Understanding the Perception of Information System Niche: Conceptualization, Measurement, and Validation

The number of niche technologies is growing, and they are getting noticed. However, the usage dynamics of such systems have not been explored. This study introduces the “niche” information systems (IS) construct to differentiate between mainstream and niche technologies and to illustrate how such differences potentially influence a person’s IS usage behavior. We posit that niche-ness is perceptual, and a measurement to gauge an individual’s niche perception in the domain of systems usage is desired. Resting on Optimal Distinctiveness theory, the study develops a novel conceptualization and operationalization of niche technology perceptions, focusing on social networking systems. Our main contribution includes the examination of the typology of the perceived niche, which results in the development and validation of an eight-item instrument for perceived technology niche through three studies. In addition, by placing the construct in a nomological network in a fourth study, we demonstrate that the perceived technology niche construct is related to IS continuance intention.

Shared Fate and Entrepreneurial Collective Action in the U.S. Wood Pellet Market

Although studies underscore the importance of creating a coherent collective identity in order to legitimate a new market category, strategy and entrepreneurship research is divided on whether and to what degree an entrepreneur will engage in collective action to promote the identity. To reconcile the inconsistency, we introduce the concept of entrepreneurial shared fate—the belief of a focal venture that it and its competitors are bound together by a sense of belongingness and equally experience similar consequences—and explore how external threats can influence the degree of shared fate. We conceptually distinguish between communal and individual threats and propose that communal threats will increase, whereas individual threats will decrease, shared fate. We also explore boundary conditions that strengthen and weaken the main effects of perceived communal and individual threats on collective identity promotion. Empirically, we examine venture identity framing in response to forest-conservation activism in the U.S. wood pellet market. Implications for research on new market categories, collective identity, optimal distinctiveness, and forest management are discussed.

Predicting Perceptions of Team Process Using Optimal Distinctiveness Theory

There are conflicting findings in team diversity research on whether it is better for an individual on a team to be similar to or different from the rest of the team. This lab study with undergraduates completing a critical thinking and decision-making task uses optimal distinctiveness theory to examine the idea that finding a balance between these two states for team member personality will result in positive perceptions of team process. Our results supported this such that participants had the most positive perceptions of team process when optimally distinct from the rest of the team in terms of personality.

In Search of Optimal Distinctiveness: Balancing Conformity and Differentiation via Organizational Learning

ABSTRACT Firms in a nascent industry need to search across various technological trajectories and market opportunities with limited prior knowledge. While inter-firm learning (e.g., imitation) helps the focal firm adapt in the process of conformity, intra-firm learning (e.g., independent experimentation) helps a firm stand out from rivals in the process of differentiation, both of which can gain competitive advantages. This study investigates how the conformity-differentiation balance can be achieved from the cross-level learning perspective. Adopting a mixed-method design, we first conduct a case study on the Chinese photovoltaic industry. The case suggests that firms are inclined to conform in upstream and bottleneck technological domains but differentiate in the downstream market applications. We then extend the case findings through a computational simulation based on March's learning model. When experimentation and imitation are possible, the balance between conformity and differentiation can be reframed as the classical balance between exploitation and exploration across the firm and industry levels: while experimentation is often exploitative at the firm level but exploratory at the industry level, imitation is often exploratory at the firm level but exploitative at the industry level. The study makes a new attempt to bridge the optimal distinctiveness literature with the organizational learning literature.

When Digital Technologies Enable and Threaten Occupational Identity: The Delicate Balancing Act of Data Scientists

Occupations are increasingly embedded with and affected by digital technologies. These technologies both enable and threaten occupational identity and create two important tensions: they make the persistence of an occupation possible while also potentially rendering it obsolete, and they magnify both the similarity and distinctiveness of occupations with regard to other occupations. Based on the critical case study of an online community dedicated to data science, we investigate longitudinally how data scientists address the two tensions of occupational identity associated with digital technologies and reach transient syntheses in terms of “optimal distinctiveness” and “persistent extinction.” We propose that identity work associated with digital technologies follows a composite life-cycle and dialectical process. We explain that people constantly need to adjust and redefine their occupational identity, i.e., how they define who they are and what they do. We contribute to scholarship on digital technologies and identity work by illuminating how people deal in an ongoing manner with digital technologies that simultaneously enable and threaten their occupational identity.

The Gender-Equality Paradox and Optimal Distinctiveness: More Gender-Equal Societies Have More Gendered Names

Findings in several domains have documented a gender-equality paradox, where greater social and economic gender equality predicts increased gender differentiation. Many of these findings have used subjective rating scales and thus have been dismissed as artifactual due to different reference groups in more versus less gender-equal societies. Although recent research has documented the gender-equality paradox using an objective criterion—pursuit of degrees in STEM—the robustness of this finding has also been challenged. The current investigation offers evidence for the gender-equality paradox using an objective marker of gender differentiation: baby names. We find given names are more phonetically gendered in more gender-equal societies, with female names being more likely unvoiced (a softer sound) and male names being more likely voiced (a harder sound). We offer a theoretical explanation based on optimal distinctiveness theory to explain why increasing gender equality might motivate a preference for greater gender differentiation.

“White” Self-Identification: A Source of Uniqueness Threat

The present research introduces the possibility that Whiteness can threaten majority group members’ sense of uniqueness and reduce their support for multiculturalism, an ideology that emphasizes recognition of distinctive cultural identities and is seen as primarily relevant to racial/ethnic minorities. Across three studies, being induced to self-identify as “White” (vs. “European American”) led majority group members high, but not low, in need for uniqueness (measured in Study 1, manipulated in Studies 2 and 3) to express less positivity toward multiculturalism. Further, the effect of uniqueness motives on reduced support for multiculturalism among participants self-identifying as “White” was mediated by reduced personal feelings of diversity (Study 3). Implications for optimal distinctiveness theory and the functions of White identity are discussed.