Information Logistics’ has presented itself as an intellectual and professional domain addressing the question of timely providence of the right information. A question that emerges then is: What is Information Logistics? To answer this question, a comprehensive review of research publications was conducted, where ‘Information Logistics’ was featured in the publication title. A detailed analysis of the content of these publications identified eleven different research directions, where five are currently active, all in Europe. Among various findings, the results show that these research directions have been pursued independently of each other, addressing different kinds of research questions and contexts, utilising different research approaches, and therefore generating a variety of unrelated research results. All the reviewed research here shows that there are numerous unmet empirical needs in our human and social affairs, as well as a need for intra-disciplinary developments, which calls for a joint mobilisation of the research efforts.

Although the development of e-maintenance operations is understood to offer promising opportunities, it seems to be mainly driven by Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) applications development. This is unfortunate, as ICT has no value in itself; rather its benefit comes from the way in which it is utilized within its particular context. Thus, a conceptual framework is proposed to guide both the practice and the research of e-maintenance operations. The framework combines an Industrial Value Chain with a Buyer- Consumer Value Chain, where their intersections articulated in terms of categories derived from Information Logistics. This provides a structure for the conception of e-maintenance that needs to be populated with published research and current e-maintenance practice. This may uncover white spaces where research efforts deserve particular attention and are driven by value generation – for instance, economic. A brief case study, from a leading European truck- manufacturer, illustrates the proposed conceptual framework in application.

This paper presents an inquiry into the domain of e-maintenance, particularly of industrial entities. As a domain of research and practice, e-maintenance is understood to offer great opportunities, however it seems to be driven by the development of applications of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). This ICT-driven approach is unfortunate, as ICT has no value in itself, rather its benefit comes for how it processes information, and more broadly how it forms its contextual activities. To remedy this situation, a conceptual framework is proposed, to guide both the practice and the research of e-maintenance operations. This framework combines the seminal Industrial Value Chain framework and then the Buyer-Consumer Value Chain, and articulates their intersection with a set of defined categories derived from Information Logistics. This provides one possible structure for the conception of e-maintenance, which needs to be populated with the published research and practice results. This, in turn, may uncover white spaces where research efforts deserve particular attention and are driven by value generation – whether economic or other – instead of experimental ICT application developments. The presentation of this framework is accompanied with a brief example that contrasts an event-driven versus a plan-driven approach to e-maintenance.

Our human and social affairs operate inherently various modes of information sharing; in this we frequently encounter instances where the needed information is not provided to the needing actor, at the right time and cost, and in the right format. To this end, an Information Logistics Research Program has been formulated, grounded both in current research findings and in the actual needs and opportunities of organizations and individuals. The aim of the program is to guide a long term and comprehensive research efforts by indicating the key research domains to be addressed. The formulated research program proposes the following four key research frontiers for Information Logistics: the Information Logistics Operational Models, the Information Logistics Business Models, the Information Needing Actor, and the Information Logistics Foundations. The proposed Research Program also provides suggestions for how to research the defined frontiers.

This final Chapter represents the responsibility, the privilege but also the aspiration of the two editors of this Gunilla Bradley Festschrift. The aspiration here is no less than to identify a key message that emerges out of the contributions in this volume considered as a whole. In other words, the question here is: what do all this research and reasoning say to us? Of course, each reader of this Volume will derive her or his own interpretation and thus also a key message, which we only see as the richness offered by this Festschrift. Therefore, the key message presented here must be regarded only as one possible message that is formed by the two editors’ own predispositions: intellectual, cultural, motivational, and other.

ABSTRACT. In this paper we develop a model of how information literacy (IL) strategy contribute to information retrieval process in organizations. Information retrieval is a challenging task that requires careful undertaking, concerning the issue related to information inadequacy. Our focus is on IL strategy and how it can improve information retrieval process, although being dependent on information technology (IT) capabilities. The purpose of this paper is to show how organizations can use IL strategy to guide their formulation and use of it in organizations. This research presents a model of IL strategy, which intends to accomplish contribution in organizations with IL strategy. For this, we adopt the theory of contribution behaviors focusing on how technology affects organizations. In this model we introduce three processes: analyze, search and manage. These processes are successors of contribution behaviors activities, but are also related to IL strategy activities. Finally, with this model we intend to show how individual’s motivational state is characterized by a normative, tactical and strategic information retrieval process in organizations, which affects organization’s performance, retaining with IT capability dependency.

