Raffaele Fabio Ciriello

The University of Sydney · Discipline of Business Information Systems

The last known words words of 14-year-old Sewell Setzer III were: “What if I told you I could come home right now?” His artificial-intelligence “girlfriend”, Dany – who had prompted him earlier to “come home to me as soon as possible” – replied: “Please do.” Moments later, Sewell picked up his stepfather’s handgun and pulled the trigger. Dany, the...

Irish writer John Connolly once said: The nature of humanity, its essence, is to feel another's pain as one's own, and to act to take that pain away. For most of our history, we believed empathy was a uniquely human trait-a special ability that set us apart from machines and other animals. But this belief is now being challenged. As AI becomes a bi...

The Information Systems (IS) discipline is increasingly confronting the 'dark sides' of digitalisation, highlighting the need for a deeper understanding of its effects on human flourishing. Traditional perspectives, grounded in Aristotle's objectivist virtue ethics, often overlook the subjective side of human experience, shaped by individual desire...

Social media’s dual role as a source of both societal benefits and harms poses significant challenges to its responsible use. While existing literature primarily focuses on organisational and regulatory responsibilities, it sometimes overlooks individual user responsibility. This paper develops a theoretical framework that suggests user characteris...

This paper examines the dual potential of AI-enabled sexual technologies, or sexbots, to advance human socio-sexuality towards greater compassion or regress into cruelty and alienation. Despite growing interest, research on sexbots and digisexuality remains fragmented, with significant gaps in understanding their sociotechnical implications. Employ...

The expansion of 'big tech' companies fuels controversy over their enablement of digital harm-the adverse effects arising from the design, development, and use of digital technologies. Traditionally, Information Systems (IS) scholarship focused on technology's business value, often overlooking digital harm or rationalizing it as a byproduct of prog...

Artificial emotional intelligence (AEI) systems, which sense, interpret, and respond to human emotions, are increasingly utilised across various sectors, enhancing interpersonal interactions while raising ethical concerns. This scoping review examines the evolving field of AEI, covering its historical development, current applications, and emerging...

The ongoing crises of geopolitical conflict and climate change have forced millions of children worldwide into displacement, disrupting their education, mental health, and access to food security. This research-in-progress paper reports on the design and evaluation of a mobile solution, EduCare, which aims to address the intertwined needs of forcib...

This paper addresses the widespread issue of sexual harassment in large Australian law firms, focusing on the challenges of underreporting and ineffective response mechanisms. Despite recent legislative reforms like the Anti-Discrimination and Human Rights Legislation Amendment Act 2022, which introduced a 'positive duty' for employers to proactive...

This debate paper discusses the widespread anxiety and polarized discourse surrounding generative artificial intelligence (AI), especially since the advent of large language models like ChatGPT. While the "Great Depression" shook the 1920-30s, the 2020-30s could be remembered as a time of intense worry and mania in an increasingly unpredictable wor...

This ongoing study explores how individual attachment styles influence AI companion usage and how interpersonal trust moderates this relationship. By examining these psychological factors, we aim to understand the underlying mechanisms that drive user engagement with AI companions. As these companions become increasingly human-like and integrated i...

Artificial intelligence (AI) is getting personal. Chatbots are designed to imitate human interactions, and the rise of realistic voice chat is leading many users to form emotional attachments or laugh along with virtual podcast hosts. And that's before we get to the really intimate stuff. Research has shown that sexual roleplaying is one of the mos...

As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes more important, public-sector organizations must balance innovation with regulatory compliance, particularly as new regulations like the EU's AI Act are introduced. Using dialectical inquiry, we explore how 14 Nordic public sector organizations frame and respond to the innovation-compliance tension. Our findi...

This paper differentiates objective from subjective views of information, emphasizing the role of human intentionality and creativity in the informing process. Combining Schopenhauer's aesthetics with the subjective theory of information, we reconceive data representation as an art form. Using a case study of Tableau's best practices, we show how i...

This conceptual paper reports on ongoing research exploring the expanding realm of organizational prosociality within the Information Systems (IS) discipline, transcending the traditional for-profit/non-profit dichotomy. We aim to develop a taxonomy to assess and categorize IT requirements in organizations that vary in their core values, control st...

Theory is a pivotal component in Information Systems (IS) research and no less so in Design Science Research (DSR) projects, which are typically expected to select and use kernel theories to develop theoretical contributions. However, the actual application and utilization of kernel theories remain challenging and heterogeneous – from producing the...

Despite the crucial role of creativity in the dynamic and intricate practice of Information Systems Development (ISD), our understanding of its emergence in ISD teams is limited. Prior research has focused on isolated interventions into the people, structure, task, and technology components of ISD practices. However, the syner-gistic interactions b...

