learning theory, we develop a research model to examine how customers’ learning behavior along three main social commerce components (SCCs) affects customers’ attitude in both cognitive and affective dimensions and how such attitude determines customers’ purchase intention. The results from a survey of 243 actual users of social commerce websites suggest that cognitive and affective appraisals are the main predictors of purchase intention, with cognitive appraisal having a higher predictive power than affective appraisal. In addition, learning from forums and communities and learning from ratings and reviews have significant influences on both cognitive and affective appraisals, while learning from forums and communities plays a more important role in formulating affective appraisal and learning from ratings and reviews plays a more important role in determining cognitive appraisal. Contrary to our expectation, learning from social recommendations has no significant influence on either cognitive or affective appraisal. In summary, these findings provide a comprehensive understanding about customers’ purchase decision-making process and extend the application scope of social learning theory. The findings also provide social commerce managers guidance in designing more effective websites and allocating resources and efforts reasonably on different SCCs.     

Patients’ emotional bonding with MHealth apps: An attachment perspective on patients’ use of MHealth applications

While mobile health applications (mHealth apps) have attracted considerable practical and research attention in recent years, very few information systems (IS) studies have ever investigated patients’ use of mHealth apps. We draw insights from attachment theory, which states that when individuals experience fatigue or stress, they tend to develop affectionate bonds with objects that attend to their needs. Our study provides an evolutionary view on how patients’ attaining satisfaction of their basic needs through using mHealth apps leads to their emotional bonding with the mHealth apps and consequently contributes to their overall well-being. We surveyed 113 patients who used an mHealth app for hospitalization and discharge advice and education. We found that (a) patients’ emotional bonding with the apps mediated the impacts of autonomy and relatedness needs satisfaction on their well-being in terms of enhanced IT-enabled self-esteem and reduced post-surgery physical symptoms; and (b) autonomy need satisfaction positively and negatively moderated the impacts of competence and relatedness needs satisfaction, respectively, on patients’ emotional bonding with mHealth apps. Our findings not only contribute to the technology use literature and extend the interpretation of attachment theory in the IS field, but also yield practical insights for managers and developers who work in the mHealth industry.     

An empirical study of brand microblog users’ unfollowing motivations: The perspective of push-pull-mooring model

Brand microblogs (BMs) have been increasingly utilized by companies to facilitate communication and foster deeper relationships with their customers. In addition to attracting new followers, retaining existing followers is equally, if not more, important to the success of BM operators. Drawing upon the migration theory, this study develops a push-pull-mooring (PPM) model of BM unfollowing motivations to enhance our understanding of the significant antecedents that promote BM users’ unfollowing intention. The study empirically investigates the three categories of antecedents of the BM unfollowing intention: push (dissatisfaction with information quality, dissatisfaction with service quality, and person brand unfit), pull (alternative attractiveness), and mooring (perceived unfollowing costs) effects. The results suggest that the three groups of unfollowing motivations display varying degrees of influence on BM users’ unfollowing intention. Theoretical and managerial implications of the findings of this study are also discussed.     

Game mechanics and technological mediation: an ethical perspective on the effects of MMORPG’s

In the past decades, video games have grown from a niche market to one of the major entertainment media, enticing millions of players worldwide. When ethical aspects of video games are being debated, the discussion oftentimes revolves around effects of their content, such as violence. This paper argues that effects of game mechanics, such as reward mechanisms, should be considered as well, as these are at the core of the appeal of games. We analyze the ethical dimension of behavioral game design present in Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPG’s). Using the framework of technological mediation, we show how opaque and seductive game mechanics can invite problematic usage patterns, such as excessive use with negative effects on well-being, and how designers can take responsibility for morally acceptable impact of their games. Having a practical focus, the paper concludes with several proposals for better design.     

The acceptance of instruments in instrument mix situations: Citizens’ perspective on Swiss energy transition

Citizens are the target group of sustainability policies, and their acceptance and subsequent behavioral change are key in transition processes. But what drives citizens to accept new instruments that will be added to a pre-existing instrument mix? To answer this question, we suggest an innovative combination of sustainability transitions and social acceptance research, and examine the case of Swiss energy turnaround. We rely on data from a representative sample of the Swiss resident population. By estimating logistic multi-response models, we disentangle individual and context-related factors that drive instrument preferences in a instrument mix situation. We conclude that it is mainly individual factors (values in favor of nuclear phasing out and climate mitigation) that positively impact the acceptance of instruments that promote the larger energy transitions through renewables. Additionally, the self-contribution of citizens (energy pro-sumers) seems to shape preferences more than current policies of their own jurisdiction.