Date of Award

August 2015

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Department

Management Science

First Advisor

Mark D. Srite

Committee Members

Margaret Shaffer, Huimin Zhao, Hemant Jain, Xiaojing Yang

Abstract

This dissertation focuses on two research streams: IT diffusion and culture, and each can be examined in various contexts. Specifically, this study investigates IT diffusion through online social network use, knowledge sharing towards the general organizational information systems, and hospital information systems usage. In terms of culture, espoused national cultural values, IT occupational subculture, and organizational cultural variables are examined in the following essays.

Essay1: Espoused National Cultural Values and Online Social Network Use: Towards an Extension of UTAUT

Prior research has developed a number of models for examining the acceptance and use of technology. This paper extends the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) beyond the established demographic and contextual variables. Building upon research from social psychology and technology adoption, our proposed model incorporated three constructs into UTAUT: information privacy concerns, hedonic motivation, and relationship expectancy. Motivated by research where individual differences were shown to moderate the relationships of the UTAUT model, this paper investigated the effect of espoused national culture values on social network adoption. Integrating these findings into UTAUT, we formulated a model to examine the individual use of social network sites. Using data from 379 respondents, the model explained over seventy percent of the variance in intentions to use online social networks. Overall, all hypotheses were supported. The findings from this research generated both theoretical and practical implications.

Essay2: Development and Testing of a Scale to Measure the Effect of IT Occupational Subculture on Knowledge Sharing within Organization Personnel

Based on an existing conceptual framework in culture, this study developed a scale to measure IT occupational subculture. The relationship between the occupational subculture of information technology personnel and knowledge sharing in organizations was investigated. It was suggested that knowledge sharing among IT personnel and business end-users was positively affected by some elements of IT occupational subculture. Overtime, IT occupational subculture is positively affected by knowledge sharing among IT personnel and business end-users. Drawing upon cross-cultural psychology, the study presented one possible approach through which occupational subculture manifests at the organizational level of analysis and impacts the knowledge sharing process. In doing so, behaviors related to knowledge sharing and IT diffusion at the organizational level were better understood beyond the limitations of previous IT diffusion studies.

Essay3: Differentiating Eustress from Distress: An Examination of Stress Associated with HIS Use across Organizational Culture

An interesting but not yet investigated research issue is why some users complain that they are tired of using information systems while some other users actively embrace the use of such systems in their daily routine, and that this taste and associated behavior varies from person to person. Based on the job demands-resources (JD-R) model, a framework was developed to explore the antecedents of distress (negative stress) and eustress (positive stress). This study was based within the context of using hospital information systems (HIS) and we investigated two different psychological processes that played a role in the development of HIS-use strain and motivation. Additionally, espoused organizational cultural values were found to be antecedents of perceived HIS-enabled job resources (literacy support, technical support provision, technology involvement facilitation, and innovation support). While HIS-enabled job resources were positively related to eustress, HIS-enabled job demands (HIS-complexity, HIS-overload, and HIS-uncertainty) were positively related to distress. Furthermore, HIS-enabled job resource (literacy support) was found to buffer the intensity and outcome of HIS-enabled use demands - distress.

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