Changing the challenge: measure what makes you better and be better at what you measure

European Journal of Information Systems (2008) 17, 1–3. doi:10.1057/ejis.2008.1 Six excellent articles are yours in this issue of EJIS To what degree do we adopt IT because it’s just plain ‘fun’? Is this ‘fun’ motive seriously influenced by the opinions of those around us? From three Vienna Universities, Dickinger, Arami, and Meyer join those bold researchers who investigate the adoption of IT on the basis of perceived enjoyment and the influence of social norms. Using the case of push-totalk mobile phone technology and a staged research design involving panels of experts from mobile operators, focus groups of potential users, and a survey-style field study, the importance of social norms and fun for IT adoption may surprise you. From Kent State and Washington State Universities, Datta and Chatterjee propose and illustrate their theory about trusting intermediaries in electronic markets. Who are these intermediaries? They include EBay, Google, Priceline, Paypal, etc. Datta and Chatterjee launch their arguments from the sources of consumer uncertainty online (like inaccurate or incomplete market information). They theorize that consumer trust in the intermediaries as institutions compensates for uncertainty and enables the markets to function economically. Perhaps with exquisite timing (given the contemporary problems in the mortgage derivatives marketplace) they illustrate the theory using the online mortgage marketplace. Two articles in this issue deal with mental models. From Missouri State and Drury Universities, Karuppan and Karuppan bring us to grips with effective user training during a complex system implementation in a large hospital. How do we overcome the learn-and-forget trap that ruins user training? The results from the Karuppan and Karuppan field study indicate well-timed training with well-selected super users is the key. Their work offers insight into these selection indicators, especially mental model accuracy. The other article dealing with mental models shifts our focus to software development team learning. We all know that individual characteristics like knowledge and skill are important in building effective software teams. Intuitively diverse and complementary skills are important. But must the team’s individuals also be compatible somehow to take advantage of this diversity? From Ewha Women’s University and the University of Washington, Yang, Kang, and Mason survey Korean software development companies to test a theory that shared mental models mediate team effectiveness. Because such models can be fostered and developed, this work offers a means by which organizations can manage the collective learning ability within software teams. We will continue this theme of learning from software projects by shifting the focus to organizational learning. From Georgia State and Aalborg Universities, Kasi, Keil, Mathiassen, and Pedersen explore the slim uptake of post-mortem evaluations among IT professionals. It is known to be of great value in engineering disciplines, especially in learning from failure, why not IT? They engage a Delphi panel of 23 IT practitioners to European Journal of Information Systems (2008) 17, 1–3 & 2008 Operational Research Society Ltd. All rights reserved 0960-085X/08 $30.00