Browsing by Author "Nault, Barrie"
Now showing 1 - 10 of 10
Results Per Page
Sort Options
- ItemOpen AccessEmergent themes in the interface between economics of information systems and management of technology(Wiley, 2017-04) Ba, Sulin; Nault, BarrieIn this article, we look at research published over a five‐year time span in the economics of information systems (IS) area in four premier journals, including Management Science, Information Systems Research, MIS Quarterly, and Production and Operations Management, to identify research themes that have implications for future research in the area of Management of Technology (MOT). Through our examination of the literature, we identify three emergent themes that can be used to form foundations for future MOT research from an economics of IS perspective: productivity, vertical relations, and platforms. Within each of these themes, we classify previous research into subthemes, summarize the major findings, and explore future research opportunities within the MOT domain that are relevant to these subthemes. Specifically, we examine how information technology has impacted firm productivity, their product design and development process, innovation capabilities, knowledge management capabilities, and supply chain integration.
- ItemOpen AccessEssays on Information Privacy and Personal Data Markets(2022-12-31) Eshghi, Ashkan; Patterson, Raymond; Nault, Barrie; Hidaji, Hooman; Anderson, Mark; Tayi, GiriThe extensive and growing use of the Internet over the past decade has provided businesses with vast opportunities to learn more about their online customers. These data might be quite beneficial for organizations operating in a variety of areas. However, internet users are concerned about the privacy of their online information since their personal information is gathered and shared without their consent. Different internet marketplaces are impacted by these privacy problems. We examine the impact of online privacy concerns on processes and decisions in three distinct market settings. First, we investigate how websites disclose personal information about their users with third parties and what drives them to conceal such sharing. Our data demonstrate that obfuscation of information sharing is a viable strategy for websites. Second, we propose an incentive-compatible compensation mechanism and novel sampling methods for a platform to get users' permission to share their data on a personal data marketplace. We analyze the tradeoffs between sample size, bias, cost, and privacy, as well as the performance of the proposed methods in comparison to benchmarks. Third, we examine a market for advertising in which individuals sell their attention to advertisers through a platform intermediary. We study how consumers' lack of awareness about the value of their attention influences their decision-making.
- ItemOpen AccessEssays on information systems in transaction sector costs and transaction process design(2010) Stock, Tracey D.; Nault, Barrie
- ItemOpen AccessEssays on versioning of information goods(2008) Wei, Xueqi; Nault, Barrie
- ItemOpen AccessHow Should Information Technology be Regulated?(2021-07-15) Vijairaghavan, Vaarun; Nault, Barrie; Dao, Duy; Hidaji, Hooman; Zhang, Jian; Anderson, Mark; Anand, KrishnanWith Information Technology (IT) playing a more central role in the modern economy, governments the world over are displaying an active interest in regulating IT firms with the goal to increase competition, foster local firms or increase social surplus. My research informs such policymakers in two critical and relevant areas: the effect of regulations on IT investments and societal wellbeing (measured as total surplus), and the net productivity effects of increased IT investments. In my first research stream, I use analytical modelling methodologies to evaluate the impact of specific regulatory mechanisms, thereby creating a theoretical template for how such regulations can be evaluated. In my first chapter in this stream, I analyze how firm investments can be incentivized and coordinated through a platform, and whether the platform as an institutional mechanism requires regulatory intervention. In my second chapter, I analyze Data Portability Regulations which require that platforms allow users to download their data and port it to competing firms. Such laws have been passed by the E.U. and the state of California, and are being considered by the U.S. Congress. I study whether this regulation accomplishes the law’s goal of encouraging competition in the data economy. In a second research stream, I use structural econometric models to measure the effect of IT investments on energy productivity. I execute this by mathematically deriving a structural econometric model to estimate the impact of IT on the output elasticity of energy. Thus, if a policy decision to regulate platforms causes a decrease in firm IT investments, my empirical work measures the impact of such decreases, both in terms of its direct effect on marginal product as well its indirect effect through the change in the productivity of energy.
- ItemOpen AccessOrganization of public safety networks: Spillovers, interoperability, and participation(Wiley, 2016-09-14) Liu, Yipeng; Guo, Hong; Nault, BarrieWe analyze trade‐offs in the organization of public safety networks when network assets are distributed across districts and a district values network assets in its own and other districts. Comparing centralized, decentralized, and mixed organization forms, we capture two critical properties: interoperability among distributed technology‐based network assets and the ability of districts to opt‐in or opt‐out of the centralized form. We model the provision of public safety networks, where network assets are chosen by each district or by a federal government, where these assets have a positive cross‐district spillover that depends on interoperability, where investments in effort can be made to improve interoperability, and where districts can opt‐in or opt‐out of centralized provision. With the adoption of centralized, decentralized, or mixed provision as a result of districts' opt‐in or opt‐out choices, we identify conditions that determine when the districts deviate from the social optimum and thus regulatory intervention is beneficial to incent the socially optimal organization form. We show how the socially optimal organization form can be achieved through policy instruments such as a sharing rule for the cost of interoperability effort and direct government grants.
