Four Guiding Principles for Research on Evolved Information Processing Traits and Technology- Mediated Task Performance

Kock, Ned; Chatelain-Jardon, Ruth

doi:10.17705/1jais.00277

Cited by 9 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 71 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Evolutionary theorizing and related empirical research have recently made an entrance in the field of IS (Abraham et al, 2011;Blau & Barak, 2012;Kock, 2009;Kock & Chatelain-Jardón, 2011;Vlahovic et al, 2012;Zahedi & Bansal, 2011). This extant literature on evolutionary IS research, when taken together, provides a broad set of guidelines for evolutionary theorizing and related empirical analyses in the context of human behavior toward modern technologies.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A mathematical view of evolution is important in evolutionary theorizing in general (Kock &Chatelain-Jardón, 2011;Maynard Smith, 1998). One of the key reasons for this importance is that it can help prevent naïve speculations (Buss, 1999;Cartwright, 2000) based on assumptions about our evolutionary past.…”

Section: Evolution By Selection and Path Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Given this, the expectation term is usually set to zero when one wants to isolate the effects of environmental and sexual selection in analyses aimed at understanding the evolution of traits. Setting this term to zero leads to Equation 2, which is a simplified version of the Price Equation, and in fact the most widely used in analyses of the evolution of traits through selection (Frank, 1995;1997;Kock & Chatelain-Jardón, 2011;Rice, 2004). This applies to both natural and sexual selection.…”

Section: Evolution By Selection and Path Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some researchers in the field of IS would balk at the notion of evolutionary theorizing, questioning its validity based on the fact that ancestral humans have lived in natural environments that were too varied to have placed evolutionary pressure in any particular direction. While there has been much debate about this point (Kock & Chatelain-Jardón, 2011;Ridley, 2003;Vlahovic et al, 2012;Zahedi & Bansal, 2011), it should be noted that our model of the ancestral evolution of social behavior is not tied to a particular natural environment. That is, the model assumes that social behavior would have evolved in any natural environment, as it is built on the assumption that social living evolved in part to enable ancestral humans to better cope with diverse environmental challenges.…”

Section: Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Evolutionary theorizing has recently made an entrance in the field of information systems (IS) as a new research tool (Abraham et al, 2011;Blau & Barak, 2012;Kock, 2009;Kock & Chatelain-Jardón, 2011;Vlahovic et al, 2012;Zahedi & Bansal, 2011). We predict that the use of evolutionary theorizing will increase in the field of IS in the future, but only if clear theory development frameworks are made available to guide that theorizing and related empirical assessment.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

A six-stage framework for evolutionary IS research using path models

Kock

Moqbel

2016

Journal of Systems and Information Technology

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Purpose-Evolutionary theorizing has recently been added as a useful tool to the research repertoire of information systems investigators. However, the literature on evolutionary theorizing and related empirical research lacks a clear framework that explicitly shows how information systems researchers can go, step-by-step, from a generic model of the evolution of traits in our ancestral past to a more specific model depicting the effects of technology facilitation of those traits among modern humans. The purpose of this study is to fill this gap through a framework comprised of six stages. Design/methodology/approach-To discuss and illustrate the framework we develop an easy-to-understand generic path model explicitly depicting relationships among variables related to events that occurred in our evolutionary past. We then incrementally adapt this generic path model, eventually arriving at a focused path model depicting causal relationships among social networking site use, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and job performance. In doing so, we also develop a theoretical model about how social networking site use can affect job performance, where a positive total effect is predicted via positive intermediate effects on job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Findings-To discuss the final stage in the framework, we present an illustrative example where the focused path model is tested based on a study of the effect of Facebook use on job performance among 178 working professionals across the USA. This illustrative example provides general support for the theoretical model. Research limitations/implications-The counterintuitive hypothesis that Facebook use is associated with increased job performance is supported. Practical implications-Social networking site use by organizational employees is likely to be associated with improved job performance. Originality/value-This study provides a clear framework that shows how researchers can go from a generic evolutionary path model in our ancestral past to a more specific model comprising technology effects in modern humans.

show abstract