The success of digital transformation initiatives relies heavily on effective digital leadership, which requires a blend of human-centric traits and technical expertise. While digital technologies enable transformation, organizations must develop leaders with the skills to navigate the complexities of change, foster innovation, and align strategies with organizational goals. Despite the growing importance of digital leadership, there is a lack of standardized, validated tools to measure and assess digital leadership competencies systematically. This study introduces the Digital Leadership Scale (DLS), a validated self-assessment tool designed to measure a leader’s ability across seven human-centric dimensions essential for digital transformation: Positive Attitude, Ethical AI Use, Growth Mindset, Track Record, Transparent Agenda, Skills Acquisition, and Participative Style. The DLS serves as a practical tool for leaders to engage in self-reflection, identify strengths and development areas, and adopt personalized learning strategies. Organizations can leverage this scale to cultivate a digitally proficient workforce and foster leadership capabilities aligned with digital transformation success.

The objective of this study is to explore methods to improve the effectiveness of anti-piracy educational deterrence efforts. We studied the effects of message framing (positive vs. negative), issue involvement (high vs. low), risk perception (high vs. low), and message evidence (anecdotal vs. statistical) on the perceived effectiveness of an anti-piracy campaign message. Our experimental results suggest that message frame alone does not have an impact on perceived message effectiveness. However, the effect of message framing is moderated by issue involvement, risk perception, and message evidence. Specifically, a positively framed message is more effective for individuals with low issue involvement, high perceived piracy risk, and who are exposed to anecdotal evidence. In contrast, a negatively framed message is more effective for individuals with high involvement, low risk, and who are exposed to statistical evidence.

It is challenging for vertical standards consortia (VSCs) to succeed and thrive, since they need to serve heterogeneous members, their operations depend on members' voluntary contributions, and the social interactions within them can be complex to manage. Yet there is limited understanding of how such voluntary initiatives can sustain themselves. To fill the gap, we conceptualize VSCs as communities of practice and systematically explore their sustainability through the lens of theories underlying communities of practice and the resource-based model of sustainable social structures. Using the case study approach, we propose a multilevel framework that explains how critical member-level dynamics, consortium characteristics, and industry characteristics affect VSC sustainability.

Increasing information technology (IT) infrastructure spending and the capability of such projects to provide a platform for a firm to realize value from IT marks their importance. Effective management of IT infrastructure investments includes identification of embedded growth options in the infrastructure, and exercising them in a timely manner. Extant research has recognized that while managers could use real options thinking in IT investment management, managerial bias could affect the timing of option exercise and their realized value. We analyze the effect of time-inconsistent preferences of present-biased managers on the exercise time of real growth options and the realized value using a discrete time option valuation model. The results show that present-biased managers are more likely to exercise options early when the net payoffs are low, the option payoffs have high volatility, and the risk free discount rate is small. In addition, present biased managers are more likely to exercise a growth option early in its life when the project is performing well. We provide implications for practice and IT governance.

Flipped classroom is a pedagogical approach that with the help of technology moves the traditional lecture from a group space to individual space, and the group space is used to create an interactive learning environment. Students view video lectures at home before the class, and the time during the class is used to engage students in peer-to-peer learning. This study evaluates the effectiveness of flipped approach by examining the relationship between flipped approach and student engagement at physical, behavioral, and emotional levels. The research uses a mixed method approach; it starts with collection and analysis of quantitative data, and then, the qualitative data are collected to compare and contrast the results of quantitative data. The results indicate that flipped approach improves physical and cognitive engagement of students. However, flipped approach does not improve their emotional engagement.

The Hybrid Flexible (HyFlex) instruction format provides learners with the flexibility to choose from in-person, online synchronous, or asynchronous learning. However, students' learning experiences with HyFlex has not been studied at scale. The primary goal of this study was to investigate how students' perceptions about the availability of learning resources relates to their course engagement and performance in a HyFlex learning environment. In Spring 2022, we administered an end-of-semester survey to one graduate and five undergraduate courses, each of which utilized the HyFlex instructional model. Courses were selected from three different colleges at a large public university in the United States. We investigated students' perceptions about the effectiveness, importance, and ease of use of all three learning modalities that were offered (in-person, online synchronous, and asynchronous) and the learning support options (instructor access outside of class, learning help resources, and flexibility to choose learning modality without restriction). With a sample size of 537, we found that 30% of surveyed students found in-person and online synchronous learning important for their learning whereas 60% found asynchronous learning and the flexibility to choose their learning modality important for their learning. When asked about their actual use of different modalities, students reported using asynchronous learning the most, followed by online synchronous learning. In-person learning was reportedly the least utilized. We found that non-real-time learning modalities contributed positively to overall student engagement. Students preferred to use asynchronous resources and have the flexibility to choose among learning modalities. Yet, results indicate that students who incorporated some real-time learning not only had higher performance-related engagement (e.g., confidence in their ability to succeed in the course) than those who relied primarily on non-real-time learning, but they also earned higher grades for the course. This suggests that utilizing some in-person or online synchronous modalities in conjunction with the student-preferred asynchronous options leads to improved course outcomes for both student engagement and course performance.