Internet at Work and Play

Authors of selected papers will be invited to submit a revised version of their conference paper to the Electronic Markets journal – The International Journal on Networked Business after presentation at the conference.

Minitrack Co-chairs:

Rainer Schmidt (Primary Contact)
Munich University of Applied Sciences
Rainer.Schmidt@hm.edu

Rainer Alt
Leipzig University
rainer.alt@uni‐leipzig.de

Alfred Zimmermann
Reutlingen University
alfred.zimmermann@reutlingen-university.de

AI-enabled technologies have been permeating human lives and societies at a growing rate over the last three decades. They started at the mechanical task levels (e.g., manufacturing robots) and slowly made their way into analytical tasks (e.g., personal assistants, traders, schedulers, etc.). However, these technologies are still finding their way into the realm of human emotion and empathy. This next wave (known under various banners, including feeling AI, empathic AI, emotional AI, and empathetic AI) is expected to be the next frontier in AI development and deployment, making it a growing research area within AI research. Additionally, these developments are tainted by the lack of explainability of the AI system decision-making process. As a result, the relationship between AI explainability and human emotions has been under-studied.

This forward-looking minitrack welcomes all kinds of theoretical and empirical research at the intersection of human cognition, emotions, empathy, and AI. Possible topics and research questions of interest include but are not limited to:

1. How does AI explainability influence human emotions?
   • What is the relationship between AI explainability levels and desired emotions in humans (trust, joyfulness, satisfaction, etc.)?
   • What would be the desired level of explanation for different individuals or user groups?
   • What would be the desired level of explanation for different kinds of decisions?
2. Emotional AI Impact on Businesses and Organizations
   • How emotionally capable AI will impact business processes, business models, and outcomes?
   • How would an emotional generative AI impact employee and user satisfaction?
   •  How can organizations harness the existing generative AI emotional capabilities to gain competitive advantages?
   •  How would emotional and emphatic AI impact government and public agency procedures and policies?
3. Human and AI interactions
   •  How is an AI capable of understanding and appropriately responding to human emotions going to impact existing theories of human-technology interactions?
   •  How AI can become empathic and emotional, and how such changes are going to impact human-AI interactions (Novel theories).
   •  How might AI-evoked emotions in humans be different than those emotions evoked by other humans and living beings?
4. Emotional AI and Socio-Economical Systems
   •  What would be the legal and ethical implications of emotional and empathic AI for human societies and socio-economical systems?
   •  What are the potential advantages and risks associated with the development and deployment of emotional and empathic AI systems?
   •  What would be the role of AI explainability in this area?
5. AI Algorithms and Emotion Detection and Prediction
   •  How can AI and ML algorithms be better trained to detect and respond to human emotions appropriately?
   •  How does generative AI detect and affect user emotions? And how can it be improved?
   •  How people react emotionally to explanations provided by generative AI?

Minitrack Co-Chairs:

Reza Vaezi (Primary Contact)
Kennesaw State University
svaezi@kennesaw.edu

Maryam Ghasemaghaei
McMaster University
ghasemm@mcmaster.ca

Mohsen Jozani
Augusta University
mjozani@augusta.edu

This minitrack explores the design, innovation, and impacts of collaborative platforms in crowdfunding, gig economies, and online communities. It emphasizes algorithmic fairness, user engagement, and sustainability, offering new insights into platform economics and socio-technical challenges. Key trends identified in recent papers are listed below.

1. Integration of AI (e.g., generative AI in reviews, crowdfunding algorithms)
2. Examination of gig economies and decentralized systems.
3. Exploration of social influence (e.g., equity, diversity, and herding behavior).
4. Emerging focus on fairness, governance, and sustainability in platform design.

Selected outstanding manuscripts from this minitrack may be recommended to the editors of Data and Information Management to be fast-tracked for the review process.

Minitrack Co-Chairs:

Ni Nina Huang (Primary Contact)
University of Miami
nhuang@miami.edu

Bin Gu
Boston University
bgu@bu.edu

Pei-yu Chen
Arizona State University
peiyu.chen@asu.edu

Kevin (Yili) Hong
University of Miami
khong@miami.edu

Data – recognized as the new oil – are increasingly becoming a critical resource for business success. Companies must ensure leveraging data to optimize internal business processes and create new business opportunities. That applies to traditional incumbents and digital natives alike. The former must ensure to stay competitive and avoid losing touch with the changing market, for example, by using data from physical assets (e.g., machines) to offer new digital services. The latter can leverage the green-field advantage and generate completely novel solutions from scratch, such as establishing data ecosystems that enable different actors (e.g., public institutions, companies, and academia) to share data for reciprocal benefit. With this comes a set of challenges. For example, unlike physical assets, data are reproducible at almost zero marginal cost and technical effort.

