Journal of Management Information Systems

Volume 37 Number 1 2020 pp. 1-11

Editorial Introduction

Zwass, Vladimir

Network effects are the grounding of many highly successful business models in the contemporary commerce with online aspects. Although such effects are more frequently claimed than realized, the super-linear value increase with each additional customer is a powerful means for the platforms to expand their market (and other) power with their size. There are several kinds of network effects, they vary in their degree, and they are not always positive. Being able to estimate the magnitude of such effects is of a great moment as we witness the entrenchment and the expansion of the leading platforms in several industry segments. These effects, particularly if data-based, also allow the platforms to cross the boundaries of their industries. Indeed, today’s regulatory debates turn to a large degree on our ability to assess network effects in specific cases. The first paper of the issue makes a significant contribution to this ability. Oliver Hinz, Thomas Otter, and Bernd Skiera propose and test a new model for the estimation of network effects in two-sided markets, the common seller-buyer marketplaces these days prominently realized by large intermediary platforms. Positive network effects present themselves both in the increased ability to attract new customers and in the increased activity of the existing ones. Supported by a more granular data set, the influx-outflow model offered here includes both same-side and cross-side effects and accounts not only for the acquisition of new actors on the platform but also for their inactivity or exit. The cumulating data and other advantages of bigness affect market entry and the capacity of autonomous growth of the relatively successful more recent entrants, leading to market distortions, and this research should be studied carefully and built upon. The ability of enhanced estimation will also be, perhaps ironically, of advantage to the principal beneficiaries of the network effects. As the authors build on the prior work, so this contribution will be a foundation of further research in this important area.

With behavioral economics, we learn ever more about the homo economicus as an actual human being as opposed to a utility-maximizing stick figure the Latin designation has come to stand for. We know that an individual’s willingness to pay is not a fixed number, but rather a contingent amount influenced by some the four Ps of classical marketing. How can this amount be affected in e-commerce by priming in the form of digital nudging? This is the question tackled empirically by Alan R. Dennis, Lingyao (Ivy) Yuan, Xuan Feng, Eric Webb, and Christine J. Hsieh in the next paper. The authors compare the effects of two forms of nudging: numeric and semantic (via prior exposure to related products). A nudge can be delivered online in the form of an advertisement. The analysis is conducted in the terms of System 1 (automatic) and System 2 (deliberate) cognitions. The authors find significant impacts of anchoring via digital nudging, with several contingent and differential effects with respect to the type of nudging and the nature of the price (fixed versus discovered in an auction).

The digitalization of our world spells profound changes to our labor markets, the availability of human labor places, and the nature of human labor. Two papers investigate different aspects of this. David Durward, Ivo Blohm, and Jan Marco Leimeister focus on crowd work, conducted by extra-organizational individuals reached, selected, and organized online. In the context of the developed economies, the authors take the perspective of crowd workers and inquire into their satisfaction and identification with crowd work in dependence on financial compensation and the task characteristics. Deploying the self-determination theory of human motivation, the researchers use the data of several crowd working platforms to tease out the dependencies between these two aspects of crowd work, where fractured tasks and low pay often sap workers’ motivation. Contributing to the theory of IT-based work, the authors also have advice to offer to the designers of crowd working platforms.

Software permeates our economic and personal life. A thick understanding of software development processes and habitus is therefore of key importance. Here, Shahla Ghobadi and Lars Mathiassen present the results of a qualitative study of software developers who are what the authors term precocious users of social networking, in other words, individuals whose social activities have revolved around these facilities since early age. What are the distinct expectations of these generational cohorts? How do they perceive the product- and process-related objectives of software development? This research accomplished several ends. The usefulness of the generational perspective on the workforce is affirmed. The co-evolutionary view, in which the social context created in part by the powerful new tools evolves together with the expectations and norms of the new digital workforce, has yielded a more granular understanding of this workforce. We can hope that this understanding will lead to more robust software, greater developer satisfaction, and societal good beyond those.

