IS Perspective of Research Issues in Electronic Commerce an Online Auctions

Online auctions represent a model for the way the Internet is shaping the new economy. In the absence of spatial, temporal and geographic constraints these mechanisms provide many benefits to both buyers and sellers. However, significant research is still needed in designing new and better mechanisms, as well as examining the efficacy of existing ones in the contexts of the markets they serve. Issues of mechanism design, secondary market creation, incentive compatibility, bid taker cheating, simultaneous substitutability, and associated research methodologies are discussed in this review paper. Interestingly, one finds a new and potentially insightful research methodology standard being adopted by IS researchers delving into the area of online auctions. This involves quasi-analytical modeling that is subsequently validated by empirical investigation using data collected by automated agents which track real-world web auctions

Onward and upward? An empirical investigation of gender and promotions in Information Technology Services

The shaky ascent of women up the organizational ladder is a critical factor that may contribute to the lack of women in information technology (IT). In this study, we examine the effect of gender on the likelihood of employee promotions. We further examine whether women get an equal lift in promotion likelihood from performance improvements, work experience, and training as men. We analyze archival promotion data, as well as demographic, human capital, and administrative data for 7,004 employees at a leading IT services firm located in India for the years 2002–2007 and for multiple levels of promotion. We develop robust econometric models that consider employee heterogeneity to identify the differential effect of gender and performance on promotions. We find that, contrary to expectations, women are more likely to be promoted, on average. However, looking deeper into the heterogeneous main effects using hierarchical Bayesian modeling reveals more nuanced insights. We find that, ceteris paribus, women realize less benefit from performance gains than men, less benefit from tenure within the focal firm, but more benefit from training than men. These results suggest that despite the disparity in returns to performance and experience improvements, women can rely on signaling mechanisms such as training to restore parity in promotions. We find that the effects of gender and performance vary with the level of employee promotion; although not as much as men, women benefit more from performance gains at higher organizational levels. Our findings suggest several actionable managerial insights that can potentially make IT firms more inclusive and attractive to women

Intelligent Agent-Based Data Mining in Electronic Markets

The advent of web-based electronic commerce has brought a tremendous increase in the volume of “collectable data” that can be mined for valuable managerial knowledge. Utilizing intelligent agents can enhance the data mining procedures that are employed in this process. We focus on the role of data mining and intelligent agent technology in the B2C and B2B e- commerce models. By identifying the complex nature of information flows between the vast numbers of economic entities, we identify opportunities for applying data mining that can lead ultimately to knowledge discovery

Moving from Data-Constrained to Data-Enabled Research: Experiences and Challenges in Collecting, Validating and Analyzing Large-Scale e-Commerce Data

Widespread e-commerce activity on the Internet has led to new opportunities to collect vast amounts of micro-level market and nonmarket data. In this paper we share our experiences in collecting, validating, storing and analyzing large Internet-based data sets in the area of online auctions, music file sharing and online retailer pricing. We demonstrate how such data can advance knowledge by facilitating sharper and more extensive tests of existing theories and by offering observational underpinnings for the development of new theories. Just as experimental economics pushed the frontiers of economic thought by enabling the testing of numerous theories of economic behavior in the environment of a controlled laboratory, we believe that observing, often over extended periods of time, real-world agents participating in market and nonmarket activity on the Internet can lead us to develop and test a variety of new theories. Internet data gathering is not controlled experimentation. We cannot randomly assign participants to treatments or determine event orderings. Internet data gathering does offer potentially large data sets with repeated observation of individual choices and action. In addition, the automated data collection holds promise for greatly reduced cost per observation. Our methods rely on technological advances in automated data collection agents. Significant challenges remain in developing appropriate sampling techniques integrating data from heterogeneous sources in a variety of formats, constructing generalizable processes and understanding legal constraints. Despite these challenges, the early evidence from those who have harvested and analyzed large amounts of e-commerce data points toward a significant leap in our ability to understand the functioning of electronic commerce.Comment: Published at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/088342306000000231 in the Statistical Science (http://www.imstat.org/sts/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Specialization, Integration, and Multi-sourcing: A study of Large IT Outsourcing Projects