This minitrack focuses on exploring the fundamentals of data ecosystems from multiple perspectives, including studies that discover the meaning of data sharing in ecosystems for its stakeholders (e.g., data producers, providers, or consumers) or the classification of ecosystems. We expect contributions examining issues relating to the business value of data ecosystems within different domains (e.g., mobility, healthcare, manufacturing, logistics) and the use of various underpinning technologies (e.g., artificial intelligence or blockchain). Complementarily, we invite contributions exploring data sharing as well as the associated rules and governance mechanisms. Lastly, we like to encourage submission tackling socially relevant challenges by means of data ecosystems, such as sustainability(17 Sustainable Development Goals), security, and privacy.

This minitrack invites papers investigating the field of data ecosystems both empirically and theoretically, such as but not limited to:

1. Classifications of data ecosystems and data sharing mechanisms
2. Generative AI for data generation and sharing
3. Paradigmatic differences between data ecosystems and traditional business networks
4. Economic, ecological, and social sustainability of data ecosystems
5. Analysis of domain-specific characteristics of data ecosystems
6. Analysis of technology-specific characteristics of data ecosystems
7. Design and modeling of data ecosystems
8. Business models in data ecosystems
9. Impact of data ecosystems on stakeholders
10. Data sharing fundamentals
11. Data sovereignty and usage control policies in data ecosystems
12. Generative AI in data ecosystems

Minitrack Co-Chairs:

Frederik Möller (Primary Contact)
TU Braunschweig
frederik.moeller@tu-braunschweig.de

Ilka Jussen-Lengersdorf
Fraunhofer ISST
ilka.jussen-lengersdorf@isst.fraunhofer.de

Thorsten Schoormann
Roskilde University
tschoormann@ruc.dk

Gero Strobel 
University of Duisburg-Essen
Gero.Strobel@paluno.uni-due.de

The business environment in which companies must compete today is changing more than ever. Increasingly dynamic customer demands, external disruptions and shocks, more frequent material shortages and the worsening effects of climate change are putting additional pressure on global supply chains. Increasing flexibility and agility and improving the responsiveness and resilience of established supply chains are necessary to remain competitive. In the long term, the only way to address the increasing scarcity of materials for a variety of reasons is to transform today’s “take, make, waste” supply chains into much more sustainable circular systems.

Digitalization is undoubtedly a key enabler for the implementation and management of resilient and sustainable supply chains. This minitrack explores the transformative role of digital technologies, including IoT, AI, digital twins, blockchains, and digital platforms in developing, planning, executing, and controlling resilient and sustainable supply chains. It addresses challenges such as increasing supply chain volatility, resource scarcity and climate change by highlighting data-driven innovations, optimization, and new business models. Therefore, we welcome research papers including but not limited to the following aspects:

1. Contribution of digital technologies to supply chain resilience, sustainability and circularity
2. Increasing supply chain visibility based on IoT technologies
3. AI methods supporting forecasting, planning, decision making and optimization
4. Division of labour and interactions between humans and machines in AI-supported SCs
5. Virtualization and simulation of supply chains based on digital twins
6. Blockchain and smart contracts in logistics and supply chain management
7. The role of digital platforms in supply chain management
8. Effects of smart product-service-systems on supply chains and supply chain management
9. Federated data ecosystems enabling new data-driven supply chain strategies
10. Models, methods and tools for the digitalization of supply chains
11. Barriers and challenges hindering the digitalization of supply chains
12. Data security and cyber security challenges in digital supply chain structures
13. Governance structures and legal aspects within the digital supply chain

Minitrack Co-Chairs:

Alexander Pflaum (Primary Contact)
Otto-Friedrich University Bamberg
alexander.pflaum@uni-bamberg.de