In the next paper, Mario Silic and Paul Benjamin Lowry address the perennial problem of compliance with the organizational IS security by gamifying security training, relying on established theories of motivation and learning. They also deploy the hedonic-motivation system adoption model, co-proposed earlier by one of the authors. Thus, if the sometimes dreary training process can bring fun or even joy to the learners, and they can be motivated to learn, corporate security can be significantly enhanced. Notably, the authors use a field experiment to test the relevant propositions. Indeed, they apply a design-science approach to move from the proof-of-concept to the proof-of-value of the gamified training system. They also set out the procedure for establishing proof-of-use in a broader testing. This is a very promising approach that may be applied more broadly in IT-based organizational training.

Online communities suffer, decline, or cease due to member inactivity. Jungwon Kuem, Lara Khansa, and Sung S. Kim contribute to our theory-based understanding of what can be done about it. They define prominence of the community in the members’ thoughts and feelings as a construct different from and complementary to the members’ engagement in the community. The authors analyze the differences between the two constructs in the context of self-determination theory, operationalize the new construct, and test their model with the data collected from a highly popular social networking platform. The prominence-engagement model proposed by the researchers displays stronger explanatory power than the engagement-only approach to the antecedents of the members’ active contribution to the community. The obvious theoretical contribution is accompanied by guidance to platform offerors.

We know full well that malicious hackers are a bane of our existence. The authors of the next paper, Ravi Sen, Ajay Verma, and Gregory R. Heim find a silver lining (or, rather, a silver patch). In a formal modeling of the software marketplace, they show that the presence of such hackers may result in a competitive marketplace where their absence could lead to a monopoly. Beyond that, in their two-platform model the authors establish that — under the circumstances they describe — software platform under hacker attack may drive a more secure platform out of business. There is an experiential and intuitive backing for the authors’ contention, and they present it. They also draw up regulatory implications in their conclusions.

IT-enabled collaborative innovation by multiple firms can bring in truly valuable fruit owing to the multiple kinds of diversity. This fruit is also difficult to reach for — again, due to the diversity and what the authors term knowledge distance. What capabilities need to be honed and actualized by the partnering firms to support such collaboration and counteract this distance? Tingru Cui, Yu Tong, Hock-Hai Teo, and Jizhen Li address this question in their multi-method research work where they develop and test a model with the data from 258 firms. The authors focus on the IT capabilities in dyadic collaboration arrangements. They address both the product and the process aspects and offer both a theoretical contribution and managerial advice based on it. The rich qualitative data makes for a rich paper.

Many IT platforms deliver their services via application programming interfaces (APIs). As assert the authors of the next paper, Jochen Wulf and Ivo Blohm, we still need a unifying theory of the design of such interfaces in order to deliver strategic results to the platforms. Based on their survey-based data collection, the authors proceed to develop a model of the interaction between the three archetypal API designs they identify and the two value creation strategies: production economies of scope and innovation. Combined with cloud computing, the API paradigm for platforms will see further and more intensive deployment. No doubt, the present work will see further expansion and refinement.

As a relatively new form of fintech, peer-to-peer (P2P) lending is a form of crowdsourcing of money that — if implemented properly — can bring high returns to lenders and, as compared to the alternatives, low cost to borrowers. The “if” is the risk, and the proper implementation turns on the assessment of that risk. In the concluding paper of the issue, Zhao Wang, Cuiqing Jiang, Huimin Zhao, and Yong Ding present and evaluate empirically a novel method of credit risk evaluation in the domain. They use text mining to automatically extract semantically meaningful soft factors from the loan-request descriptions. When combined with the hard factors generally used in credit assessment, the mined and processed soft factors show superior performance with respect to the current methods. Lowering the risk of funding in P2P marketplaces lowers the prevailing interest rates, assists in the securitization of loans, and expands the domain. We have here a novel mining technique, a superior credit assessment method, and a way to broaden the use of peer-to-peer lending owing to an increased trust in the overall system.

As we enter the new publication year, we are welcoming the new members of JMIS Editorial Board: Indranil R. Bardhan (University of Texas at Austin), Geneviève Bassellier(McGill University), Line Dubé (HEC Montréal), Janis L. Gogan (Bentley University), Lara Khansa (Virginia Tech), Fei Ren (Peking University), Yuqing Ren (University of Minnesota), and Carsten Sørensen (London School of Economics and Political Science). The long-term service of Nabil R. Adam, Robert O. Briggs, John C. Henderson, and Tosiyasu L. Kunii, who are leaving the Board, is being recognized and acknowledged.

