The Next Frontier… E-commerce Research in Developing Countries

1. The Next Frontier… E-commerce Research in Developing Countries How to Make a Theoretical Contribution? Viswanath Venkatesh

2. Agenda • Considerations • Developing country context • A common mistake • Four ways to make a theoretical contribution • Two illustrations

3. Practical Considerations • MNCs marketing products and services to developing countries • Firms working with organizations in developing countries • Supply chains and business process flows frequently have a representation of companies in/from developing countries

4. Scientific Considerations • Theories developed with western philosophies and ideologies • Data collected in western countries

5. Developing Country Context • Developing countries • Countries themselves • SMEs • People • Workplace • Social settings • Etc.

6. A Common Mistake: Replication without Rich Extensions “[insert theory here] has never been examined in the context of the mobile Internet among participants in China an hour after their lunch in the winter.”

7. A Common Mistake: Replication without Rich Extensions “TAM has never been examined in the context of the mobile Internet among participants in China an hour after their lunch in the winter.”

8. How to Make a Theoretical Contribution? Conduct cross-cultural comparisons Leverage cross-cultural settings Engage in the developing country context Theorize about the developing country

9. Conduct Cross-cultural Comparisons • Compare existing theories across cultural settings • Direct effects and moderating effects • Explain why similarities and differences would be expected • “theory development through encounters between theoretical assumptions and empirical impressions that involve breakdowns” (Alvesson and Karreman 2007) • Ideally, employ explanatory variables and not just country as the moderating variable • IS exemplars • Gefen and Straub (1997, MISQ) • Srite and Karahanna (2006, MISQ)

10. Leverage Cross-Cultural Settings • Role of global village, virtual teams, diversity • New contexts that did not exist before (Johns 2006) • Theorize about what happens when people from different cultures get together to: • Work (e.g., develop a project) • Socialize (e.g., interact on FaceBook) • IS exemplars • Kankanhalli et al. (2007, JMIS) • Rai et al. (2009, MISQ)

11. Engage in the Developing Country Context • Induction, not deduction • Beginning with Socrates and Aristotle • Think Isaac Newton • “…hypothetico–deductive method, even if practiced, actually retards the progress of science” (Locke 2007) • Live and breathe the context to tell the tale, without the shackles of existing theories • Necessarily qualitative • IS exemplars • Walsham and Sahay (1999, MISQ) • Hirscheim and Silva (2007, MISQ)

12. Theorize about the Country • Not necessarily qualitative (Alvesson and Karreman 2007) • Introduce new concepts and consequently, constructs • Bring to bear new theoretical perspectives • Integrate theoretical perspectives appropriately • Develop new theory that is situated in the contextual richness

13. Impacts of Information and Communication Technology Implementations on Employees’ Jobs in India: A Multi-Method Longitudinal Field Study* Production and Operations Management (in press) * w/ Hillol Bala (Indiana), Tracy Sykes (NSF)

14. General Storyline Job characteristics model (JCM) The effect on all five characteristics (skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy and feedback) was positive Job satisfaction and job performance declined Qualitative study (interviews) to understand why… Socio-technical systems theory to explain the results

15. Typical JCM + + + +

16. JCM in our Context + - + -

17. Qualitative Study

18. Organizational Innovation in India: A Multi-method Longitudinal Study* Information Systems Research (under review) * w/ Hillol Bala (Indiana), Tracy Sykes (NSF), V. Sambamurthy (MSU)

19. General Storyline Tensions between traditional challenges and emerging catalysts Troubling trend… even 2 years after implementation No improvement in service time Drop in job satisfaction Drop in customer satisfaction Qualitative study to understand the problems from the perspective of different stakeholders

20. Service Time, Job Sat, Cust Sat

21. Qualitative Study Findings

22. Contributions Richer understanding of IT implementations in developing countries Boundaries of existing theories Setting the stage for new theory development and future research, including future work on interventions Helping developing countries leverage IT meaningfully Seeing opportunities and identifying challenges

23. In sum… • Developing countries represent a fertile and important ground for future e-commerce research • Four suggested ways to make a theoretical contribution • Conduct cross-cultural comparisons • Leverage cross-cultural settings • Engage in the developing country context • Theorize about the developing country

24. Thank You!