Günter Prockl
Copenhagen Business School
gp.digi@cbs.dk

Freimut Bodendorf
University of Erlangen-Nürnberg
freimut.bodendorf@fau.de

Haozhe Chen
Iowa State University
hzchen@iastate.edu

Esports is a rapidly growing area of research, presenting both opportunities and challenges. Despite significant progress, esports research offers numerous occasions for academics and industry professionals to examine electronic games and their impact on people and societies worldwide. Over the last few decades, esports has grown into a multi-billion dollar sector within the larger video gaming industry. The number of esports players, games, organized events, both online and in-person viewership, and the growing professionalization of the industry continues to grow, despite facing numerous challenges to its business, the growth and changing nature of technology, and the time players are able to allocate to play. Esports momentum as a popular mainstream competitive recreational activity, career, and entertainment has grown through collaboration with movies, singers and rappers, as well as sports and its athletes. And while analogue sports continue to draw large numbers of viewers and generate substantial revenue, digital sports are on the rise, merging videogame and esports’ technical and networked know-how with sports.

Furthermore, as electronic gaming technology (e.g., augmented reality, virtual reality, the “metaverse”) continues to develop at a rapid pace, there is substantial potential for esports development as a dominant and technically advanced sports world globally. All fields of esports and electronic games research need to keep pace with esports advancement, recognizing the global reach of this play-based activity across layers of society. Moreover, there are abundant opportunities for collaboration with related fields such as technology development, game development, internet policy, gamification, and tools for connectivity and the digital economy.

This minitrack aims to provide insight into all areas of esports’ theoretical development and practical understanding, without excluding any methodological approach or scientific disciplines. Conceptual, theoretical, empirical, and methodological contributions that enrich our understanding of esports are welcome. Given the diverse goals of this minitrack, possible topics include, but are not limited to:

1. Business, e.g. discovering esports consumers’ motivations; designing effective marketing tools; understanding players’/esports’ networks and organizations; gamers/fans as consumers.
2. Cognitive Science/Psychology, e.g. studying factors influencing athletes’ performance; their abilities and skills; cognitive and behavioral differences between athletes.
3. IT and Computer Science, e.g. using game telemetry, biometrics, user-generated data, or text mining to study esports, e.g. team dynamics, interactions of players; in-game performance.
4. Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality, e.g., developing AI-powered game analytics; creating inteligent training systems for players.; machine learning; VR technology for immersive spectator experiences and player training simulations.
5. Law, e.g. copyright issues, IT solutions for anti-corruption and integrity
6. Sociology and Anthropolgy, e.g. governance, online ethics, gamers’ and athletes’ interactions, experiences, and identities; live events and streaming dynamics; gender issues (gender gap).
7. Media Studies, e.g. relations between esports, traditional sports, and the media; offline spaces versus live-streaming, understanding esports in terms of virtual versus real; how technology mediates gaming, and how esports’ communities fit here.
8. Sport Science, e.g., comparing esports and ‘traditional’ sports; esports as ‘real’, ‘genuine’ sports or new quality.

Accepted research will be considered for publication in a special issue of the Journal of Electronic Gaming and Esports (JEGE).

Minitrack Co-Chairs:

Piotr Siuda (Primary Contact)
Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz
piotr.siuda@ukw.edu.pl

David Hedlund
St. John’s University
hedlundd@stjohns.edu

Emma Witkowski
RMIT University
Emma.witkowski@rmit.edu.au

Lindsey Darvin
Syracuse University
ledarvin@syr.edu

In modern sociotechnical systems, digital commons, as the co-production of data or knowledge and community via networked systems, are increasingly prevalent and visible. Along with the people and digital resources produced, governance regarding participation, access, and use of data and knowledge is necessary to foster engagement. Such commons governance is polycentric, with many centers of decision-making, addressing both dilemmas associated with underlying knowledge resources and dilemmas associated with shared communication and coordination strategies needed to produce effective governance itself.