IT outsourcing has three broad forms: (i) Single-Sourcing, where the client outsources to one primary vendor, (ii) Single-Sourcing with subcontracting , where the primary vendor involves other/secondary vendors in the project, and (iii) Multi-Sourcing, where the client outsources to multiple primary vendors. Using a dataset of large IT outsourcing contracts from the SCD database with 22,031 large IT outsourcing contracts from 1989-2009 we examine the antecedents of choice with respect to the form of outsourcing arrangements that firms have. Our results indicate that higher value projects are more likely to be single-sourced with subcontracting; however, a highly modularized project is more likely to be multi-sourced. Further, client and vendor experience dictate whether multi-sourcing or single-sourcing is chosen due to tradeoffs involved in benefits from specialization in one case versus the cost of coordination in the other. Finally, as the IT outsourcing industry matures, single-sourcing with subcontracting and multi-sourcing increase

What Are Social Incentives Worth? A Randomized Field Experiment in User Content Generation

Content generation is a critical aspect of user engagement in online communities, yet many platforms face a problem of under-provision. We focus here on the potential of different types of incentives (social and monetary) for stimulating the production of online reviews. Partnering with a Chinese online clothing retailer, we conduct a large-scale randomized field experiment, in which we consider the independent and joint effects of monetary payment and descriptive social norms on the quantity and quality of reviews. We find that money attracts a greater volume of reviews, descriptive social norms attract greater quality, and combining the two yields the greatest benefit in both respects. We discuss the implications of our results for theory and practice, and highlight opportunities for future work in this area

Does Care Lead to Share? Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment on Call for Sharing

Information sharing through online WOM has become increasingly important for businesses. Despite the popularity of online referral programs, little is known about how firms can optimally design call for sharing to encourage referrals, as well as the motives underlying those referrals. In collaboration with a large US based online platform, we conduct a randomized field experiment involving 100,000 customers to identify the causal effect of three types of call for sharing (egoistic, equitable and altruistic). Our experiment shows that ‘altruistic’ call for sharing leads to the highest likelihood of sharing and best sharing outcomes. In addition, the analysis results provide direct managerial implications to firms on the optimal design of call for sharing campaigns (how, to whom and when to initial call for sharing). Finally, we discuss the key differences and complementarity between call for sharing and call for purchase, and offer guidance on firm\u27s integrated marketing communication strategy

Human Capital of IT Professionals: A Research Agenda

Information Systems researchers have studied various aspects of the role of human capital in the IT workforce such as the definition of IT professionals, human resource practices for managing IT professionals, returns to human capital, human capital and innovation in IT industries, and turnover among IT professionals. This panel argues that the field is at crosswinds of change due to factors such as rapidly changing technologies, organizational processes, technology delivery mechanisms such as cloud computing, new forms of organization such as virtual teams and social networks, outsourcing, offshoring, globalization, and a new generation of IT professionals entering the workforce. These changes in the environment for IT work will affect the roles, jobs, skills and careers of IT professionals and will prompt more inquiry from IS researchers in two main directions: one, some findings from prior research may not hold in this new environment and scholars will need to reexamine these. Two, these changes will raise additional issues, and call for new research on IT human capital. The objective of this panel is to present a framework to identify important trends and changes that will impact IT professionals and to define an agenda for future research on IT human capital

Single-sourcing vs. multisourcing : an empirical analysis of large information technology outsourcing arrangements

As the information technology (IT) services landscape matures, clients are increasingly adopting multisourcing arrangements that involve multiple vendors. Although a large body of information systems (IS) literature addresses issues of whether to outsource (to a single vendor), what types of contracts to use, and how to achieve optimal relational governance, little is known about the antecedents and consequents of the single versus multisourcing decision. Moreover, while conceptual and analytical models of single-sourcing versus multisourcing have been developed, there is no empirical IS research using a large-scale data set with rigorous econometric analysis that examines the antecedents and consequents of multisourcing in the IT context. This paper fills this void, using the transaction cost economic lens and a data set of 49,057 large IT outsourcing arrangements that spans multiple industries and dates back 25 years. We find that there is a curvilinear relationship between number of IT services in an IT outsourcing arrangement and the likelihood of multisourcing. This relationship increases as the number of IT services increases to up to five services and then decreases. For managers who plan to multisource IT outsourcing arrangements, this research provides guidance to minimize exchange hazards through a better understanding of the relationship between sourcing choice, client IT outsourcing capabilities, the competitiveness of the vendor landscape, and the number of IT services in an IT outsourcing arrangement. We provide empirical evidence that the choice between single-sourcing and multisourcing is material to the performance of outsourcing contracts as an incorrect sourcing choice is likely to result in negative contract outcomes