CEO Compensation and Information Technology

CEO compensation has increased dramatically in the last few decades, drawing increasing scrutiny from policy-makers, researchers, and the broader public. We find that IT (information technology) intensity strongly predicts compensation of CEO and other top executives. Our examination of panel data from 2507 publicly traded firms over 15 years controls for other types of capital, number of employees, market capitalization, median worker wages, industry turbulence, firm or industry fixed effects, and other factors. Our interpretation of this finding builds on earlier work which found a correlation between CEO pay and firm size. We hypothesize that IT increases the information available to the top executives for decision-making, magnifies their ability to propagate instructions throughout the firm, and improves the monitoring and enforcement of those instructions. When a CEO’s instructions are implemented with higher fidelity, the fortunes of the firm will more closely mirror her performance. From the perspective of the CEO, this increases “effective size” of the firm that she controls. In turn, in an efficient market, this will increase overall CEO compensation

Why Information Technology Workers Own Their Firms: How the Relative Importance of Human Capital Affects Firm Ownership

Knowledge workers are critical for the production of goods and services in the information economy, and thus investment in human capital plays an increasingly important role in economic growth. Since firms cannot directly own human capital and cannot easily monitor or verify human capital investments made by their employees, they need to devise appropriate incentives to attract skilled employees and to encourage them to develop their human capital. One such scheme is employee ownership of the firm, and in this paper we use the theory of incomplete contracts to show that when investments in human capital are relatively more important, firms should be characterized by higher levels of employee ownership. Specifically, we employ a model of the firm where production requires both human capital and nonhuman (e.g., physical) capital. Because of the difficulty of ex ante contracting with employees and managers to invest in human capital specific to the firm, employees and users need to be given partial ownership of firm in order to increase their incentives to invest in human capital. As the importance of human capital relative to the physical capital employed by the firm increases, the model predicts an increase in the appropriate level of employee and serial ownership. We test this prediction through the empirical analysis of firm-level data in three high tech sectors, software, hardware, and biotechnology. Our results confirm the predicted relationship, and demonstrate that the high degree of managerial ownership in the IT industry in comparison to the biotechnology industry (e.g., managerial ownership in software companies is an order of magnitude higher than biotechnology companies) can be explained by the relative importance of human capital compared to physical capital in these industries

Alternative to Null Hypothesis Significance Testing (NHST): Understanding the Bayesian Approach

Null Hypothesis Significance Testing is the most widely used method of analysis in social science. However, there are inherent limitations of NHST. We discuss the problems of using NHST and suggest alternative ways to solve the problems, focusing on Bayesian statistics. To supplement the limitation of NHST it has been argued that providing information regarding the effect size and confidence interval are useful. Furthermore, Bayesian statistics, which is an independent stream of study, has gained attention. We introduce the basic concept of Bayesian statistics and the application of the method in organizational research.This study was supported by the Institude of Management Research at Seoul National University

Design, Analysis, and Optimization of LCD Backlight Unit using Ray Tracing Simulation

The design of BLU for LCD devices, whose goal is to achieve uniform illumination and high luminance across the LCD surface, requries an assistance of illumination design programs. The goal of this paper is to develop a design and analysis tool to model an efficient BLU. The rendering techniques traditionally used in the field of computer graphics are the usual tools of choice to analyze BLU. An analysis method based on Monte Carlo photon tracing to evaluate the optical performance of BLU is presented. An optimization technique based on direct search method, a simplex method by Nelder and Mead, to achieve an optimal uniform illumination is also discussed

Using Iron to Treat Chlorohydrocarbon-Contaminated Soil

A method of in situ remediation of soil contaminated with chlorinated hydrocarbon solvents involves injection of nanometer-size iron particles. The present method exploits a combination of prompt chemical remediation followed by longer-term enhanced bioremediation and, optionally, is practiced in conjunction with the method of bioremediation described earlier. Newly injected iron particles chemically reduce chlorinated hydrocarbons upon contact. Thereafter, in the presence of groundwater, the particles slowly corrode via chemical reactions that effect sustained release of dissolved hydrogen. The hydrogen serves as an electron donor, increasing the metabolic activity of the anaerobic bacteria and thereby sustaining bioremediation at a rate higher than the natural rate

CD4+CD25+ regulatory T cells attenuate cisplatin-induced nephrotoxicity in mice

Nephrotoxicity limits the use of cisplatin, a widely used chemotherapeutic agent for treatment of various malignancies. Overall, CD4+ T cells mediate cisplatin-induced renal injury; however, the CD4+CD25+ regulatory T-cell subset (CD4+CD25+ Treg) has broad suppressive effects on many different cell types. In this study, we determined whether CD4+CD25+ Treg cells had protective effects against cisplatin-induced acute renal injury in nu/nu mice that lack mature T cells. In these mice, there was marked attenuation of the decreased survival, renal dysfunction and tubular injury, renal tumor necrosis factor-α, and interleukin-1β cytokine levels. Furthermore, renal macrophage accumulation was reduced in CD4+CD25+ Treg cell-adoptive transferred nu/nu mice compared with control mice. Infusion of CD4+CD25+Treg cells into wild-type Balb/c mice reduced serum blood urea nitrogen and creatinine levels equivalent to those in nu/nu mice and extended their survival time after cisplatin injection. In contrast, depletion of CD4+CD25+ Treg cells in wild-type mice exacerbated kidney injury after cisplatin administration. Transcription factor Foxp3-positive cells (Treg cells) were detected in the kidneys of nu/nu mice after cisplatin injection. Our results suggest that CD4+CD25+ Treg cells directly affect cisplatin nephrotoxicity and their modulation represents an additional treatment strategy

Design, Analysis, and Optimization of LCD Backlight Unit Using Ray Tracing Simulation

The original publication is available at www.springerlink.com.The design of BLU for LCD devices, whose goal is to achieve uniform illumination and high luminance across the LCD surface, requries an assistance of illumination design programs. The goal of this paper is to develop a design and analysis tool to model an efficient BLU. The rendering techniques traditionally used in the field of computer graphics are the usual tools of choice to analyze BLU. An analysis method based on Monte Carlo photon tracing to evaluate the optical performance of BLU is presented. An optimization technique based on direct search method, a simplex method by Nelder and Mead, to achieve an optimal uniform illumination is also discussed