From platforms dedicated to crowd-sourcing and online creation communities—including MTurk, Upwork, Wikipedia, and FoldIt—to emergent subcommunities dedicated to everything from social movements to niche hobbies, via Facebook Groups or specific Toks, modern networked interactions produce significant information resources as digital commons. This minitrack will explore community governance of innovation and creativity, immaterial resources long associated with intellectual property from an interdisciplinary perspective. Case studies across a broad range of social, cultural, and economic contexts are invited; empirical documentation of knowledge commons governance, dilemmas, and shared resource management in communities may be informed by institutional theory, such as the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) or Governing Knowledge Commons (GKC) frameworks. The minitrack also welcomes critiques and theorization regarding data and knowledge commons in the digital economy. Potential governance topics include:

1. Collective action problems in the modern digital economy
2. Community management of deepfakes, misinformation, and online manipulation
3. Crowd sourcing
4. Data governance and protection
5. Digital ownership
6. Knowledge commons
7. Online collaboration and creation communities
8. Peer production
9. Social norm formation, such as around privacy, security, or community expectations
10. Subcommunities on online platforms

Minitrack Co-Chairs:

Madelyn Rose Sanfilippo (Primary Contact)
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
madelyns@illinois.edu

Brett M Frischmann
Villanova University
brett.frischmann@law.villanova.edu

Michael J Madison
University of Pittsburgh
madison@pitt.edu

Katherine J Strandburg
New York University
katherine.strandburg@nyu.edu

Digitalization has heavily disrupted how the hospitality and tourism industry delivers and markets its services, how work processes are organized, and how offerings are consumed. By adopting, adapting, or developing Information Systems (IS), hospitality and tourism organizations and their use of technology continually undergo a substantial transformation, often referred to as “digital transformation”. The tourism and hospitality industry are volatile, and constantly changing which have resulted in disrupted business models, the need to understand and embrace emerging platforms, and new technology use by consumers.

As we have moved into a post-pandemic phase, the hospitality and tourism industry is facing a new era where the conditions for the hospitality and tourism industry are reshaped through new realities like labor shortages, new work models (digital nomadism, work-from-home), inflation, political uncertainties, new leisure and travel patterns, and increasing tourism phobia among local residents. Furthermore, the ongoing debate on sustainability and climate change are also creating challenges for the industry. Also, the increased use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is starting to gain a great deal of attention in the hospitality and tourism industry. The challenges and concerns are related to service robots, tourism models, augmented reality, virtual reality, and biometrics. Like other industries, there are also challenges with AI related to the interaction between both employees and customers. Thus, there is a need to develop practical and conceptual knowledge on the role of digital transformation in meeting these challenges and developing an industry that is resilient and sustainable.

For this minitrack, we seek to attract research contributions that extend existing research by focusing on socio-technical, organizational, managerial and/ or individual challenges of digital disruption and digital transformation in the hospitality and tourism industry. We welcome conceptual, empirical, and design- oriented contributions on macro, meso and micro levels of analysis for this mini- track. Potential topics include:

1. Digital business strategy
   
2. Digital business model development
   
3. Big data analysis for strategic decision making
   
4. Platform economy
   
5. Smart tourism development
   
6. Quality management and reputation management strategies
   
7. Social media and online reviews
   
8. Digital change management for the future of the tourism and hospitality industry
   
9. Strategic digital innovation for the tourism and hospitality industry
   
10. Digital communication and guest decision making
11. Role of technology in regenerative tourism
12. Responsible technology for tourism and hospitality
13. Metaverse tourism
14. Automation in tourism and hospitality, from innovation, marketing and service delivery to service recovery
15. Digital transformation and organizational resilience in tourism and hospitality
16. Technology-free tourism
17. Crisis recovery and digitalization in tourism and hospitality
18. Other related topics

Minitrack Co-Chairs:

Karin Högberg (Primary Contact)
University West and Griffith University
Karin.hogberg@hv.se

Ulrike Gretzel
University of Southern California
ugretzel@gmail.com

This minitrack investigates the evolving landscape of HCI, emphasizing usability, user trust, and design in diverse digital ecosystems. Topics include innovative interface designs, user behavior analytics, the role of AI in interactions, and HCI’s impact on organizational and societal contexts. Given the diverse goals of this mini-track, potential topics include, but are not limited to:

