A Theory Of Complex Adaptive Inquiring Organizations: Application To Continuous Assurance Of Corporate Financial Information

Drawing upon the theories of complexity and complex adaptive systems and the Singerian Inquiring System from C. West Churchman\u27s seminal work The Design of Inquiring Systems the dissertation herein develops a systems design theory for continuous auditing systems. The dissertation consists of discussion of the two foundational theories, development of the Theory of Complex Adaptive Inquiring Organizations (CAIO) and associated design principles for a continuous auditing system supporting a CAIO, and instantiation of the CAIO theory. The instantiation consists of an agent-based model depicting the marketplace for Frontier Airlines that generates an anticipated market share used as an integral component in a mock auditor going concern opinion for the airline. As a whole, the dissertation addresses the lack of an underlying system design theory and comprehensive view needed to build upon and advance the continuous assurance movement and addresses the question of how continuous auditing systems should be designed to produce knowledge--knowledge that benefits auditors, clients, and society as a whole

A Dynamic Oligopoly Game of the US Airline Industry: Estimation and Policy Experiments

This paper studies the contribution of demand, costs, and strategic factors to the adoption of hub-and-spoke networks in the US airline industry. Our results are based on the estimation of a dynamic oligopoly game of network competition that incorporates three groups of factors that may explain hub-and-spoke networks: (1) travelers may value the services associated with the scale of operation of an airline in the hub airport; (2) operating costs and entry costs in a route may decline with the airline's scale of operation in the origin and destination airports (e.g., economies of scale and scope); and (3) a hub-and-spoke network may be an effective strategy to deter the entry of other carriers. We estimate the model using data from the Airline Origin and Destination Survey with information on quantities, prices, and entry and exit decisions for every airline company in the routes between the 55 largest US cities. As methodological contributions, we propose and apply a method to reduce the dimension of the state space in dynamic games, and a procedure to deal with the problem of multiple equilibria when using a estimated model to make counterfactual experiments. We find that the most important factor to explain the adoption of hub-and-spoke networks is that the cost of entry in a route declines importantly with the scale of operation of the airline in the airports of the route. For some of the larger carriers, strategic entry deterrence is the second most important factor to explain hub-and-spoke networks.Airline industry; Hub-and-spoke networks; Entry costs; Industry dynamics; Estimation of dynamic games; Counterfactual experiments in models with multiple equilibria.

\u3ci\u3eThe Conference Proceedings of the 1999 Air Transport Research Group (ATRG) of the WCTR Society, Volume 2 \u3c/i\u3e

UNOAI Report 99-6https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/facultybooks/1148/thumbnail.jp

\u3ci\u3eThe Symposium Proceedings of the 1998 Air Transport Research Group (ATRG), Volume 2\u3c/i\u3e

UNOAI Report 98-4https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/facultybooks/1153/thumbnail.jp

Regulation of Digital Businesses with Natural Monopolies or Third-Party Payment Business Models: Antitrust Lessons from the Analysis of Google

Some digital business models may be so innovative that they overwhelm existing regulatory mechanisms, both legislation and historical jurisprudence, and require extension to or modification of antitrust law. Regulatory policies that were developed in response to nineteenth- or twentieth-century antitrust concerns dealt principally with economies of scale leading to monopoly power and may not be well suited to the issues of network effects or third-party payer online business models such as sponsored search. From the perspective of information systems economics, we investigate if such third-party payer digital systems require intervention as profound as the government\u27s innovative approach to the problems posed by AT&T in the 1913 Kingsbury Commitment, establishing the first private regulated monopoly. Google provides an example of a company whose innovative digital business model is difficult to fit into current regulatory frameworks, and may provide examples of the issues that might require an extension to regulatory policy

Three essays on competition in airline markets with recent liberalisation

This thesis aims at investigating the behaviour of airlines in recently liberalised markets, by making use of the Brazilian air transportation as a case study. In order to accomplish this objective, the following three essays were developed: a study of low cost carrier entry behaviour, an analysis of the pricing behaviour of the major incumbents in the industry, and, finally, an assessment of airline conduct in the most important market in the country. All essays contain empirical investigation performed by making use of data supplied by Brazil’s Department of Civil Aviation, DAC. In the first essay, the entry of Gol Airlines on several Brazilian domestic routes, in 2001 and 2002, is analysed in order to draw inference on the competition between a discounter in rapid expansion and the full-service carriers. A route-choice model is estimated by making use of a flexible post-entry equilibrium profits equation and accounting for endogeneity of the main variables. The second essay aims at empirically investigating the pricing behaviour of the legacy carriers in Brazil, with special focus on reactions to the entry of Gol, in 2001. A study of localised competitive advantage regarding the determinants of pricing power is performed along with the analysis of the pattern of price reactions by the incumbents. A single econometric framework is designed and estimated with panel data controlling for city-specific effects. And finally, the third essay aims at assessing the impacts of economic liberalisation on the route Rio de Janeiro - São Paulo. By making use of both a two-stages budgeting representation of the demand system, and a competition model with product heterogeneity among rivals, and based on the framework of the New Empirical Industrial Organisation, it was possible to examine the existence of a structural change on airlines’ conduct parameters due to the regulatory reform

Progress in information technology and tourism management: 20 years on and 10 years after the Internet—The state of eTourism research

This paper reviews the published articles on eTourism in the past 20 years. Using a wide variety of sources, mainly in the tourism literature, this paper comprehensively reviews and analyzes prior studies in the context of Internet applications to Tourism. The paper also projects future developments in eTourism and demonstrates critical changes that will influence the tourism industry structure. A major contribution of this paper is its overview of the research and development efforts that have been endeavoured in the field, and the challenges that tourism researchers are, and will be, facing