The digital forensics community has neglected email forensics as a process, despite the fact that email remains an important tool in the commission of crime. Current forensic practices focus mostly on that of disk forensics, while email forensics is left as an analysis task stemming from that practice. As there is no well-defined process to be used for email forensics the comprehensiveness, extensibility of tools, uniformity of evidence, usefulness in collaborative/distributed environments, and consistency of investigations are hindered. At present, there exists little support for discovering, acquiring, and representing web-based email, despite its widespread use. To remedy this, a systematic process which includes discovering, acquiring, and representing web-based email for email forensics which is integrated into the normal forensic analysis workflow, and which accommodates the distinct characteristics of email evidence will be presented. This process focuses on detecting the presence of non-obvious artifacts related to email accounts, retrieving the data from the service provider, and representing email in a well-structured format based on existing standards. As a result, developers and organizations can collaboratively create and use analysis tools that can analyze email evidence from any source in the same fashion and the examiner can access additional data relevant to their forensic cases. Following, an extensible framework implementing this novel process-driven approach has been implemented in an attempt to address the problems of comprehensiveness, extensibility, uniformity, collaboration/distribution, and consistency within forensic investigations involving email evidence.

Social media offers a powerful platform for the independent digital content producer community to develop, disperse, and maintain their brands. In terms of information systems research, the broad majority of the work has not examined hedonic consumption on Social Media Sites (SMS). The focus has mostly been on the organizational perspectives and utilitarian gains from these services. Unlike through traditional commerce channels, including e-commerce retailers, consumption enhancing hedonic utility is experienced differently in the context of a social media site; consequently, the dynamic of the decision-making process shifts when it is made in a social context. Previous research assumed a limited influence of a small, immediate group of peers. But the rules change when the network of peers expands exponentially. The assertion is that, while there are individual differences in the level of susceptibility to influence coming from others, these are not the most important pieces of the analysis--unlike research centered completely on influence. Rather, the context of the consumption can play an important role in the way social influence factors affect consumer behavior on Social Media Sites. Over the course of three studies, this dissertation will examine factors that influence consumer decision-making and the brand personalities created and interpreted in these SMS. Study one examines the role of different types of peer influence on consumer decision-making on Facebook. Study two observes the impact of different types of producer message posts with the different types of influence on decision-making on Twitter. Study three will conclude this work with an exploratory empirical investigation of actual twitter postings of a set of musicians. These studies contribute to the body of IS literature by evaluating the specific behavioral changes related to consumption in the context of digital social media: (a) the power of social influencers in contrast to personal preferences on SMS, (b) the effect on consumers of producer message types and content on SMS at both the profile level and the individual message level.

A long tradition of adoption of innovations research in the information systems context suggests that innovative information systems are typically adopted by the largest companies, with the most slack resources and the most management support within competitive markets. Additionally, five behavioral characteristics (relative advantage, compatibility, observability, trialability, and complexity) are typically associated with demand-side adoption. Recent market trends suggest, though, that additional influences and contingencies may also be having a significant impact on adoption of innovative information systems--on both the supply and demand-sides. The primary objective of this dissertation is to extend our theoretical knowledge into a context where consumer influence is a key consideration. Specifically, this dissertation focuses on the Personal Health Record (PHR) and patient portal market due to its unique position as a mediator between supply (ambulatory care clinic) and demand-side (patient and health consumer) interests. Four studies are presented in this dissertation and include: 1) an econometric examination of the contingencies associated with supply-side (ambulatory care clinic) adoption of patient portals, 2) a behavioral assessment of patient PHR adoption intentions, 3) an integrated latent variable and discrete choice evaluation of consumer business model preferences for digital services (PHRs), and 4) an experimental evaluation of how digital service (patient portal) feature preferences are impacted by assimilation and contrast effects. The primary contribution of this dissertation is that adoption (and adoption intentions) of consumer information systems are significantly impacted by: 1) supply-side adoption contingencies (even when controlling for dominant-paradigm adoption of innovation characteristics), and 2) demand-side consumer preferences for business models and features in the context of assimilation-contrast (even when controlling for individual differences). Overall, this dissertation contributes a new understanding of how contingent factors, consumer perceived value, and assimilation/contrast of features are impacting adoption of consumer information systems

The objective of this research is to understand how a set of systems, as defined by the business process, creates value. The three studies contained in this work develop the model of process-based automation. The model states that complementarities among systems are specified by handoffs in the business process. The model also provides theory to explain why entry systems, boundary spanning systems, and back-end control systems provide different impacts on process quality and cost. The first study includes 135 U. S. acute care hospitals. The study finds that hospitals which followed an organizational pattern of process automation have better financial outcomes. The second study looks in more depth at where synergies might be found. It includes 341 California acute care hospitals over 11 years. It finds that increased costs and increase adverse drug events are associated with increased automation discontinuity. Further, the study shows that automation in the front end of the process has a more desirable outcome on cost than automation in the back end of the process. The third study examines the assumption that the systems are actually used. It is a cross-sectional analysis of over 2000 U. S. hospitals. This study finds that system usage is a critical factor in realizing benefits from automating the business process. The model of process-based automation has implications for information technology decision makers, long-term automation planning, and for information systems research. The analyses have additional implications for the healthcare industry.