- ItemOpen AccessRevisiting information technology productivity and substitutability(2007) Mohammad, Hasan; Nault, Barrie
- ItemOpen AccessStudies in IT: Capacity Utilization and Option Market Information(2013-10-09) Zhang, Dawei; Nault, BarrieAs Information Technology (IT) continues to be a major driving force for innovation, productivity, and economic growth, it is still crucial to understand how IT affects and transforms firms and industries - the benefits it creates as well as the risks it causes. This dissertation consists of three essays, and explores the nature and value of IT, as a production input, as an event that may contain informational content, and as an investment decision that can change firms' risk profiles. The first essay discusses IT's contribution to productive capacity - the maximum sustainable level of output that a production unit may achieve by increasing its short-run inputs to a limit. The second essay examines the informational nature of IT investment announcements - whether they provide new information to investors. The third essay investigates the risky nature of IT investment announcements - how they affect firm risk perceived by investors.
- ItemOpen AccessStudies on IT, Logistics, and the Structure of Production(2015-01-29) Gong, Fengmei; Nault, BarrieInformation Technology (IT) has changed how firms and industries run their businesses and how they organize production. This thesis examines the relationships between IT and three important aspects of production organization: the usage of logistics outsourcing, the interde-dependence with upstream suppliers for intermediate inputs, and the structure of production in an economy. The first essay examines whether the advent of the Internet coincided with a move to the market in one of the most connected industries in the economy: logistics. We find that the effects of IT on outsourced logistics have changed with the advent of the Internet. The second essay examines the impact of an industry’s IT investment on its production interdependence with upstream suppliers, where we measure interdependence as direct backward linkage (DBL), and examines the relationship among DBL, total factor productivity (TFP), and value-added. We find that an industry’s IT investment reduces its production interdependence with suppliers and leads to greater value-added. The third essay explores the relationship between IT and the structure of production in an economy. We take a unique perspective, network analysis, to generate a variety of measures of the structure of production which we categorize as connectivity among industries in an ego-centric network and concentration in an ego industry’s supplying market. It is found that an industry’s IT investment is associated with an increase in the connectivity within its supplying network and a decrease in concentration in the supplying market.
- ItemOpen AccessThe impact of intangible intensity on the amount and quality of accruals, the tone of narrative disclosures, and the stock of capital assets(2023-07) Iqbal, Aneel; Srivastava, Anup; Warsame, Hussein; Anderson, Mark; Zhao, Rong; Nault, Barrie; Trabelsi, Samir; Keyhani, MohammadMy dissertation consists of three studies about the impact of intangible intensity on the amount and quality of accruals, the tone of narrative disclosures, and the stock of capital assets. In my first study, presented in Chapter 2, I examine whether the amounts of accruals, their composition (components such as working capital, long-term, conditionally conservative, nonarticulating, and financial accruals), and their properties (alleviating timing difference between the occurrence of economic events and cash flows, as well as accruals’ ability to predict cash flows and earnings) differ for knowledge versus physical firms. I find that, as a percentage of assets and revenues, the absolute value of accruals is larger for knowledge firms than for physical firms. This pattern indicates that accounting for knowledge firms requires at least as much judgment and estimates as for physical firms. Meanwhile, accruals’ timing mitigating role is more prone to estimation errors for knowledge firms. Despite higher errors, knowledge firms’ accruals are as predictive of future earnings and cash flows as for physical firms, at least by the time knowledge firms become large and mature. This study contributes to the ongoing debate on the changing usefulness of accrual accounting vis-à-vis cash accounting, as the composition of listed firms shifts toward knowledge firms. I show that accrual accounting remains prevalent and useful despite this shift. In my second study, presented in Chapter 3, I estimate investment and maintenance portions of research and development (R&D) and MainSG&A (SG&A minus R&D), and their amortization rates, on an industry-year–specific basis. My modified book value, inclusive of capitalized intangibles, exhibits greater association with future returns, investments, and bankruptcies, relative to as-reported and mechanically estimated book values. I provide a better estimate of book values of assets and equity for consumers of financial statements. In my third study, presented in Chapter 4, I develop a model that uses the level of uncertainty in the narrative disclosures of the loss-reporting firms to predict their future earnings. I find that the level of uncertainty in narrative disclosures contains incremental information about the future performance of the loss-reporting firms. This information is economically significant as a size-adjusted hedged portfolio based on this information provides abnormal returns. In additional analysis, I find that the level of uncertainty in the narrative disclosures is more informative for young firms and those that report special items and research and development expenditures.