The opening of the 37th JMIS volume is also an occasion to offer tanks to the Journal’s referees, the primary guarantors of the quality of the papers we publish. Here are the names of our reviewers:

Marc Adam

Ashish Agarwal

Manju Ahuja

Hyung Jun Ahn

JaeHyeon Ahn

Tolga Akcura

Eleftherios Alamanos

Oliver Alexy

Muhammad Aljukhadar

Paul Alpar

Kemal Altinkemer

Naveen Amblee

Bonnie Anderson

Corey Angst

Ofer Arazy

Kursad Asdemir

Yoris Au

Hyunmi Baek

Qing Bai

Akhilesh Bajaj

Hillol Bala

Subhajyoti Bandyopadhyay

Youngsok Bang

Gaurav Bansal

Qing Bao

Reza Barkhi

Henri Barki

Jordan Barlow

Richard Baskerville

Genevieve Basselier

Dinesh Batra

Daniel Beimborn

D. France Belanger

Skip Benamati

Michel Benaroch

Hind Benbya

Victor Benjamin

Alexander Benlian

François Bergeron

Ganesh Bhatt

Sudip Bhattacharjee

Tammo Bijmolt

David Biros

Ivo Blohm

Jesse Bockstedt

Riccardo Bonazzi

Antal van den Bosch

Indranil Bose

Laura Brandimarte

Tobias Brandt

Nicola Breugst

Glenn J. Browne

Sebastian Bruque

Scott Buffett

Judee Burgoon

Andrew Burton-Jones

Ashley Bush

Brian Butler

Terry A. Byrd

Sonia M. Camacho

Jinwei Cao

Lan Cao

Hasan Cavusoglu

Ron Cenfetelli

Hsin-Lu Chang

Young Bong Chang

Mohamed-Hédi Charki

Sutirtha Chatterjee

Michael Chau

Patrick Chau

Aihui Chen

Andrew Chen

Daniel Chen

Guoqing Chen

Hailiang Chen

Hong-Mei Chen

Hsinchun Chen

Jianqing Chen

Jin Chen

Kay-Yut Chen

Kuan Chen

Li Chen

Min Chen

Rui Chen

Wei Chen

Hsing Kenneth Cheng

Xusen Cheng

Yi Cheng

Christy M.K. Cheaung

Mike Cheung

Roger Chiang

Benjamin Chiao

Ananth Chiravuri

Chaochang Chiu

Jong-min Choe

Ben Choi

H. Michael Chung

Sunghun Chung

Wingyan Chung

Theodore H. Clark

Randolph Cooper

Kevin Craig

Robert E. Crossler

Kevin Crowston

Qizhi Dai

John D’Arcy

Elizabeth Davidson

Gregory Dawson

Jason Dedrick

Benedict Dellaert

Chrysanthos Dellarocas

Haluk Demirkan

Tianjie Deng

Xuefei Deng

Amit Deokar

Sarv Devaraj

Rajiv Dewan

Debabrata Dey

Jens Dibbern

Indika Dissanayake

Su Dong

Tianxi Dong

Quanzhou Du

Line Dubé

Peter Duchessi

Robert Easley

Dana Edberg

Christophe Elie-Dit-Cosaque

Aaron Elkins

Mike Eom

Sean B. Eom

J. Alberto Espinosa

Andrea Everard

Kelly Fadel

Ming Fan

Patrick Fan

Xiao Fang

Yu-Hui Fang

Yulin Fang

Dennis Fehrenbacher

Rei Fen

Jane Feng

Xuan Feng

Daniel R. Fesenmaier

Thomas A. Fischer

Jerry Fjermestad

Chris Forman

Chiara Francalanci

Shixuan Fu

Johann Füller

Brent Furneaux

John Gallaugher

Gordon Gao

Hong Gao

Monica Garfield

Rajiv Garg

Ina Garnefeld

Ruyi Ge

Hosssein Ghasemkhani

Abhijeet Ghoshal

Janis L. Gogan

Kim Huat Goh

