Saji K Mathew

We develop a framework for understanding the mechanisms of information privacy assimilation in information technology (IT) organizations. Following neo-institutional theory, we develop a broad conceptual model and further build a detailed theory based on a multi-site, multi-case study of 18 organizations. We treat information privacy as a distinct dimension separate from information security. As in the case of information security, senior management support emerged as a mediator between the external influences of coercive, mimetic, and normative forces and information privacy assimilation. Privacy capability emerged as a distinct construct that had a moderating effect on the influence of coercive and normative forces on privacy assimilation. Similarly, cultural acceptability also moderated the effect of external forces on privacy assimilation. We produce a theoretical model that future research can empirically test. The findings would enable senior managers identify and respond to institutional pressures by focusing on appropriate factors in the organizations.

We study the relationship between web personalization and individual information privacy on the customer's online buying behavior. Following a laboratory experiment we tested the differences for number of clicks and number of products added to cart with respect to two factors, namely Web Personalization and Information privacy related to a product. Our results show significant mean differences with respect to clicks and number of products added to the cart for privacy and non privacy products.

Purpose: Web personalization has been studied in different streams of research such as Marketing, Human Computer Interaction and Computer Science. However, an information systems perspective of web personalization research is very scarcely visible in this body of knowledge. This research review seeks to address two important questions: how has web personalization evolved as an integrative discipline? How has web personalization been treated in IS literature and where should researchers focus next? Design/methodology/approach: The paper intently follows an information systems perspective in its thematic classification of web personalization research which is consistent with the early conceptualization of information systems by logically mapping IS categories into web personalization research streams. Articles from 100+ journals were analyzed and important concepts related to web personalization were classified from an information systems perspective. Findings: Surrounding the theme of web personalization two parallel streams of research evolved. First stream consisted of internet business models, computer science algorithms and web mining. Second stream focussed on human computer Interaction studies, user modelling and targeted marketing. Future information systems researchers in web personalization must focus on four important areas of social media, web development methodologies, emerging Internet accessing gadgets and domains other than e-Commerce. Originality/value: Web personalization has been studied previously in separate research streams. But no integrated view from different research streams exists. Although research interest in web mining has been growing as evidenced by growing number of publications an information systems perspective of web personalization research is very scarcely visible in the body of knowledge. The authors intently follow an information systems perspective in their thematic classification of web personalization research which is consistent with the early conceptualization of information systems by logically mapping IS categories into web personalization research streams. This thematic segregation of different research streams into IS framework makes our study distinct from other early reviews. They also identify four important areas where future IS researchers should focus on. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

E-Commerce firms have adopted Web Personalization techniques extensively in the form of recommender systems for influencing user behavior for customer retention. Although there are numerous studies in this area, academic research addressing the role of Web Personalization in user acceptance of technology is very scant. Further, owing to the potential of recommender systems to attract and retain customers, most studies in web personalization have been done in E-Commerce setting. In this research, the ‘Consumer Acceptance and Use of Information Technology’ theory proposed in previous research has been extended to include web personalization as a moderator and has been tested in an E-Government context. Data collection involved conducting a laboratory experiment with the treatment group receiving personalized web forms for requesting an E-Government service. Our analyses show that personalizing the Web by self-reference and content relevance has a significant moderator role in influencing the relationship between determinants of intention to use and behavioral intention in certain cases.

This study evaluates the impact of personalization of review summaries on consumers' cognitive efforts and buying decision. Following an experimental procedure we tested four hypotheses pertaining to online buyers' decision process. Our results show that personalized review summary significantly reduces the information processing effort and information requirements of those who received personalized review summaries as compared to those who did not. This study thus contributes to e-commerce literature on online buyer behavior and recommender systems strategy.

This paper presents review of literature on global software development "G.S.D" and the use of agile methodologies in GSD. Three major themes were identified from extant literature on GSD: performance of global software development, governance related issues and software engineering process related issues. Further analysis of literature on agile methods and GSD showed that repertoire of methodologies spanning the various types of agile methods were applied related to agile methods that could be spliced or combined and tailored appropriately to produce optimal performance in the context of GSD. However, empirical studies addressing GSD-Agile fit were not found and as such require more attention in future studies. © 2012 IEEE.

An important question that online companies face today is whether their customers will use personalization services at all, given the concerns of the buyer while buying different categories of products. In this study, we argue that buying specific product categories involve embarrassment and that such products are characterized by certain emotional distress that would impact the buying behavior of consumers. We also argue that content relevant personalization may not have the same impact while buying embarrassing products as against normal products. We followed a controlled lab experiment and tested our hypotheses by analyzing click stream data such as time taken, number of clicks, and number of products added to the cart. We found that online buyers resort to reduced time to shop as a coping strategy to deal with the distress of buying embarrassing products. Our results provide evidence for customers' preference to complete the online buying process with minimum time and activities when high embarrassment products were involved, despite the provisioning of personalization. In other words, users were more concerned about their embarrassment for category of products irrespective of whether the website contents are personalized or not. These research findings would help e-commerce service providers to fine tune their web personalization and recommendation strategies.

Using a classical framework in innovation adoption, this study focussed on BI systems adoption in two Indian retail organisations belonging to two different segments. One case site belonged to a small scale fashion retail which was owned by a single individual with two outlets. The owner made most major decisions usually based on intuition. The use of software was usually limited to spreadsheets. The other type involved a retailer who had numerous outlets all over India. With a professional management and major investments in centralised information technology infrastructure and applications, business decisions were sometimes supported by business intelligence software developed solely for the purpose of assessing sales and managing stocks scientifically. However BI systems were not yet strategically deployed as an engine for competition. Copyright © 2011 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

Firms across the industry segments have been exploring cloud computing to derive benefits out of its technological features. Even though literature pertaining to cloud adoption by firms exists, the factors based on cloud-specific characteristics are mostly anecdotal in nature. Following a multiple case study approach, we identify factors specific to cloud technology adoption by firms. We further explain the differential adoption of the cloud between large and small firms. Overall we obtained 11 variables that differentiate large firms and SMEs in their adoption behavior. We further contribute to theory by mapping the extracted variables of cloud adoption to Diffusion of innovation theory (DOI) and Technology organization Environment framework (TOE).

The impact of IT infrastructure capability on the performance of a firm has been addressed quite sufficiently in the past literature but how these factors when coupled together to study the impact on E-Governance performance is yet to garner the main focus of attention. Effective E-Government readiness is characterised by efficient deployment of ICT infrastructure capability and the same has been recognized worldwide in the various studies on EGovernment. A two phased study was proposed to meet the objectives defined for this research. This paper describes the work completed in the first phase. In the first phase of the study, an exploratory study was conducted to identify, articulate and contextualize variables extracted from literature survey and field survey. Finally, based on the exploratory study, the author’s work lays the groundwork for the development of a conceptual framework along with suggested methodology for understanding how ICT infrastructure capability affects E-Governance performance and direction for future work.