When employees are motivated to master computer technologies like business analytics programs, point-of-sale systems, and knowledge management systems, creativity ensues.
A new study co-authored by Professor Alain Pinsonneault establishes that with the right employees, even standard IT can become a tool for generating new ideas. The key to innovation is not necessarily specialized technology, the study finds. Instead, it all comes back to the employee鈥檚 ability to leverage what already exists.
Authors: Emmanuelle Vaast and Alain Pinsonneault
Publication: MIS Quarterly, Forthcoming
Abstract:
Occupations are increasingly embedded with and affected by digital technologies. These technologies both enable and threaten occupational identity and create two important tensions: they make the persistence of an occupation possible while also potentially rendering it obsolete and they bring about both similarity and distinctiveness of an occupation with regard to other occupations. Based on the critical case study of an online community dedicated to data science, we investigate longitudinally how data scientists address the two tensions of occupational identity associated with digital technologies and reach transient syntheses in terms of 鈥渙ptimal distinctiveness鈥� and 鈥減ersistent extinction.鈥� We propose that identity work associated with digital technologies follows a composite life-cycle and dialectical process. We explain that people constantly need to adjust and redefine their occupational identity (i.e., how they define who they are and what they do). We contribute to scholarship on digital technologies and identity work by illuminating how people deal in an ongoing manner with digital technologies that simultaneously enable and threaten their occupational identity.
Authors: S. Chung, Animesh Animesh, Kunsoo Han and Alain Pinsonneault
Publication: Information Systems Research, Volume 30, Issue 3, September 2019, Pages 1073-1097.
Abstract:
Although software patents have been growing steadily since 1996, when the restrictions on the patentability of software were eliminated, their value and impacts on the firm鈥檚 profits remain unclear and ambiguous. Drawing on the real options theory and the literature on exploration and exploitation, we develop a novel theoretical framework to assess the value of software patents. Moreover, we examine the impact of contextual factors related to the nature of innovation underlying firms鈥� patent portfolios (exploitative versus explorative) and the environmental uncertainty (competitiveness and dynamism) on the value of software patents. Specifically, we examine the interaction effect of a firm鈥檚 software patent stock and its innovation orientation on firm value in markets exhibiting different levels of environmental uncertainty. Based on a large-panel data set consisting of 602 U.S. firms, our results indicate that a software patent portfolio having higher levels of explorative orientation is associated with a higher firm value (as measured by Tobin鈥檚 q) in environments exhibiting low dynamism and high competitiveness. By contrast, a software patent portfolio with higher levels of exploitative orientation is associated with a higher firm value in environments with high dynamism and low competitiveness. We discuss the implications for research and practice.
Authors: S. Chung, Animesh Animesh, Kunsoo Han and Alain Pinsonneault
Publication: Information Systems Research, Volume 31, Issue 1, March 2020, Pages 258-285.
Abstract:
The primary goal of this study is to investigate the financial returns to firms鈥� communication actions on a firm-initiated social media platform by focusing on Facebook Business pages. To this end, we conceptualize and quantify two types of firms鈥� communication actions on social media: posts and responses to customer messages. Furthermore, we classify a firm鈥檚 responses to customer messages based on the valence of customer messages鈥攑ositive versus negative鈥攁nd examine the effects of volume as well as timeliness of the two types of a firm鈥檚 responses to customer messages on firm performance. Using a sample of 63 South Korean firms across industries over a three-year period (5,566 firm-week observations), we find that the volume and timeliness of a firm鈥檚 responses to negative customer messages, which are associated with an increase in customer satisfaction, have a significant positive impact on the firm鈥檚 market performance measured by abnormal returns and Tobin鈥檚 q. Interestingly, the results suggest that a firm鈥檚 posts and its responses to positive customer messages are not significantly associated with firm performance. Furthermore, we find that a firm鈥檚 posts and its responses to negative customer messages exhibit complementarities in contributing to firm performance. Our results are robust to various alternative specifications, econometric concerns, and Facebook鈥檚 policy changes, such as EdgeRank and Promoted Post. Our findings underscore the business value of firms鈥� actions on social media and provide unique and important implications for theory and practice regarding the appropriate ways to use social media for building and managing customer relationships.
Professor Alain Pinsonneault recently received the inaugural Henry Mintzberg PhD Teaching and Mentorship Award in recognition of his high-quality teaching and commitment to student progress. He was nominated for the honour by PhD students and alumni.
The award was created in 2018 to recognize Professor 贬别苍谤测听惭颈苍迟锄产别谤驳鈥檚 50 years of service to 缅北强奸.
Can e-mail interruptions actually boost your productivity at work? New research from Prof Alain Pinsonneault says yes; the key is to be mindful and determine task relevance.
This article is brought to you by Delve, the official thought leadership publication of 缅北强奸's Desautels Faculty of Management.