1. Guidelines and standards for interface design
2. Interface design for generative AI and prompt engineering
3. Interface design of collaboration systems (group HCI)
4. Design and evaluation issues for mobile devices and m-Commerce
5. Interface design for FinTech applications
6. Design issues related to the elderly, the young, and special needs populations
7. Interface issues in the design and development of innovative interaction technologies
8. Behavioral, neurophysiological, and design aspects of human-computer interaction and user behavior analytics
9. Neuroscientific approaches to human-computer interaction
10. Using information and sensors to detect user states (e.g., emotion, cognitive conflict) and create more intelligent interfaces
11. The impact of interfaces on attitudes, emotion, perception, behavior, productivity, and performance
12. Factors influencing usability (i.e., friction reduction), ease-of-use and the overall user experience
13. Information systems usability engineering
14. Design of online choice architectures
15. Web-based user interface design and evaluation
16. Impact of digital nudges on online judgment and decision-making
17. Impact of behavioral economics principles and website design implementation on privacy and trust
18. Website designs/elements that encourage rational thinking and/or nudge users into certain behaviors
19. Novel forms of authentication and authorization (e.g., using mousing or typing dynamics)
20. Issues related to teaching HCI courses
21. Ethical issues related to the capture of Personally Identifiable Information (PII), behavioral biometric data, and nudging

There are opportunities for best papers of this minitrack to be fast-tracked to AIS Transactions on Human-Computer Interaction.

Minitrack Co-Chairs:

Christoph Schneider (Primary Contact)
IESE Business School
cschneider@iese.edu

Joe Valacich
University of Arizona
valacich@arizona.edu

Jeffrey Jenkins
Brigham Young University
jeffrey_jenkins@byu.edu

Fiona Fui-Hoon Nah
Singapore Management University
fionanah@smu.edu.sg

This minitrack serves as a place for researchers and practitioners from diverse background to share their research and ideas. There are a variety of important issues and topics of importance, such as new technology and visual design advancements to digital humans, the behavioral, emotional, and even physical responses of the users while interacting with digital humans, the underlying cognitive processes underlying the interactions, the impact of digital humans on the firm level or industry level, and ethical issues and societal considerations of the application of digital humans. Research could be wide-ranging, such as rich descriptive statistics, theories, emergent and innovative topics, models and frameworks related to technologies and their impact on marketing, case studies, methods, qualitative research, etc. The topics include but are not limited to:

1. Visualization technology to advance digital humans
2. Challenges and problems with creating digital humans or scanning and sampling users.
3. Human-computer interactions, instilled with digital humans, including affective computing issues.
4. Design of digital humans by combining human and computer cognitive power.
5. Use of GANs and VAEs to infer digital human faces, including approaches building on ‘Deep Fakes’ technology.
6. Analysis of machine learning, big data, data mining, and other underlying technologies and algorithms of digital humans
7. Taxonomy of digital humans
8. Virtual influencers and YouTube digital celebrities
9. Impact of digital humans on the individual level (decision-making, problem-solving, negotiation, and creativity/innovation)
10. Psychological and emotional effects of interacting with realistic digital humans
11. Biases in interacting with digital humans and biases in the digital humans deployed
12. The use of digital humans beyond individuals and its consequences in organizations
13. Management of deployment (e.g., corporate governance, data management)
14. Case studies on industry adoption of digital humans
15. Use and economic implications of digital humans in e-commerce, social media, and the combinations of multiple industries involving e-commerce and social media.
16. Social impact and ethics related to digital humans and their use
17. Philosophical questions surrounding the idea of ‘using’ digital humans

Minitrack Co-Chairs:

Lingyao Yuan (Primary Contact)
Iowa State University
lyuan@iastate.edu

Mike Seymour
University of Sydney
mike.seymour@sydney.edu.au

A. Benedikt Brendel
Indiana University
alfbrend@iu.edu

This minitrack explores the adoption, diffusion, and impact of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) across sectors. It focuses on societal, organizational, and technological transformation driven by emerging technologies, such as blockchain, Internet of Things (IoT), and AI. This minitrack highlights diverse applications, adoption dynamics, and the socio-economic consequences of ICTs and AI. Recent studies emphasize the pivotal role of ICTs in addressing societal challenges, including digital inclusion, sustainability, and the interplay of digital transformation with traditional practices. They highlight diverse applications of AI, IoT, and blockchain in areas such as healthcare, education, and governance, reflecting the transformative societal impact of technology adoption and diffusion​​. Organizations are also adopting, using and diffusing various ICTs including blockchain, IoT, Generative AI.

