key: cord-1049802-ocp6qn3i
authors: Lawrence, Victor B.; Ayaburi, Emmanuel W.; Andoh-Baidoo, Francis Kofi; Dwivedi, Yogesh K.; Lal, Banita
title: Editorial: Special Issue on “Bright ICT: Security, Privacy and Risk Issues”
date: 2022-04-02
journal: Inf Syst Front
DOI: 10.1007/s10796-022-10272-7
sha: 354c77981a2a5039abe40db4a687ef07dae55494
doc_id: 1049802
cord_uid: ocp6qn3i

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Bright ICT, a 2015 initiative of the Association of Information Systems introduced by Prof J.K. Lee, refers to the grand vision of a bright society enabled by ICT. Bright ICT research involves taking a holistic view at the design of ICT enabled future society (Lee, 2016; Lee et al., 2018) . This concept entails the development of relevant technologies, business models, public policies, social norms, international agreements, metrics for measuring national progress and preventing undesirable activities on the Internet. It is also at the center of discussions on adoption or modification of technologies, policies, and organizations from which new business models-that create a bright safe internetcan evolve. As a double edge sword, technology creates huge benefits such as the use of mobile phones for healthcare access but create challenges such as delayed access to healthcare providers (Haenssgen & Ariana, 2017) . Legal frameworks such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and opt-in/out rules that are promulgated to protect individuals' private data have dual effect of reducing users' information sharing intentions and giving power to a few Tech market players (Johnson et al., 2020) .

The unintended consequences of technology adoption and how to address technostress and cybercrime include: Privacy issues in the design, adoption and diffusion of technology in the emergency management, health, entertainment, government, political and criminal justice sectors; Identification of risk factors and barriers to success in emerging technology adoption and strategies for addressing the risk; Security, privacy and risk with the use of social media in crisis management; Ethics in the adoption of Internet of Things, Big Data Analytics, wearables and mobile technology; Security, privacy and risk associated with the design of smart cities; Effect of legal framework(s) on reducing security, privacy and risk issues in the design, adoption and diffusion of technology. Additionally, ICT use has raised the issue of digital addiction, impaired child development, and contested individual free will (Castelo and Lehmann, 2019 ). An understanding of these associated consequences is relevant to improving Bright ICT globally. Although digital technologies are advancing life experience, they have used for undesired outcomes such as corruption of democratic process across many countries (Cheeseman et al., 2018) .

This issue section is the results of papers presented at the "Social Impact of Bright ICT Adoption" IFIP Working Group 8.6. workshop at the University of Ghana, Accra on 21 st -22 nd June 2019. Six out of the thirty-eight (38) papers submitted to the conference were invited for the special issue. Following three rounds of review, the six manuscripts were accepted. The accepted papers contribute to our understanding of the threats of ICT adoption by organizations and individuals. Authors also present insights for managers-of different types of organizations-and individuals for maximizing the social impact of ICT use.

In the first paper, Odusanya et al. (2022) , explore the issue of trust of electronic retailing platforms and its effects on the continual use of such platforms. In the Nigerian context, perceived usefulness and social influence were not significant drivers. However, hedonic motivation, risk, ease of use and quality in driving intention to use trust electronic retail websites were significant drivers of continual use of such platforms. Therefore, trust is a critical issue for the bright side of electronic retail. It is a key component that facilitates the sustenance of online platforms by providing assurance of consumer rights. The authors demonstrate that information quality, usefulness, risk and hedonic values are predictors of consumer trust in electronic retail. The sub-Saharan context help contribute to the literature and provide managers insights on path to developing context specific trust in online platforms.

In a related work, Idowu and Elbanna (2022) , highlighted the contribution of crowd workers and sought to classify them into a typology. The study identified four categories of crowd workers in Nigeria based on prior employment experience and initiations. The four groups of crowd workers are Switchers, Early birds, Awakened and Green starters. These four groups are career development paths in the evolving crowd workspace. While the adoption of ICT creates jobs, it has had the unintended effect of eliminating jobs. As the goal of bright ICT is to minimize these negative effects, there are call for understanding the broader effects of job sustenance following the introduction of ICT. This study lays the groundwork for understanding crowd worker skills acquisition and development of long-term working experience.

In the third paper, Offei et al. (2022) , examine the negative consequence of the proliferation of ICT. They investigate the factors that influence computer users into becoming online romance scammers. Using Ghana as a case study, the authors find denial of victim and denial of responsible dimensions of neutralization theory as the likely techniques used to justify the intentions to commit online romance fraud. That is, individuals employ denial of risk as a mechanism to rationalize their intention to commit romance fraud. Although the proliferation of the internet has created alternatives for individuals seeking love and support to meet, it has also created a conducive environment for unscrupulous individuals to take advantage of vulnerable individuals seeking love. This has been one of the long running issues with bright ICT. Through insights from surveying individual engaged in online romance scam, the authors highlight the effect of denial of risk as the key enhancer of the use of neutralization techniques in committing online crimes.

The fourth paper focuses on the regulatory framework of a country and its effect on the diffusion of technology. Khan, et al. (2022) , using social change(s) as the basis, argue that the rate of diffusion of ICT in a country is a function of the country's ICT regulatory environment. They found support for this thesis using publicly available data on 83 countries. Furthermore, the authors show the interactive effects of diverse national cultural orientation on laws and IT diffusion. Although, the authors examine wellbeing as outcome, the concept of wellbeing is so broad that future research could explore the other dimensions of wellbeing.

