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Software has become increasingly important in business. However, the value of aggregate in-house and packaged software investments and the influence of an industry's software investment opportunities (SIOs) are poorly understood in the literature. This study addresses this research gap and proposes that an industry's SIOs play an essential role in the economic impacts of industry in-house and packaged software investments.

A model of the economic impacts of in-house and packaged software investments at the industry level under different SIOs is developed and empirically tested based on a panel dataset of private industries in the USA between 1998 and 2020.

The results show that with the increase in the number of SIOs in an industry, the economic performance of in-house software investments increases, while that of packaged software investments decreases.

By highlighting the role of SIOs in moderating the economic performance of in-house and packaged software, this study shows the critical role of the information technology (IT) environment in understanding software's economic value.

Nowadays, an increasing number of firms choose to develop proprietary software, instead of buying packaged software. What factors will affect different types of software investments? According to the environment-strategy alignment research, environment should be an influential factor. However, environment's role has received scarce attention in the literature. The authors' study addresses this research gap by investigating how industry environment affects different types of software investments. The study identifies three types of software investments (software insourcing, outsourcing, and buying) and examines how the characteristics of the industry environment (including industry munificence, dynamism, and concentration) influence each software investment.

The generalized least squares (GLS) model and the ordinary least squares with panel-corrected standard errors (OLS-PCSE) model are applied to test the hypotheses, based on industry-level panel data from the US Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA).

The analysis shows that industry munificence, dynamism, and concentration have different impacts on software insourcing, outsourcing, and buying, respectively.

This study classifies software investment into three types – software insourcing, outsourcing, and buying and investigates how the industry environment affects them. The findings suggest that research should distinguish among software insourcing, outsourcing, and buying due to their different characteristics.

Proposes the concept of rhetorical closure to address the phenomenon of pervasive IT “fashions”. Suggests that prevailing discourses surrounding IT are dominated by the rhetoric of closure and that such closure, although mutually constructed by suppliers, consultants and managers, has had several adverse consequences in terms of organizational change and results. Stimulates a critical thinking regarding the persistence of successive waves of new IT fashions and the consequences of closure on practice.

Theoretical framework informed by political views within the social shaping school combined with Habermas' theory of communicative action. Illustration of the argument is based on 22 semi‐structured interviews (senior practitioners from client‐firms, software suppliers and consulting‐firms working on ERP projects).

Outlines the nature of the “chain reaction” produced by rhetorical closure from individual practices to the segment level. Identifies occasions for breaking down rhetorical closure at the three levels of analysis. At the individual level, opportunities are related to daily users' practices. At the organizational level, opportunities are related to ongoing organizational decisions and negotiations regarding IT adoption. At the segment level, opportunities are related to forming coalitions, networks and groups of users.

Adopts an original perspective, examining the concept of rhetorical closure from a combination of two approaches: social shaping of technology and communicative action theory. Connects different types of closure to different types of rationality, and recognizes the specific validity claims underlying them. Calls into question current decision‐making processes that sustain IT pervasiveness and taken‐for‐granted assumptions of inevitability associated with new IT fashions.

The purpose of this article is to reflect on the development of critical research in information systems and give an overview of the papers chosen for this special issue.

To set the scene by discussing the origins and the developing field of critical research in information systems and to analyse each paper, suggesting ways in which it relates to the chosen themes.

The papers chosen address theoretical foundations, paradigmatic and methodological issues, empirical studies and praxis and reflexivity in critical information systems research.

Highlights the growing interest in critical research in the information systems discipline and enables reflection on the difficulties, barriers and opportunities for development.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the potential influence of the mobile banking (M banking) servicescape on customer attitude and engagement. The stimulus-organism-response framework was adapted to formulate a conceptual model, in which the M banking servicescape was modelled as an antecedent (stimulus) of customer attitudes towards M banking (organism), in turn directing customer behaviour (response), namely, customer engagement.

A web-based survey of 345 M banking users was conducted to gather data. The structural equation modelling technique was employed to analyse the conceptual model and test the proposed set of hypotheses.

The results of data analyses showed that M banking servicescape is a strong predictor of customer attitude towards M banking, which then influences customer engagement. The findings also demonstrate that customer attitudes towards M banking mediate both the M banking servicescape and engagement.

The extension of servicescape literature from the physical to the online context of M banking provides a notable new realm in which academicians can extend the current paradigms. This study also enhances understanding of potential improvements to customer attitude towards and engagement with M banking.

The purpose of this research is to measure changes in food habits of first‐generation immigrants in Montreal (Quebec, Canada), as well as their self‐declared state of health and physical activity level. A subset of the sample was found to be in a state of food insecurity (FI).

A supervised questionnaire was administered to 506 adult allophone immigrants attending French‐language courses, autumn 2011. A FI indicator was developed and applied to this sample. The authors discuss the concept of FI and issues about measurements of FI.

In total, 10 per cent of the sample was found to suffer from FI, which has a negative impact on fruit, vegetables, dairy product, fish and red meat consumption, and diet quality in general. FI shows a positive correlation with changes in state of health and lifestyle and the development of chronic disease such as type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease. Results also show that certain groups are more at risk, that FI prevalence decreases with the years of residence and that FI is a deep source of anxiety.

FI should be monitored in a more systematic manner in recent immigrant populations and be specifically addressed in immigrant integration policies. The authors also stress that problems occurring because of FI are rooted in the incapacity and the failure of the social programs to protect very low income families from harmful consequences of poverty.