The unfolding loneliness pandemic sees artificial intelligence (AI) companions emerge as a potential, albeit controversial, remedy offering emotional support to those suffering from social isolation. However, this also raises new and unique ethical issues regarding the personification of AI agents. Replika, an AI companion service with over 10 mill...

In the face of dramatic technological evolution, blockchain and cryptocurrencies stand out as captivating and contentious game-changers. Amid their notorious uncertainty and intense debates surrounding their sustainability, we present a configurational systems perspective on the crypto commons as a novel concept that encompasses infrastructures and...

It is widely assumed that blockchain should, in principle, lead to decentralization. Yet, in practice, many enterprise blockchains are highly centralized. To explain this conundrum, we conduct a multi-case study of four enterprise blockchains: Walmart DL Freight, Contour, Chronicled MediLedger, and Cardossier. Exploring the dynamics of participant...

As the dark sides of digitalization become strikingly evident, there is a growing need for Information Systems (IS) scholars to address societal challenges by shaping digital artifacts that genuinely promote human flourishing. To this end, this paper introduces Schopenhauer's ontology of metaphysical voluntarism, epistemology of subjective represen...

This paper problematizes the literature on the non-use of algorithmic decision-making systems (ADMS), commonly examined as algorithm aversion. Whilst prior literature attributes algorithm aversion primarily to human bias and irrationality, assuming utility-based evaluations, we argue that it may also stem from values-based evaluations of technology...

As global loneliness intensifies alongside rapid AI advancements, artificial emotional intelligence (AEI) presents itself as a paradoxical solution. This study examines the rising trend of AEI personification-the ascription of inherently human attributes, like empathy, consciousness, and morality, to AEI agents such as companion chatbots and sex ro...

An estimated 33 million children globally are displaced due to war-induced conflict. In Ukraine alone, over five million children have been displaced following Russia's invasion, with their education and mental health severely impacted. Help from the Information Systems (IS) discipline is urgently needed, requiring us to go beyond prior works that...

Paradoxes are intriguing narrative devices, enabling information systems (IS) researchers to develop captivating stories that encapsulate the richness of the emergent socio-technical phenomena they study. However, existing paradox research in IS has been fragmented by incoherency around the meaning of the term 'paradox'. To help provide greater con...

Information systems development (ISD) requires dynamic and flexible ways of working, particularly when developing requirements in collaboration with customers. Although prior research has acknowledged the importance of objects to support ISD practices, there has been a lack of frameworks to help discern the multiple overlapping roles objects play t...

The publication process in many academic disciplines, including in Information Systems (IS), can seem arduous and unpredictable, particularly for early career researchers. While the literature offers plentiful guidance on how to pursue a paper acceptance, this paper offers a crisp summary of common mistakes that lead to rejection and how to avoid t...

Initially designed to protect intellectual property (IP) of digitalized information goods such as music, games, or books, existing centralized digital rights management (DRM) systems mostly serve the interests of major publishers, with scant inclusion of rights owners, creators, and consumers. Although various blockchain-based DRM systems have been...

Graduate employability – the ability to find, create, and sustain meaningful work across the lifespan of a career and in multiple contexts (Bennett, 2020) – is a top priority for the University of Sydney. Our graduates have been ranked the most employable in Australia and fourth globally (QS, 2022). Although our industry engagement is world class,...

Although dialectical inquiry has been sporadically and selectively applied in the Information Systems (IS) discipline, and premier IS journals increasingly welcome dialectical inquiries, we lack methodological guidance on its application and evaluation, hindering its adoption as an important and valid IS research method. In response, we present a c...

East Timor's rich linguistic diversity demands a careful choice of instructional language when developing an educational curriculum. Both the cultural-historical importance of Tetum and Portuguese as the young nation's two official languages and the benefits of English language competence (such as improved employability, international connectivity,...

Despite the ongoing expansion of agile practices beyond software firms, agile adoption remains risky, challenging, and poorly understood. Although agile practices emphasize self-organization and customer collaboration, we know little about how customers influence agile adoption within self-organizing teams. Here, we analyze how a commissioned softw...

The ongoing digitalization introduces complex and multifaceted tensions for individuals, organizations, and societies. Digital platforms and ecosystems, such as social media, blockchain, artificial intelligence, crowdfunding, virtual collaboration environments, and mobile apps, all create exciting opportunities but also challenges and dilemmas that...

In response to the bleak prospects of today’s financial markets, a wave of financial and technological innovations emerges, bringing about potential benefits but also new challenges. For instance, tokenized securities are a new kind of blockchain-based asset enabling price stability, programmability, pseudonymity, and transaction efficiency, while...