Therefore, this minitrack seeks papers that employ diverse research approaches, such as case studies, experiments, literature reviews, empirical, comparative and applied research related to the use, adoption, impacts and diffusion of ICTs and AI, which are emerging and evolving rapidly. The minitrack aims to provide a platform for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers to share their insights, experiences, and perspectives on the transformative potential of ICTs and AI, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration and advancing our understanding of the societal, organizational, and technological implications of these technologies. Topics and research areas included are, but are not limited to:

1. The adoption, use, impact and diffusion of ICTs including broadband internet, mobile smart devices, electronic commerce, wearables, online social networks, and other technologies by households, organizations, communities, or society
2. The adoption, use, impact and diffusion of any novel, innovative and emerging ICT applications including social commerce, cloud services, AI, Generative AI, machine learning, deep learning, blockchain, cryptocurrency, virtual reality, augmented reality or IoT within large enterprises, small-and-medium sized enterprises (SMEs), communities, and society
3. The adoption, use, impact and diffusion of ICTs that enable organizations and government to enhance their environmental and social impacts
4. Evaluation of the technological and non-technological aspects of the adoption, use impacts and diffusion of ICTs
5. Application of theories to explore, describe, explain and predict the adoption, use, impacts and diffusion of ICTs
6. Human Computer Interaction issues associated with adoption, use, and impact factors in the context of ICTs
7. Economics of the adoption, use or diffusion of ICTs in society and in households
8. Working practices and their association with adoption, use and diffusion within organizations
9. Resistance to change related to ICT adoption, use and diffusion within society and organizations
10. Policies related to adoption, use and diffusion of broadband and emerging ICTs
11. Conceptual or empirical studies of how a particular ICT is adopted, used and diffused in developing countries or within a specific community
12. Comparative studies of ICT adoption, use, impact and diffusion between demographic groups, countries or regions
13. Luminal innovation, assimilation, resistance and changes to working practices that will duly inform the research community
14. Studies of the digital divide that include disadvantaged groups such as disabled and lower income families.

Minitrack Co-Chairs:

Jyoti Choudrie (Primary Contact)
University of Hertfordshire
j.choudrie@herts.ac.uk

Sherah Kurnia
University of Melbourne
sherahk@unimelb.edu.au

David Sundaram
University of Auckland
d.sundaram@auckland.ac.nz

This minitrack explores the interplay between information systems (IS) and evolving regulatory frameworks. Submissions may explore how organizations navigate and comply with regulations (e.g., in IS design), the relationship between innovation and regulation, but also the role of the IS discipline in influencing existing and emerging regulations. In this regard, regulatory frameworks (e.g., European AI Act, California Consumer Privacy Act, European General Data Protection Regulation, Digital Markets Act, Digital Services Act) or specific normative aims (e.g., privacy, fairness, transparency, or accountability) may be valuable for inquiry. This minitrack welcomes all conceptual, empirical, and theoretical studies that examine this interdisciplinary topic.Possible relevant topics for this minitrack might include, but are not limited to:

1. Reciprocal influence of IS on regulation (e.g., regarding data protection)
2. Increasing focus on AI regulations (e.g., European AI Act)
3. Regulatory compliance in IS design
4. Impact of regulation on organizations (e.g., ecosystems, enterprise architectures, AI systems)
5. Studies at the intersection of IS and law (e.g., novel interdisciplinary approaches)
6. Comparative analysis of global regulatory frameworks
7. Governance strategies and practices for lawful IS
8. Privacy implications of distributed data processing among multiple actors
9. Utilizing AI for compliance with legal requirements
10. Detrimental effects from legal frameworks (e.g., on innovation)

Minitrack Co-Chairs:

Christian Kurtz (Primary Contact)
Universität Hamburg
christian.kurtz@uni-hamburg.de

Fabian Burmeister
Universität Hamburg
fabian.burmeister@uni-hamburg.de

Tobias Mast
Leibniz Institute for Media Research | Hans-Bredow-Institut
t.mast@leibniz-hbi.de

Niva Elkin-Koren
Tel Aviv University
elkiniva@tauex.tau.ac.il

This minitrack investigates behavioral aspects of IS security and privacy, focusing on human-centric risks, decision-making processes, and strategies to mitigate internal and external threats. Topics include compliance, threat responses, and the influence of emerging technologies like AI and generative tools.