Thomas Goh

Sigi Goode

Dale Goodhue

Anand Gopal

Ram D. Gopal

Peter Gray

Dawn G. Gregg

Shirley Gregor

Ulrike Gretzel

Robert K. Griffin

Michael D. Grigoriades

Xitong Guo

Xunhua Guo

Yue Guo

Zhiling Guo

Saurabh Gupta

Nicole Haggerty

Jungpil Hahn

Kunsoo Han

Ingoo Han

Lin Hao

Andrew Hardin

Taha Havakhor

Matthew Hashim

Irina Heimbach

Cheng-Suang Heng

Hemantha Herath

Tejaswini Herath

Traci Hess

Alan R. Hevner

Oliver Hinz

Chad (Yi-Chun) Ho

Susanna Ho

Christian P. Hoffmann

Richard Hoffman

Jason Hong

Kevin Hong

Weiyin Hong

Yili (Kevin) Hong

Zhe Hong

John A. Hoxmeier

Jove Hou

Jeffrey Hu

Nan Hu

Paul Hu

Qing Hu

Yuheng Hu

Chun-Yao Huang

Ming-Hui Huang

Shiu-Li Huang

Wayne Huang

Xiaowen Huang

Thomas Huber

Kai Lung Hui

Wendy Hui

Ard Huizing

Ghiyong Im

Gretchen I. Irwin

Anja Ischebeck

Varghese Jacob

Bharat A. Jain

Hemant Jain

Jeevan Jaisingh

Tabitha James

Dietmar Jannach

Jeff Jenkins

Matthew Jensen

James J. Jiang

Qiqi Jiang

Yang Jiang

Zhengrui Jiang

Zhenhui Jiang

Gong Jing

Monica Johar

Alice Johnson

Eric Johnson

Emmanuel Josserand

Surinder Kahai

Arnold Kamis

P.K. Kannan

Maurits Kaptein

Prasanna Karhade

Jahangir Karimi

Sabrina Karwatzki

Michael Kattan

Timothy Kayworth

Weiling Ke

Mark Keith

William J. Kettinger

Lara Khansa

Moutaz Khouja

Melody Y. Kiang

Antino Kim

Byung Cho Kim

Dan J. Kim

Dongmin Kim

Hee-Woong Kim

Keongtae Kim

Kihoon Kim

Seung Hyun Kim

Sung S. Kim

Taekyung Kim

Young-Gul Kim

Ruth King

Rajiv Kishore

Brent Kitchens

Giban Khuntia

Gary Klein

Richard Klein

Sven Kleinknecht

Stefan Knoll

Cenk Kocas

Chang Koh

Rajiv Kohli

Tobias Kollman

Praveen K. Kopalle

Kenneth A. Kozar

Oliver Krancher

Ramayya Krishnan

Kevin Kuan

Akhil Kumar

Naveen Kumar

Ram Kumar

Subodha Kumar

Jason Kuruzovich

Hyeokkoo Eric Kwon

Juhee Kwon

Ohbyung Kwon

Atanu Lahiri

Karl R. Lang

Nishtha Langer

Kai R. Larsen

Michael Lash

Benjiang Lee

Brian Lee

ByungJoon Lee

Byungtae Lee

Daniel Lee

Dong-Joo Lee

Gene Moo Lee

Goonwoong Lee

Gwanhoo Lee

Heeseok Lee

Ho Geun Lee

Hyung Koo Lee

Jong Seok Lee

Jungwoo Lee

Thomas Lee

Yang Lee

Youngjin Lee

Pierre-Majorique Léger

Christine Lehrer

Dorothy Leidner

Chen Li

Dahui Li

Jiexun Li

Mengxiang Li

Seth Li

Shengli Li

Ting Li

Weifeng Li

Xiaobai Li

Xiaotong Li

Xin Li

XinXin Li

Xitong Li

Yan Li

Chen Liang

Huigang Liang

Nan (Peter) Liang

Ting-Peng Liang

Paul Licker

John Lim

Shi Ying Lim

Aleck Lin

Fu-ren Lin

Mei Lin

Zhijie Lin

Charles Zhechao Liu

De Liu

Jun Liu

Ying Liu

Yipeng Liu

Alexandre Lopes

Paul B. Lowry

Benjiang Lu

Jingdu Lu

Yixin Lu

Henry C. Lucas, Jr.