Information is one of the most essential resources in our contemporary societies, as it guideshuman thinking, planning and subsequent actions, which in turn generates consequencesthat are desired or not. The Lehman Brothers bankruptcy in 2008, the tsunami in Indonesiain 2004, the Space Shuttle Challenger destruction in 1986 are just three instances ofdramatic situations, emerging continuously, where information plays a crucial role. Thisstudy investigates the phenomenon of the lack of needed information, predominantlyexperienced with difficulties in human, social and industrial affairs. Consequently, thechallenge is to understand why such situations emerge. Two approaches are utilized toexplore this challenge using an interpretivist tradition. The first is a hermeneutic approach,the second a grounded theory approach. The first approach – theoretically oriented –investigates numerous theoretical bodies, selected with the assumption that they can explainthe addressed challenge. The results show that there are no comprehensive theoreticalbodies that can fully account for the phenomenon of the lack of needed information.Furthermore, there is no consensus on what “information” is – the very core of thechallenge, which gave the foundations for a formulation of an alternative notion ofinformation and is instrumental for the present investigation. Thus, no a priori theory isused to guide the empirical investigation. The second approach – empirically oriented –investigates fifty empirical cases, where the lack of needed information is clearly manifested.The results present an initial outline for a possible future theory of information inadequacy,constituted by the dichotomy of information-lack and information-overflow. Informationlackis dominated by: “information is non-existent”, “information is insufficient”, “information is censored” and “information is undelivered”. Whereas, information-overflow isdominated by: “information is ambiguous”, “information is redundant”, “information isirrelevant” and “information is undervalued”. The two main dichotomous characteristics andtheir interrelations result in patterns of various information inadequacies. The keyconclusion of the present study is that while dramatic situations are increasing everyday,there is as yet no theoretical body designed to comprehensively account for the phenomenonin context; only partial accounts are found. Thus, the empirical investigation suggests thatthe phenomenon of the lack of needed information seems to emerge because of diversefactors, ranging from political and cultural structures, through human individualcapabilities, and ending with procedural and technological artefacts. This study advocatesthat further research is needed to fully account for and explain instances of the lack ofneeded information, and that such an account requires an innovative and interdisciplinary focus.

For organizations, emphasizing investments in security technology has become the norm. Trending security technologies are important for an organization’s information security strategy. Organizations commonly use such technologies to enforce information security policy (ISP) compliance on the part of their employees, to ensure the security of their information resources. Yet, it seems that employees frequently establish rules of their own for complying with the ISP. Questioning this concern, the present dissertation addresses employees’ violation of information security rules and regulations. The motivation is based on the concern that information security policy noncompliance is largely influenced by escalation of commitment. Escalation is a phenomenon that explains how employees in organizations often get involved in nonperforming tasks, commonly reflecting the tendency of persistence, when investments of resources have been initiated. This dissertation develops an integrated model based on Self-Justification theory, Prospect theory, and Approach Avoidance theory, that centres on two main factors of noncompliance, namely self-justification and sunk costs. These factors act as mediating mechanisms to explain the dependent factor of the willingness to engage in noncompliant behaviour. The theoretical model is empirically tested with a data set that represents responses from 639 respondents across 27 organizations using the scenario-based survey approach. The results of this dissertation present a dual outcome. For theory, our theoretical framework not only enriches the literature on information security by proving that escalation behaviour is an antecedent of noncompliance, but also generates new insights about the escalation of commitment literature. The findings suggest that employees’ cognitive traits are escalation’s main antecedents that present the necessary stimulation to violate an ISP, while employees’ emotional traits do not influence such stimulation when overpowered by cognitive traits. Our results also suggest that employees engaged in nonperforming tasks often become noncompliant, even though they were complying before. In principle, the findings show that employees prioritize the completion of their tasks, rather than their commitment to comply with the ISP, and thus become noncompliant. In practice, our results show that employees’ willingness to engage in noncompliant behaviour is largely influenced by self-justification and sunk costs. The main results suggest that (a) self-justification is largely driven by the benefits of noncompliance outweighing the costs of compliance; (b) sunk costs are largely driven by the completion effect; (c) the benefit of noncompliance is a significant factor in self-justification, partially mediated by its influence on the willingness to engage in noncompliance; and (d) the completion effect is a significant factor in the sunk costs, fully mediated by its influence on the willingness to engage in noncompliance. This dissertation advocates that further research is needed to account for and explain noncompliant behaviour by utilizing escalation theories in more depth, and that such an account requires an innovative and empirically driven effort.

Abstract. In this paper, I develop a model for understanding the importance of combining information logistics and semantic information. I use this combination as a representation of an initial solution to the problem of information overflow. The focus is on how could be possible to improve information flow, which indeed is essential and it impacts operational efficiency and enterprise productivity. The model combines information logistics and semantic information as a mean to provide the right person, with semantic information, at the right time and for the right purpose. This combination is a foundation for just-in-time information, also considered as a problem-solving basis for telecom enterprises, which could facilitate their daily workload. The results are based on empirical data gathered from structured interviews of sixty participants, who revealed new stories of how these telecom enterprises are miss functioning due to information overflow. I discuss the implications of this model, considered as an initial solution to reach efficient information flow and to improve communication process that is of crucial importance in every enterprise. This research uses the empirical data to explore the problem of information overflow, mainly from a design perspective, which indeed leads this research to further develop an analytical understanding of the problem.

