This paper recaps the issue of online mis- and disinformation as a societal problem, reviews why government roles in defining mis- and disinformation are constitutionally suspect under First Amendment jurisprudence, and builds on a content-neutral theory of disincentivizing the production of mis- and disinformation first proposed by Marshall Van Alstyne. The purpose of this paper...
Recent developments in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) have enabled new paradigms of machine processing, shifting from data-driven, discriminative AI tasks toward sophisticated, creative tasks through generative AI. Leveraging deep generative models, generative AI is capable of producing novel and realistic content across a broad spectrum (e.g., texts, images, or...
Trust has been identified as inevitable for technology acceptance and might further gain importance as technologies become increasingly complex. However, previous research on trust in online environments lacks a systematic configuration of trust entities in research models; some studies include either trust in technology or trust in provider, others both. In combination with...
Many assistant systems have evolved toward assistant platforms. These platforms combine a range of resources from various actors via a declarative and generative interface. Among the examples are voice-oriented assistant platforms like Alexa and Siri, as well as text-oriented assistant platforms like ChatGPT and Bard. They have emerged as valuable tools for handling tasks without...
While voice agent product recommendations (VAPR) can be convenient for users, their underlying artificial intelligence (AI) components are subject to recommendation engine opacities and audio-based constraints, which limit users’ information level when conducting purchase decisions. As a result, users might feel as if they are being treated unfairly, which can lead to negative...
Chatbots as prominent form of conversational agents are increasingly implemented as a user interface for digital customer-firm interactions on digital platforms and electronic markets, but they often fail to deliver suitable responses to user requests. In turn, individuals are left dissatisfied and turn away from chatbots, which harms successful chatbot implementation and...
As organizations accumulate vast amounts of data for analysis, a significant challenge remains in fully understanding these datasets to extract accurate information and generate real-world impact. Particularly, the high dimensionality of datasets and the lack of sufficient documentation, specifically the provision of metadata, often limit the potential to exploit the full value...
The increasing online competition, associated changes in customer behaviors, and effects of the pandemic in recent years have led to increasing retail store closures. This development has given rise to a downward spiral in terms of a decreasing attractiveness of local shopping places and a further reduction of stores. Research has recognized that smart services can unleash the...
Data has become an indispensable input, throughput, and output for the healthcare industry. In recent years, omics technologies such as genomics and proteomics have generated vast amounts of new data at the cellular level including molecular, structural, and functional levels. Cellular data holds the potential to innovate therapeutics, vaccines, diagnostics, consumer products, or...
When faced with a large number of reviews, customers can easily be overwhelmed by information overload. To address this problem, review systems have introduced design features aimed at improving the scanning, reading, and processing of online reviews. Though previous research has examined the effect of selected design features on information overload, a comprehensive and up-to...
Online businesses are increasingly relying on targeted advertisements as a revenue stream, which might lead to privacy concerns and hinder product adoption. Therefore, it is crucial for online companies to understand which types of targeted advertisements consumers will accept. In recent years, users have been increasingly targeted by political advertisements, which has caused...
Information technology (IT) has radically changed the financial services industry, with the most recent transformation toward Fintech and decentralized finance (DeFi), driven by blockchain. Especially, non-fungible token (NFT) assets within DeFi are redefining how value is created and disseminated, for instance, in the art industry. However, DeFi and NFT market dynamics are not...
Platform workers can typically not take their ratings from one platform to another. This creates lock-in as building up reputation anew can come at prohibitively high cost. A system of portable reputation may mitigate this problem but poses several new challenges and questions. This study reports the results of an online experiment among 180 actual clients of five gig economy...
Contemporary organizations increasingly adopt conversational agents (CAs) as intelligent and natural language-based solutions for providing services and information. CAs offer new forms of personalization, speed, (cost-)effectiveness, and automation. However, despite their hype in research and practice, many organizations still fail to seize CAs’ potential because they lack...
Blockchain technology is argued to drastically change the way we operate within an organizational context, with decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) representing a first manifestation of this ongoing trend. DAOs are characterized by an online community that builds the organization’s backbone by providing knowledge and human resources in a transparent, virtual manner, as...
In shaping the Internet of Money, the application of blockchain and distributed ledger technologies (DLTs) to the financial sector triggered regulatory concerns. Notably, while the user anonymity enabled in this field may safeguard privacy and data protection, the lack of identifiability hinders accountability and challenges the fight against money laundering and the financing of...
This fundamentals article discusses efficient machine economies in which non-human agents can autonomously exchange information and value. We first identify criteria for achieving Pareto efficiency in such economies by drawing on the Coase Theorem. We then translate these economic criteria to technical requirements before developing a framework that characterizes four types of...
Due to eroding business models, companies are seeking new growth opportunities. Business model innovation (BMI) can enable sustainable competitive advantage and future growth. Yet many companies are struggling to innovate their business models. Recent research reveals that collaboration concerning stakeholder integration and open business model innovation can foster BMI, but...
Telemedicine has the potential to address considerable challenges in the efficient provision of health care services. However, this will not be realized until a high acceptance rate among patients is achieved. We address the research gap that arises from the need to explore the interplay of different trust referents (physician, technology, treatment) and perceived risk dimensions...
This article analyzes how the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has affected the privacy practices of FinTech firms. We study the content of 276 privacy statements respectively before and after the GDPR became binding. Using text analysis methods, we find that the readability of the privacy statements has decreased. The texts of privacy statements have become longer and...
Initial coin offerings (ICOs) and initial exchange offerings (IEOs) are distinct blockchain-based token offerings. Following multiple frauds associated with decentralized and unregulated ICOs, IEOs are emerging as a novel pathway that relies on centralized crypto exchange platforms acting as intermediaries. However, the question as to how this shift affects fundraising processes...
Many firms use social media (SM) to solicit online investments. In this study, we examine the interaction between SM attributes and online-investment attributes to determine how this interaction shapes users’ investment decisions. Specifically, we investigate initial coin offerings (ICOs) as an application domain of distributed ledger technology for peer-to-peer investment. We...
Advances in digital platforms allow influencers to use live shows to showcase products, which has given rise to live-stream shopping. Moreover, new communication forms have emerged, such as the metaverse. The social interactions that occur in these immersive environments foster influencer-follower interactions. This research compares the impact of live-stream shopping on...
Since the emerging information economy relies heavily on data for advancement and growth, data markets have gained increasing attention. However, while global data economies are evolving and data are increasingly shared among organizations in various data ecosystems, marketplaces for personal data (PDMs) exhibited considerable start-up difficulties, which doomed their majority to...