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Signaling transparency in the era of artificial intelligence

Signaling transparency in the era of artificial intelligence
Signaling transparency in the era of artificial intelligence
This study provides researchers and business practitioners with a comprehensive understanding of artificial intelligence (AI) transparency in the business discipline, enabling them to navigate the evolving digital landscape, where AI transparency is an escalating concern, by identifying the conceptual foundations in the most influential studies.
This study uses bibliometric analysis techniques, including performance and co-citation analyses. These analyses are grounded in data extracted from the Social Sciences Citation Index within the Web of Science, comprising 108 primary articles and 7,459 secondary cited studies.
AI transparency research is rising with a greater focus on end-users. Six clusters of cited publications serve as the bedrock of AI transparency in the business discipline: trust, AI explanation, bias and power, undesirable usage, user acceptance/aversion, and user heuristics. Analyzing these clusters revealed a framework for signaling AI transparency that can be extended to future research and business strategies.
This study addresses the following research gaps. First, the nature of AI transparency and its knowledge basis remain elusive. Second, AI transparency in the business discipline is under-explored compared to information sciences and law. Third, there is ambiguity surrounding the implementation strategies for AI transparency, with companies often resorting to simplistic methods such as updating terms and conditions. Fourth, there is a lack of clear future research directions specifically for AI transparency, as opposed to the broader context of AI ethics.
AI, Artificial intelligence, Co-citation analysis, Signaling theory, Transparency
1066-2243
1-25
Wang, Fatima
db3b3fbc-56c1-426a-ae42-cbec6ae8555e
Lopez, Carmen
f11f88d5-36c4-4beb-a4c5-ceb16a6df19c
Okazaki, Shintaro
c99b5e2e-a059-4120-86f9-e620fc4877fd
Wang, Fatima
db3b3fbc-56c1-426a-ae42-cbec6ae8555e
Lopez, Carmen
f11f88d5-36c4-4beb-a4c5-ceb16a6df19c
Okazaki, Shintaro
c99b5e2e-a059-4120-86f9-e620fc4877fd

Wang, Fatima, Lopez, Carmen and Okazaki, Shintaro (2025) Signaling transparency in the era of artificial intelligence. Internet Research, 1-25. (doi:10.1108/INTR-11-2023-1041).

Record type: Review

Abstract

This study provides researchers and business practitioners with a comprehensive understanding of artificial intelligence (AI) transparency in the business discipline, enabling them to navigate the evolving digital landscape, where AI transparency is an escalating concern, by identifying the conceptual foundations in the most influential studies.
This study uses bibliometric analysis techniques, including performance and co-citation analyses. These analyses are grounded in data extracted from the Social Sciences Citation Index within the Web of Science, comprising 108 primary articles and 7,459 secondary cited studies.
AI transparency research is rising with a greater focus on end-users. Six clusters of cited publications serve as the bedrock of AI transparency in the business discipline: trust, AI explanation, bias and power, undesirable usage, user acceptance/aversion, and user heuristics. Analyzing these clusters revealed a framework for signaling AI transparency that can be extended to future research and business strategies.
This study addresses the following research gaps. First, the nature of AI transparency and its knowledge basis remain elusive. Second, AI transparency in the business discipline is under-explored compared to information sciences and law. Third, there is ambiguity surrounding the implementation strategies for AI transparency, with companies often resorting to simplistic methods such as updating terms and conditions. Fourth, there is a lack of clear future research directions specifically for AI transparency, as opposed to the broader context of AI ethics.

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Author Accepted Manuscript_9June2025 - Accepted Manuscript
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More information

Accepted/In Press date: 9 June 2025
Published date: 25 July 2025
Keywords: AI, Artificial intelligence, Co-citation analysis, Signaling theory, Transparency

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 503304
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/503304
ISSN: 1066-2243
PURE UUID: ec925858-f53f-446f-8352-8aaf2482fff8
ORCID for Carmen Lopez: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-5510-1920

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 29 Jul 2025 16:32
Last modified: 18 Sep 2025 02:00

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Contributors

Author: Fatima Wang
Author: Carmen Lopez ORCID iD
Author: Shintaro Okazaki

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