Information asymmetry is a problem that prevents communication processes to be effective in the digital economy. In this paper, we propose a model for understanding information asymmetry. Our analyses are conducted using the newspaper industry, the healthcare sector, and the stock exchange market. These analyses are examined using theories of communication processes in which two or more actors are necessary to engage in activities of information exchange. The study of these three examples resulted in the identification of four information exchange patterns: influenced, intentional, hindered, and unawares. Furthermore, we discuss implications of the model for information exchange in practice. The paper concludes by challenging sustainability in the digital economy, which remains problematic and difficult to achieve.

This study investigates the phenomenon of the lack of needed information, predominantly experienced through difficulties in human, social and industrial affairs. The key concern is, thus, to understand what really causes the lack of needed information. Answers to this concern have been provided from an array of studies mostly focused in the area of information management. However, the literature shows that there is no comprehensive a priori theory to guide an empirical investigation on this matter. Thus, the empirical investigation conducted here is based on grounded theory approach that investigates fifty cases, where the lack of needed information is clearly manifested. The empirical investigation suggests that the phenomenon of the lack of needed information seems to emerge because of diverse factors, ranging from political and cultural structures, through human individual capabilities, and ending with procedural and technological artefacts. The results present an initial outline for a possible future theory of information inadequacy.

This study aims to facilitate a new understanding on employees’ attitude towards compliance with the requirements of their information security policy (ISPs) through the lens of escalation. Escalation presents a situation in which employees must decide whether to persist in or withdraw from a non-performing task. Drawing on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and Agency Theory, our model delineates three mediating factors in explaining attitude: work impediment, information asymmetry, and safety of resources. We also propose information security awareness as an independent variable having an indirect effect on attitude through mediating factors. The proposed model is tested using the data collected from 376 employees working in the banking industry. The results of the PLS analyses show that while information asymmetry and safety of resources have significant impacts on attitude, work impediment does not. The results also show that ISA has significant impact on all three mediating factors.

It has been widely known that employees pose insider threats to the information and technology resources of an organization. In this paper, we develop a model to explain insiders' intentional violation of the requirements of an information security policy. We propose sunk cost as a mediating factor. We test our research model on data collected from three information-intensive organizations in banking and pharmaceutical industries (n=502). Our results show that sunk cost acts as a mediator between the proposed antecedents of sunk cost (i.e., completion effect and goal in congruency) and intentions to violate the ISP. We discuss the implications of our results for developing theory and for re-designing current security agendas that could help improve compliance behavior in the future.

In this paper, we develop a theoretical framework for understanding the role guilt proneness plays in the Information Security Policy (ISP) compliance. We define guilt proneness as an emotional personality trait indicative of a predisposition to experience a negative feeling about ISP violation. We develop a research model based on the theory of planned behaviour, guilt proneness theory and rational choice theory to explain employees’ intentions to comply with ISPs by incorporating the guilt proneness as a moderator between benefit of compliance and benefit of violation as perceived by employees and their attitude towards compliance. Identifying the roles of predispositions like guilt proneness in the ISP compliance will have interesting theoretical and practical implications in the area of information security.

This paper aims to extend our knowledge about employees’ noncompliance with Information Security Policies (ISPs), focusing on employees’ self-justification as a result of escalation of commitment that may trigger noncompliance behaviour. Escalation presents a situation when employees must decide whether to persist or withdraw from nonperforming tasks at work. Drawing on self-justification theory and prospect theory, our model presents two escalation factors in explaining employee’s willingness to engage in noncompliance behaviour with ISPs: self-justification and risk perceptions. We also propose that perceived benefits of noncompliance and perceived costs of compliance, at the intersection of cognitive and emotional driven acts influence self-justification. The model is tested based on 376 respondents from banking industry. The results show that while self-justification has a significant impact on willingness, risk perceptions do not moderate their relation. We suggest that future research should explore the roles of self-justification in noncompliance to a greater extent.

