0000000001155004
AUTHOR
Riitta Hekkala
Distress, Eustress, or No Stress? Explaining Smartphone Users' Different Technostress Responses
Technostress is common and has harmful consequences. Therefore, researchers have shown increasing interest in explaining technostress in the field of information systems (IS). While extant research merits in identifying the causes and consequences of technostress, it has not explained empirically why information technology (IT) users have different responses to similar potentially stressful IT events. Indeed, events such as smartphone failures can derive negative distress responses for some users and positive eustress responses for others. To address this gap in research, we conducted a qualitative study by interviewing users who had experienced smartphone failures. As a contribution, our f…
"I just cursed and opened a beer" : Explaining Mobile Users' Non-Complaining Behavior Through Coping
Many users experience frustrating incidents with mobile applications. However, most users do not complain about their highly negative incidents to the application providers. Such dissatisfied non-complainers cause damage to application providers: they tend to exit, switch, and spread negative word-of-mouth. Therefore, it is important to understand why mobile users do not complain about their highly negative incidents. Within information systems (IS), there are no explanations for this dilemma. To address this gap, we conducted a qualitative study. By utilizing the theory of coping as a theoretical lens, we generated a mobile-specific theory that comprises problem-focused and emotion-focused…
The Role of Anticipatory Emotions and their Contagiousness in an IS Project
The previous research has shown increasing interest in understanding anticipatory emotions and their contagion, which can happen in dyads or groups as well as in other settings in organizations. The role of anticipatory emotions and their behavioral effects remain unexplored in IS projects. To address the research gap, we conducted a qualitative and longitudinal case study in order to understand what arethe role and consequences of the anticipatory emotions in IS project work, and how their contagiousness emerges over time. Adopting a model of group emotional contagion as a theoretical lens provided us with an opportunity to explain the relationship between anticipatory emotions and emotion…
The Interplay of IT Users’ Coping Strategies : Uncovering Momentary Emotional Load, Routes, and Sequences
Despite the positive aspects of information technology (IT) use, it is common for users to experience negative IT incidents. Examples of negative IT incidents include getting lost in an unfamiliar country due to a dysfunctional map application and missing a monetary insurance benefit due to the failure of an activity tracker application. Such incidents can harm IT providers by giving rise to user dissatisfaction, discontinued use, switching, and negative word-of-mouth. To minimize this harm, it is important to understand how users cope after negative incidents. Specifically, information systems (IS) researchers have called for research that uncovers the complex interplay of IT users’ coping…