Why Don't You Join In? A Typology of Information System Certification Adopters

Abstract

While the importance of information system (IS) certifications to demonstrate compliance with security and personal data protection requirements is constantly increasing, competing (theoretical) viewpoints exist that outline the rationales for organizations to adopt certifications. The results of these competing perspectives are inconclusive research findings in the certification adoption literature. While organizations may use certifications to signal quality to consumers, others mainly adopt certifications to improve internal processes or create institutional legitimacy. To enhance our understanding of the motivation for online vendors to adopt IS certifications, we conduct a literature review and a ranking‐type Delphi study with two unique panels comprising certified online vendors (N = 15) and certification authorities (N = 24). As a result, we provide a rank‐order list of 24 motivators and 17 demotivators impacting online vendors’ intentions to adopt IS certifications. We reveal that certain motives are context‐independent, whereas other motives are specific for electronic markets (e.g., “signal data protection”). We also provide rich descriptions of potential demotivators, thereby increasing our understanding of the boundary conditions for IS certification adoption. Comparing our findings to three competing theoretical perspectives enabled us to derive a typology of distinctive certification adopters: functionalists, institutionalists, and signalers. In developing this typology, our findings constitute a first step toward alleviating the inconclusive findings in the academic literature as well as highlighting differences in motivating and inhibiting factors that impact vendors’ adoption intentions.

Does personal data protection matter for ISO 9001 certification and firm performance?

“…Caballero et al (2012) found that all changes and decisions on the security and quality of personal data in health care services should be consistent with the firm's quality management system. Lins et al (2022) found that online vendors are motivated to adopt various security and privacy certifications in order to signal data protection and increase legal compliance.…”

A Design Theory for Certification Presentations

“…As such, providing detailed arguments and evidence for why a certification authority is perceived as competent increases users' trust perceptions. In general, performing certification attestations is a complex procedure requiring a certification authority to be organized and armed with a body of knowledgeable and experienced employees (Lins et al, 2020). Certification authorities with high competence are likely to provide better assessments of system owners.…”

“…Information system (IS) owners have developed diverse strategies over the past years to reduce users' uncertainty and anxiety surrounding unknown or ad hoc system use. Among these strategies, certifications by third parties are the longest and most pervasively used (Lins et al, 2020;Özpolat et al, 2013). Certifications are neutral third-party attestations of specific system characteristics, operations, and management principles to prove compliance with regulatory or industry requirements (Lansing et al, 2018).…”

To talk or not?: An analysis of firm‐initiated social media communication's impact on firm value preservation during a massive disruption across multiple firms and industries

“…The receivers are the “outsiders who lack information about the organization in question but would like to receive this information” (Connelly et al., 2011). Operations management literature has examined receivers such as customers (Ba et al., 2020; Duan et al., 2021; Lins et al., 2020; Rao et al., 2018; Ray et al., 2011; Wallenburg et al., 2021), buying firms (Cheng et al., 2020; Mena et al., 2020), purchasing managers (Yan et al., 2020), and investors (Jiang et al., 2007; Kim & Wagner, 2020; Narasimhan et al., 2015). In our study, we consider investors as the receivers of the signals.…”