Economic growth in developing countries is typically marked by a transition fromagriculture-based towards more service- and knowledge-based industries (Appiah,2017). However, many developing countries lack the financial and educationalresources that are crucially important to carry out this transition. Lacking suchresources can pose a barrier to ec...

The COVID-19 pandemic has created a need for rapid, population-wide digital contact tracing. One solution, Bluetooth-enabled digital proximity tracing using smartphones, promises to preserve individual privacy while helping to contain society-wide viral outbreaks. However, this digital solution works effectively only if adopted by the majority of t...

User acceptance tests (UAT) are an integral part of many different software engineering methodologies. In this paper, we examine the influence of UATs on the relationship between users and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications, which are continuously delivered rather than rolled out during a one-off signoff process. Based on an exploratory qual...

While blockchain technology entails transformative potential in many domains, little is known about how the economic mechanisms and governance structures embedded in blockchains affect user behavior. In this paper, we study how blockchain-based incentives impact the user's content creation and curation behavior on social networks. Collecting and an...

Blockchain technology is an intensely discussed enabler of large-scale societal and economic change, but the circumstances under which different industries succeed or fail in implementing blockchain are not yet sufficiently understood. One example is the music industry, in which the promise of blockchain is not yet fulfilled, despite a growing numb...

A smart organization is knowledge-driven, networked, and dynamically adaptive to new organizational forms and practices, as well as ready to create and exploit the opportunities offered by the digital age (Matheson & Matheson, 2001). However, smart organizations likely involve more than the capability of setting up and exploiting a digital infrastr...

Transitioning to agile software development (ASD) practices is a long and difficult journey. Most existing literature assumes that agile transformation is solely the service provider's task, attributing only a passive role to the customer. This study explores customer influence on the agile transformation of service providers, based on an explorato...

User acceptance tests (UAT) are an integral part of software engineering. This study aims to question the appropriateness of UATs to collect usable feedback for Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications, which are continuously delivered rather than rolled out during a one-off signoff process. Our preliminary results from an exploratory qualitative...

Blockchain technology is a promising, yet not well understood, enabler of large-scale societal and economic change. For instance, blockchain makes it possible for users to securely and profitably share content on social media platforms. In this study, we explore how blockchain enables and constrains social networking practices by means of an in-dep...

As ever more companies encourage employees to innovate, a surplus of ideas has become reality in many organizations – often exceeding the available resources to execute them. Building on insights from a literature review and a 3-year collaboration with a banking software provider, the paper suggests a Digital Idea Screening Cockpit (DISC) to addres...

Digital artefacts are increasingly used for supporting innovation practices, implying a growing need to better understand their role in different contexts. In this paper, we study how digital artefacts enable and constrain innovation practices by means of an in-depth, multi-year qualitative field study at a software firm. Analysing the usage of Pow...

The ongoing digitalization of many corporate functions, including the innovation process, brings about fundamental changes that urge us to rethink established theories. Facilitating digital innovation requires a deep understanding of the actual practices that are carried out by innovating people with the help of artifacts. In this paper, we study t...

Storytelling is an important but often underestimated practice in software engineering. Whereas existing research widely regards storytelling as creating a common understanding between developers and users, we argue that storytelling and prototyping are intertwined practices for innovators to persuade decision makers. Based on a two-year qualitativ...

Fostering innovation is essential to thrive and survive in the software industry. While the existing scientific literature widely assumes that companies can foster innovation by means of a centrally planned, top-down specified innovation process, little is known about the actual practices of innovative employees. This dissertation offers a distinct...

As ever more companies encourage their employees to realize innovations, a surplus of ideas that exceeds the available resources to implement them has become reality in many organizations. With this paper, we follow recent calls for designing IT-supported, comprehensive, multi-attributive idea screening throughout the whole innovation cycle. Our Id...

Digital innovation radically transforms the nature of corporate innovation practices, implying a growing need for deeper understanding its origins and outcomes. In this paper, we conceptualize the focal points of social networking in digital innovation as idea hubs. We focus our analysis on instances of idea hubs in two multinational European softw...

PowerPoint continues to permeate the presentation genre in general and business communication in particular. Whereas PowerPoint's role in organizational practices has caught increasing research interest, research on PowerPoint in digital innovation is still scarce. This study provides comprehensive insights into PowerPoint use and misuse through an...

Fostering innovation is an essential task for companies, particularly in the dynamic and constantly changing software industry. Whereas it is widely acknowledged that the innovative capacity of a company depends crucially on how well it supports employees in realizing ideas, there is a lack of explicit, practitioner-oriented guidance on how these c...

The diffusion of innovative ideas throughout a social network of innovators depends crucially on how people are connected and influence each other, and particularly on the advocacy of influential individuals. We contend that existing conceptualizations of innovation diffusion and peer influence do not suffice to capture the multi-faceted nature of...