Man’s notion of ‘information’ is essential as it guides human thinking, planning, and consequent actions. Situations such as the Haiti earthquake in 2010, the financial crisis in Greece in 2010, and the oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 are just a few instances of constant growing empirical dilemmas in our global society where information plays a central role. The meaning of what information is has clear implications for how we deal with it in our practical lives, which in turn may give rise to situations that we would prefer to be without. In this sense, the notion of information has evidently presented the need to question what it really means and how it dominates the functioning of our global society. To address this fundamental issue of information, two questions are explored and presented in this paper: What notions of information are dominating the scholarly literature? And what are the differences between these notions? To answer these questions, we have conducted a comprehensive literature survey of more than two hundred scholarly publications. Detailed analyses of the content of these publications identified four kinds of forms of information notions. The results show that these four forms present diverse and opposing views of the notion of information, labelled as the ‘quartet model of information’. These ad-dress different foci, contexts, and challenges. In addition, we propose an alternative and novel understanding of the notion of information, associated with how information functions in our global society. This understanding offers a new perspective intended to address significant needs of the information society.

This paper takes initial steps in facilitating researchers and practitioners to increase the relevance of information for their contexts. Our focus is on forging new possibilities to understand and improve the contemporary dilemma of information inadequacy. We define information inadequacy as vulnerable and inadequate information, composed by the dichotomy of information lack and/or of information overflow, which impose complexities and unexpected behaviour in human and social affairs. By exploring the lack of needed information in human and social affairs, we conducted an inquiry of different empirical and research objects that relate to information inadequacy (for example, empirical situations, theories, or other theoretically and practically based artifacts). The question that emerges then is: How to secure that the needed information is provided to the recipient at the right time, reducing the cause of unpredictable failures and fatalities in our global society? To answer this question, our paper presents initial guiding with a systematic approach that focuses on evaluating and further improving research and practice for information relevance. The empirical cases are mostly based on situations, such as: the financial failures of the Lehman Brothers Bankruptcy 2008, and the Enron bankruptcy 2001; or the disasters of the Space Shuttle Columbia 2003, and Space Shuttle Challenger 1986. The analyses are examined using theories of information behaviour that influence communication processes, from where two or more different actors are necessary to engage in activities of information exchange. The results include the identification of four information exchange patterns: influenced, intentional, hindered, unawares. Furthermore, we discuss implications of the model for practices with information. The paper concludes by challenging the role of information inadequacy in all economic, social and political affairs that remains problematic.

This paper addresses managers' intentions to overlook their employees' Information Security Policy (ISP) violation, in circumstances when on-going projects have to be completed and delivered even if ISP violation must take place to do so. The motivation is based on the concern that ISP violation can be influenced by escalation of commitment factors. Escalation is a phenomenon that explains how employees in organizations often get involved in nonperforming projects, commonly reflecting the tendency of persistence, when investments of resources have been initiated. We develop a theoretical understanding based on Escalation of Commitment theory that centres on two main factors of noncompliance, namely completion effect and sunk costs. We tested our theoretical concepts in a pilot study, based on qualitative and quantitative data received from 16 respondents from the IT - industry, each representing one respondent from the management level. The results show that while some managers are very strict about not accepting any form of ISP violation in their organization, their beliefs start to change when they realize that such form of violation may occur when their employees are closer to completion of a project. Our in-depth interviews with 3 respondents in the followup study, confirm the tension created between compliance with the ISP and the completion of the project. The results indicate that the larger the investments of time, efforts and money in a project, the more the managers consider that violation is acceptable.

With the significant growth of cyber space, business organizations have become more alert than ever before that cyber security must be considered seriously and that there is a need to develop up-to-date security measures. It has become an increasing trend that cyber-attackers concentrate more on small and medium than on large enterprises, due to their known vulnerability towards cyber security. In exchange of successful cyber security measures in organizations, the security risks must be taken into consideration more closely that could be helpful for re-thinking their decision-making on cyber security. This article develops a theoretical framework on cyber security with three aspects taken in consideration: organizational, technological and psychological, that deserves the attention of IT professionals while and after creating cyber security measures in their SMEs. The first two aspects (organizational and technological) focus on understanding the IT professionals' decision-making process, while the third aspect (psychological) focuses on understanding the IT professionals' post decision-making reactions. Firstly, the organizational aspect presupposes that the ones who create cyber security measures are exposed to unclear and undefined decision processes and rights that lead to system vulnerabilities. Secondly, the technological aspect focuses on disclosing how many IT professionals in their organizations fail to meet foundational technological measures, such as the existence of Internet firewall, logs of system events, existence of hardware and software inventory list, data backup, antivirus software and password rules. Lastly, the psychological aspect, explains how post cyber security decisions made by IT professionals may have a contra-effect on the organization. Our data analyses collected based on interviews with IT professionals across 6 organizations (SMEs) show that cyber security is yet to be developed among SMEs, an issue that must not be taken lightly. Results show that the IT professionals in these organizations need to strengthen and develop their security thinking, in order to decrease the vulnerability of informational assets among SMEs. We believe that a perspective on understanding decision-making processes upon the cyber security measures by IT professionals in SMEs may bring a theoretical redirection in the literature, as well as an important feedback to practice.