Authors: K.-Y. Huang, I. Chengalur-Smith, and Alain Pinsonneault
Publication: MIS Quarterly: Management Information Systems, Volume 43, Issue 2, June 2019, Pages 395-423
Abstract:
Individuals increasingly rely on healthcare virtual support communities (HVSCs) for social support and companionship. While research provides interesting insights into the drivers of informational support in knowledge-sharing virtual communities, there is limited research on the antecedents of emotional support provision and companionship activities in HVSCs. The unique characteristics of HVSCs also justify the need to reexamine members鈥� voluntary provisions of help in such communities. This paper develops a model that examines the relationships between the structural, relational, and cognitive dimensions of social capital and the provision of informational and emotional support, and engagement in companionship activities in HVSCs. The model is tested based on data generated through an automated method that classifies and analyzes user-generated text in three healthcare virtual support communities (breast, prostate, and colorectal cancer). The results show that all three dimensions of social capital impact the provision of emotional support; both structural and relational capital facilitate engagement in companionship activities; and only cognitive capital enables the provision of informational support. Research and practical implications on the need to facilitate informational and emotional support provision and companionship activities in healthcare virtual support communities are discussed.
Authors: H. Liang, Y. Xue, Alain Pinsonneault and Y. Wu
Publication: MIS Quarterly: Management Information Systems, Volume 43, Issue 2, June 2019, Pages 373-394
Abstract:
This paper investigates how individuals cope with IT security threats by taking into account both problem-focused and emotion-focused coping. While problem-focused coping (PFC) has been extensively studied in the IT security literature, little is known about emotion-focused coping (EFC). We propose that individuals employ both PFC and EFC to volitionally cope with IT security threats, and conceptually classify EFC into two categories: inward and outward. Our research model is tested by two studies: an experiment with 140 individuals and a survey of 934 respondents. Our results indicate that both inward EFC and outward EFC are stimulated by perceived threat, but that only inward EFC is reduced by perceived avoidability. Interestingly, inward EFC and outward EFC are found to have opposite effects on PFC. While inward EFC impedes PFC, outward EFC facilitates PFC. By integrating both EFC and PFC in a single model, we provide a more complete understanding of individual behavior under IT security threats. Moreover, by theorizing two categories of EFC and showing their opposing effects on users鈥� security behaviors, we further examine the paradoxical relationship between EFC and PFC, thus making an important contribution to IT security research and practice.
Recent research co-authored by Professor Alain Pinsonneault examines the growing popularity of healthcare virtual support communities (HVSCs) as a means of complementing/supplementing face-to-face support.
The study鈥檚 findings reveal ways that virtual support community designers and healthcare organisations can optimize such platforms for effective social support exchanges.
Ten years ago, leadership from the Desautels Faculty of Management and HEC Montr茅al took up the ambitious challenge of joining forces to launch the 缅北强奸-HEC Montreal EMBA program.
The rest, as they say, is history.
Take a look back on how the EMBA program has evolved听and the strides made since its founding.
Congratulations to听Alain Pinsonneault,听Professor in Information Systems, awarded the听2018 SSHRC Insight Grant听鈥淭he impact of explorative and exploitive use of information technology on individual performance鈥�.
Congratulations to听Jui Ramaprasad,听Associate Professor of Information Systems, and Alain Pinsonneault, Professor of Information Systems, awarded the 2018 SSHRC Insight Grant听鈥淓xamining Value Creation in the Digital Economy: A Platform Engagement Perspective鈥�.
Recent research co-authored by Professor Alain Pinsonneault has shown that giving people time and resources to pursue innovation projects can produce extraordinary outcomes 鈥� but only if organizations match their 鈥渟lack strategy鈥� to employee type.
Among their findings, the researchers determined that different types of employees respond in different ways to slack innovation programs and that different kinds of slack resources are better suited to certain types of employees than they are to others.
With the rise of Information Technologies, leaders of large corporations are forced to reinvent both themselves and their organizations.
Desautels Professor Alain Pinsonneault comments on the broad appeal of digital platforms enabled by new technologies, the threat they pose to traditional businesses and how the later can adapt.
For Prof. Pinsonneault, it will be important for companies to invest in innovation and to allow for a healthy margin of error.
Authors: H. Liang, Y. Xue, Alain Pinsonneault and A. Wu
Publication: MIS Quarterly, Forthcoming
Abstract:
This paper investigates how individuals cope with IT security threats by taking into account both problem-focused and emotion-focused coping. While problem-focused coping (PFC) has been extensively studied in the IT security literature, little is known about emotion-focused coping (EFC).
We propose that individuals employ both PFC and EFC to volitionally cope with IT security threats, and conceptually classify EFC into two categories: inward and outward. Our research model is tested by two studies: an experiment with 140 individuals and a survey of 934 respondents.
Our results indicate that both inward EFC and outward EFC are stimulated by perceived threat, but that only inward EFC is reduced by perceived avoidability. Interestingly, inward EFC and outward EFC are found to have opposite effects on PFC. While inward EFC impedes PFC, outward EFC facilitates PFC. By integrating both EFC and PFC in a single model, we provide a more complete understanding of individual behavior under IT security threats.
Moreover, by theorizing two categories of EFC and showing their opposing effects on users鈥� security behaviors, we further examine the paradoxical relationship between EFC and PFC, thus making an important contribution to IT security research and practice.