The focus is on internal and external threats influenced by human behavior. This includes research on fear appeals and motivation in security compliance, generative AI’s role in mitigating threats, cognitive heuristics and decision-making in phishing and cyber resilience, and behavioral (cognitive or affective) biases affecting IS security. Topics include, but are not limited to:

1. Creative rigorous investigations of actual user security behavior, both positive and negative
2. Detecting and mitigating insider threats
3. The impact of AI on personal data privacy and regulatory responses
4. Security policy compliance research – motivations, antecedents, levers of influence
5. Research contrasting policy compliance with actual secure behaviors
6. Analysis of known and unknown modes and vectors of internal and external attack
7. Explorations of the impact of generative AI and ML/LLM on security outcomes, for all stakeholders, including employees, citizens and organizations.
8. SETA (security education, training, and awareness) programs
9. Frameworks for assessing the effectiveness of interventions that intend to reduce organizational vulnerability to attacks
10. Cyber security professionals harnessing AI to enhance defense
11. Modeling of security and privacy behavioral phenomena and relationships
12. Studies examining privacy-related behaviors from a “privacy paradox” perspective
13. Merging methodological topics related to addressing research strategies in IS security
14. Translational science perspectives and strategies for IS security/privacy research
15. Theory development, theory building, and theory testing in information security
16. Neurosecurity (NeuroIS) investigations of information security behavior
17. Explorations of emerging issues related to the privacy and security of the “Internet of Things” (ioT)
18. Role of AI in facilitating cybersecurity defenses
19. Consumer perceptions of privacy and trust in digital platforms

This mintrack will provide IS/IT researchers a collaborative forum to share their research approaches. We hope to attract the skills and insights of scholars from a wide set of disciplines, presenting a mix of theoretical and applied papers on threats and mitigation. Areas of research may include the following.

1. Research related to insider threats to information security and privacy represent the first and most important thread for the minitrack. Insider threats include activities ranging from non-malicious and non-volitional behaviors (accidents and oversights) to volitional, but not malicious, actions to malicious actions such as theft, fraud, blackmail, sabotage, and embezzlement.
2. External vectors of attack by individuals and organizations outside the security perimeter represent the second thread for this minitrack. Specific topics of interest include hacker behaviors, cyber-warfare, identity theft (and electronic deception), and cyber-espionage, including most offensive and defensive methods of prevention, detection, and remediation. Other external parties are motivated to use IT to damage or steal trade secrets, national security information, sensitive account information, or other valuable assets.
3. A third thread revolves around security policy compliance, both at the individual and organizational level of analysis. Compliance is not merely a binary concept – it is a continuum. Individuals may minimally comply with formal security and privacy policies and procedures, or they may exhibit extra-role or stewardship behaviors that go above and beyond official compliance. Similarly, individuals may carelessly violate organizational security policies and procedures without malicious intent or they may attempt to cause maximum damage or loss. In some cases, compliant behavior may not be secure and truly secure behavior may constitute policy violation behavior, so more nuanced research designs are needed.
4. Modeling and theory building in the context of IS security and privacy represents yet another interesting area. Theoretical development in information systems security and privacy research is immature relative to other areas of study in the information systems discipline. This sub-discipline of information systems continues to suffer from a limited theoretical base, restricting our collective ability to properly interpret reality, to apply appropriate methodological approaches, and to substantiate conclusions. Adaptation of theories from applied social psychology and criminology are particularly fertile areas for expanding our knowledge base in this domain. Theories from the disciplines of management, education, and others may also inform our understanding of the phenomena of interest.
5. Finally, we have a particular interest in emerging, rigorous research methods for investigating these phenomena. Organizational-level research can be improved, but studies conducted at the individual level, in particular, can benefit from new experimental designs and new data collection methods. Examples include neurophysiological (NeuroIS) methods such as EEG or fMRI, the factorial survey method, mixed-methods designs, and simulations.
6. The era of Artificial Intelligence is upon us, and it will change the cybersecurity landscape in significant ways. Organizations are likely to harness it to improve their detection mechanisms. On the other hand, cyber criminals are already using these tools to generate novel attacks, challenging all existing employee-focused training mechanisms and mandating a re-evaluation of these.