Andy Luse

Christoph Lutz

Mark Lycett

Kristina McElheran

Jane M. Mackay

Dan Ma

Xiao Ma

Ephraim R. McLean

Massimo Magni

Pruthikrai Mahatanankoon

M. Adam Mahmood

Bin Mai

Feng Mai

Ronald Maier

Yogesh Malhotra

Deepa Mani

Ravi Mantena

Kent Marett

Panos Markopoulos

Likoebe M. Maruping

Anne P. Massey

Lars Mathiassen

Sabine Matook

Kurt Matzler

Xiaowei Mei

Martin Meissner

Nigel Melville

Philip Menard

Nirup Menon

Thomas Meservy

Shaila Miranda

Dinesh Mirchandani

Abhay Nath Mishra

Stephanie Missonier

Kannan Mohan

William Money

Ali R. Montazemi

Ramiro Montealegre

Alan Montgomery

Greg Moody

Jolene Morrison

Oliver Mueller

Barin N. Nag

Fiona Nah

Guofang Nan

Ravi Narayanaswamy

Derek Nazareth

Matthew Nelson

R. Ryan Nelson

Boon Siong Neo

Derrick Neufeld

Dirk Neumann

Dorit Nevo

Saggi Nevo

Michael Newman

Tingting Nian

Mark Nissen

Dmitri Nizovtsev

Oded Nov

Jeong-ha Oh

Joo Hee Oh

Lih-Bin Oh

Onook Oh

Wonseok Oh

Bob O’Keefe

Lorne Olfman

James Oliver

Nadia Olivero

Bob Otondo

Peter Otto

Eric Overby

Zafer D. Ozdemir

Asil Oztekin

Gautam Pant

Manoj Parameswaran

Michael Parent

Insu Park

SungJune Park

Craig Parker

Bhavik K. Pathak

Praveen Pathak

Ravi Patnayakuni

Souren Paul

David J. Pauleen

Kenneth Peffers

Robin Pennington

Christoph Peters

Chee-Wei Phang

Roger A. Pick

Alain Pinsonneault

Selwyn Piramuthu

Huseyin Polat

Jean-Charles Pomerol

Jaana Porra

Constance Porter

Clay Posey

John H. Prager

David Preston

Jeffrey Proudfoot

Sandeep Purao

Jessica Pye

Hamed Qahri-Saremi

Liangfei Qiu

Lingyun Qiu

Xin Xue Qu

Wen Guang Qu

Arik Ragowsky

Rex Kelly Rainer, Jr.