Continuing in the context of IT use in public, Ismagilova et al. (2022) , argue that ICT has witnessed greater use in the transformation of citizen participation and experience in smart cities. This literature synthesizes prior security, privacy and risk issues that are relevant for smart city development. The current threat to critical national infrastructure highlights the need for more understanding of how to promote the operation of safe smart cities. The authors outline several areas including healthcare, power systems and mobile infrastructure that require additional insights from researchers.

In the last paper, Singh et al. (2022) focus on an emerging issue about the unintended negative consequence of ICT diffusion. The spread of information that is low in credibility, against truthful information, has been a bane for most online platform managers. The authors proposed and evaluated a mechanism for detecting rumor and non-rumor information on twitter. Their proposed mechanism is based on the content analysis of a tweet and user behavior. The insight from this study is useful for managers, who seek to reduce the impact of spread of information low in credibility.

Taken together, the papers in this special issue contribute to the literature on the unintended use of ICT and provide insights for practice. The papers correspondingly make recommendations for future research in several areas. First, crowdsourcing is still evolving especially following the recent Covid-19 global pandemic. Thus, future research should explore the lived experience of crowd workers and socio-economic impact on Bright ICT. Second, as technology is continually being utilized in the infrastructure of most cities, the legal and institutional dimensions needed to efficiently utilize ICT require more investigation. Additionally, future research should investigate the use of blockchain in smart cities. Third, the effect of administrative process efficiency in the diffusion of ICT warrants further investigation. Fourth, authors call for triangulation of methodologies to unravel the intricate dynamics of internet crimes includes online romance scam. Furthermore, research for how to improve check and balances in the use of ICT for election is important. Understanding of approaches and technology design that alleviate these concerns will advance the concept of Bright ICT.

Publisher's Note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Marketing, focusing on issues related to consumer adoption and diffusion of emerging ICT-based applications, electronic/digital government, and digital marketing particularly in the context of emerging markets. He has published more than 250 articles in a range of leading academic journals and conferences. He has co-edited/co-authored more than 20 books on technology adoption, egovernment, IS theory, eWOM and social media which have been published by international publishers. He has acted as co-editor of 19 journal special issues; organised tracks, mini-tracks and panels in leading conferences; and served as Programme Co-Chair of the 2013 IFIP WG 8.6 Conference and as Conference Chair of the IFIP WG 6.11 I3E2016 Conference. He is an Associate Editor of the European Journal of Marketing and Government Information Quarterly and Senior Editor of the Journal of Electronic Commerce Research. Professor Dwivedi is the founding editor of the recently established Springer Book Series on Advances in Theory and Practice of Emerging Markets (http:// www. sprin ger. com/ series/ 15802). Banita Lal , Ph.D. is a Senior Lecturer in Strategy and Management at Bedfordshire Business School, University of Bedfordshire, UK. She gained her PhD in Information Systems from Brunel University, London. Following this, she spent ten years at Nottingham Business School, Nottingham Trent University, UK, as a Lecturer/Senior Lecturer in Information Systems. Her research interests revolve around the adoption and diffusion of technology including mobile and e-Government technology, social media technology, ICT for Development, technology in emerging contexts and examining stakeholder satisfaction. Dr. Lal has published in several worldleading conferences and journals in the field of Information Systems which include: Information Systems Frontiers, Government Information Quarterly, Information Technology and People, the Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS) and the Annual International Conference on Digital Government Research. Dr. Lal currently serves as a programme committee member for the internationally acclaimed IFIP (International Federation for Information Processing) 8.6 Group -an international group concerned with the diffusion, adoption and implementation of information (and communication) technologies as well as serving as a reviewer for a number of international conferences and journals.

Be careful what you wish for: Unintended consequences of increasing reliance on technology

Digital dilemmas: The unintended consequences of election technology

The social implications of technology diffusion: Uncovering the unintended consequences of people's health-related mobile phone use in rural India and China

Digital Platforms of Work and the Crafting of Career Path: The Crowdworkers' Perspective. Information Systems Frontiers

privacy and risks within smart cities: Literature review and development of a smart city interaction framework. Information Systems Frontiers

Privacy & market concentration: Intended & unintended consequences of the GDPR

The Role of ICT Laws and National Culture in Determining ICT Diffusion and Well-Being: A Cross-Country Examination

Invited commentary-reflections on ICT-enabled bright society research

Design and Validation of the Bright Internet

Building consumers' trust in electronic retail platforms in the sub-Saharan context: an exploratory study on drivers and impact on continuance intention

How Do Individuals Justify and Rationalize their Criminal Behaviors in Online Romance Fraud? Information Systems Frontiers

Attention-based LSTM network for rumor veracity estimation of tweets

We thank the Editors-in-Chief, Ram Ramesh and H. Raghav Rao, for the opportunity to put together this special issue. Furthermore, we thank the advisory guest editor, the various guest editors and referees for their comment/insights on the accepted papers in this special issue. We are grateful for the help provided by IFIP Working Group 8.6 2019 workshop team: honorary chair George Kasper, the general chairs Deborah Bunker and Richard Boateng and the doctoral consortium chair H. Raghav Rao, of the University of Texas at San Antonio. H. Raghav Rao rendered invaluable support in bringing the whole idea of having the IFIP 8.6 2019 working conference in Ghana to fruition. We thank John Effah and the leadership of Information Systems Department of the University of Ghana for organizing the workshop. Finally, we are immensely grateful to University of Ghana Business School (UGBS) for agreeing to host the workshop and providing logistics that made the workshop possible.