Select papers from this minitrack will be fast tracked by the minitrack chairs to the Journal of Intellectual Capital (Emerald Publishing)

Minitrack Co-Chairs:

Merrill Warkentin (Primary Contact)
Mississippi State University
m.warkentin@msstate.edu

Karen Renaud
Strathclyde University
karen.renaud@strath.ac.uk

Allen Johnston
University of Alabama
ajohnston@cba.ua.edu

Anthony Vance
Virginia Tech
Anthony@Vance.name

This minitrack focuses on understanding effective strategies for attracting customers, increasing their purchases, satisfaction and loyalty, as well as the responses and behavior of customers to various online marketing vehicles and consumer generated media.

We aim to provide a forum for open and vibrant discussion of innovative strategies and tools in digital marketing to shape consumer behavior, enhance engagement, and drive sustainable practices in B2B and B2C contexts. It focuses on personalization, persuasive design, and consumer trust in evolving digital landscapes. Some topics participants might consider (note this is not an exhaustive list):

1. Green and sustainable marketing gaining traction in e-commerce.
2. Visual product aesthetics influencing impulsive buying behaviors.
3. Generative design elements enhancing digital engagement.
4. Personalized strategies boosting consumer satisfaction and loyalty.
5. Innovative approaches to building consumer trust and engagement.

Recent papers explore the intersection of AI, sustainability, and consumer behavior, including generative AI applications, eco-conscious purchasing, and personalization in digital marketing. Studies also emphasize emotional engagement, referral programs, and platform design to influence buyer behavior, reflecting innovation in both B2B and B2C contexts.

We invite submissions from academics, practitioners, policy makers, and independent thinkers. We welcome submissions that are theoretical, bibliometric, or empirical, i.e., experimental, field studies, case studies, models and modeling, ethnographic, netnographic, natural language processing (NPL), machine learning, or survey based. Each submission must reflect clarity, rigor, and novelty. The best submissions have the potential to spark stimulating discussion and encourage new research agendas. Bring your insights, your energy, and your desire to enrich the HICSS community and beyond!

Minitrack Co-Chairs:

Hope Jensen Schau (Primary Contact)
University of California Irvine
schauh@uci.edu

Melissa Akaka
University of Denver
Melissa.Akaka@du.edu

Martin Key
University of Colorado Colorado Springs
tmkey@ucss.edu

Advancements in computing technologies and algorithms are driving a new wave of innovation. In recent years, generative AI (Gen AI) and machine learning (ML) have achieved remarkable breakthroughs in areas such as chatbots, software development, autonomous driving, speech and facial recognition, and image and video generation.

As AI continues to evolve, businesses across industries are eager to harness its potential to improve operations, create value, and gain a competitive edge. However, successful AI adoption requires more than technical expertise—it also demands business insight and ethical responsibility. Since AI’s performance relies on the data it learns from, ensuring transparency and fairness is crucial. Moreover, as AI becomes deeply embedded in economic activities, its broader impact needs to be carefully assessed. How will automation reshape jobs, skills, wages, and labor markets? How will personalized recommendations influence business models and consumer behavior? What risks and challenges does AI pose for decision-making and society at large? These questions demand careful study in the years ahead to ensure AI benefits both businesses and society.

This minitrack examines the socio-economic impacts of AI and algorithmic systems, with a focus on business value, fairness, transparency, user behavior, and applications in operations, finance, healthcare, and digital platforms. It addresses human-AI interaction and systemic challenges in adopting AI technologies. While submissions employing ML algorithms are highly encouraged, they must also explore the broader impacts and implications of these technologies. We welcome both research-in-progress and practical studies that have the potential to make meaningful contributions to the business community. Relevant topics for this minitrack include, but are not limited to:

1. User behavior, response, and reaction to algorithm fairness, bias, and aversion
2. Economic and societal impacts/implications of AI and ML algorithms
3. Digital platform and market design driven by algorithms
4. The algorithmic economy
5. AI agent
6. Human-algorithm interaction and its implications
7. Explainability, interpretability, and accountability in AI and ML
8. Theory-driven development and evaluation of AI and ML algorithms
9. AL and ML applications in fintech, operations, cybersecurity, healthcare, accounting

High quality and relevant papers from this minitrack will be selected for fast-tracked development towards Information Technology and Management. Selected papers will need to expand in content and length in line with the requirements for standard research articles published in the journal. Although the minitrack co-chairs are committed to guiding the selected papers towards final publication, further reviews may be needed before a final publication decision can be made.

Minitrack Chair:

Zhongju John Zhang
Arizona State University
Zhongju.Zhang@asu.edu