Balaraman Rajan

Vandana Ramachandran

Arkalgud Ramaprasad

Bala Ramesh

R. Ravichandran

Gautam Ray

Louis Raymond

Jan Recker

Blaize Horner Reich

Bruce Reinig

Fei Ren

Paul Resnick

Hyuen-Suk Rhee

Amir Riaz

William B. Richmond

Christoph Riedl

René Riedl

Lionel Robert

Nicholas Roberts

Michael Rogich

Huaxia Rui

Ko de Ruyter

Sherry D. Ryan

Young U. Ryu

Michael Sacks

Khawaja Saeed

Rajib Saha

Otavio Sanchez

G. Lawrence Sanders

Radhika Santhanam

Saonee Sarker

Surendra Sarnikar

Carol Saunders

Kevin Scheibe

George Schell

Michael Schermann

Hans J. Scholl

Petra Schubert

Ryan Schuetzler

Judy Scott

Isabella Seeber

Eric See-To

Stefan Seidel

Ravi Sen

Sagnika Sen

Sylvain Sénécal

Alexander Serenko

Nainika Seth

Vikram Sethi

Theresa M. Shaft

Zhe Shan

Tushar Shanker

Raj Sharman

Jim Sheffield

Hong Sheng

Zhan Shi

Hung-Pin Shih

Choon-Ling Sia

Siew Kien Sia

Keng Siau

Anna Sidorova

Michael Siering

Mark Silver

Harpreet Singh

Param Vir Singh

Atish P. Sinha

Sumit Sircar

Bernd Skiera

Stefan Smolnik

Jaeki Song

Scott Spangler

William E. Spangler

Rajendra P. Srivastava

Shirish C. Srivastava

Thomas F. Stafford

Eric W. Stein

Dennis Steininger

Stefan Stieglitz

Theofanis C. Stratopoulos

Diane M. Strong

Ayoung Su

Mani Subramani

Chandra Subramaniam

Ramanath Subramanyam

Daewon Sun

Heshan Sun

Tianshu Sun

Arun Sundararajan

Shankar Sundaresan

Juliana Sutanto

Ali Tafti

Paul P. Tallon

Chee-Wee Tan

Chuan-Hoo Tan

Yao-Hua Tan

Yuliang (Ricky) Tan

Quian Tang

Xinlin Tang

Yong Tang

Mohan R. Tanniru

Nolan Taylor

Orkun Temizkan

Gary F. Templeton

Hock Hai Teo

Thompson Teo

Matthew Thatcher

Ferdinand Thies

Dominic Thomas

Ron Thompson

James Y.L. Thong

Ryad Titah

Monica Chiarini Tremblay

Manuel Trenz

Dimitrios Tsekouras

Yanbin Tu

Ofir Turel

Tuure Tuunanen

Doug Twitchell

Nathan W. Twyman

Sonja Utz

Rustam Vahidov

Peter van Baalen

Wietske van Osch

Ganesan Vaidyanathan

Daniel Veit

Goetz Viering

Leo Vijayasarathy

Padmal Vitharana

Joseph Vithayatil

Douglas Vogel

Sebastian Voigt

Jan vom Brocke

Heinz-Theo Wagner

Eric Walden

Jeffrey Wall

Joseph Walls

Zhiping Walter

Alan Wang

Bin Wang

Chong (Alex) Wang

Eric T.G. Wang

Jingguo Wang

Michael S. Wang

Qiu-Hong Wang

Shane Wang

Shouhong Wang

Sophia Wang

Weiquan Wang

Xin Wang

Yinglei Wang

Y. Richard Wang

Deepa Wani

Sidne Ward

Mary Beth Watson-Manheim

Sunil Wattal

Thomas Weber

Chih-Ping Wei

Markus Weinmann

Tim Weitzel

John Wells

Michael Wessel

Robert West

Jonathan Whitaker

Michael E. Whitman

Jeffrey L. Whitten

George Widmeyer

Rolf Wigand

Fons Wijnhoven

E. Vance Wilson

Robert Winter

Christopher Wolfe

Christina Wong

Charles A. Wood

Hans Wortmann

Ryan Wright

Dazhong Wu

Choon Ling Xia

Lan Xia

Xiao Xiao

Mingdi Xin

Guiyang Xiong

David Xu

Heng Xu

Junjie (Calvin) Xu

Jennifer Xu

Lizhen Xu

Peng Xu

Yunjie (Calvin) Xu

Ling Xue

Lucy Yan

Yinping Yang

Zhiyong Yang

Oliver Yao

Cheng Yi

Denny Yin

Zhitao Yin

Byungjoon Yoo

Ivy Yuan

Yufei Yuan

Wei T. Yue

Chun Zeng

Xiaouhua Zeng

Dongsong Zhang

Han Zhang

John Zhang

Kungpeng Zhang

Ping Zhang

Xiaoquan Zhang

Yulei Zhang

Zhu Zhang

Huimin Zhao

J. Leon Zhao

Kang Zhao

Kexin Zhao

Xia Zhao

Zhiqiang Zheng

Lei Zhou

Lina Zhou

Phil Zhou

Wenqi Zhou

Yilu Zhou

Zhongyun Zhou

Hongwei Zhu

Wenqi Zhu

Youlong Zhuang

David Zimbra

Let us turn our attention to the papers of the first issue of our 37th volume.