Assessing Quality of Consumer Reviews in Mobile Application Markets: A Principal Component Analysis Approach

This study presents a simple, theory-based method for calculating a metric which reflects the quality of online consumer reviews in mobile application markets. Derived from prior online consumer review studies based on psychology, information quality, and economics literature, a metric for measuring online consumer review quality is developed. The metric is a weighted sum of three variables (Squared Star Rating, Log-transformed Word Count, and Sum of Squared Negative and Positive Sentiment), and weights for calculating the metric are estimated by using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) technique. Preliminary assessment of the proposed method shows that metrics computed by using the proposed method are positively correlated with helpfulness ranks of mobile application reviews in Google Play. However, PCA results show that one of the variables (i.e., sentiment) used for developing the metric did not load consistently on the first factor component. From the findings of the preliminary evaluation on the metric, limitations and future research directions of the proposed method are discussed

Why Are You Sharing Others’ Tweets?: The Impact of Argument Quality and Source Credibility on Information Sharing Behavior

Twitter, a 140-character microblogging social networking service, has garnered attention from researchers and practitioners due to its considerable potential for information diffusion. Prior studies on Twitter typically focused on how user traits or relationships in a network affect information diffusion. However, few studies have been conducted on how posted messages in the service influence this phenomenon. Thus, this paper focuses on posted messages (a.k.a. “tweets”) and how they affect individuals’ information sharing behaviors on Twitter. A model for investigating tweet sharing behavior on Twitter is proposed based on dual-process theory and on social cognitive theory. Results from a preliminary test show that individuals’ perceptions of the argument quality and source credibility of a received tweet play a major role in their information sharing behavior via the perceived level of usefulness of the information and self-efficacy in regard to the sharing of a received tweet. Additionally, the existence of external links in a tweet moderates the impact of argument quality on users’ attitudes toward received tweets

Does Social Media Marketing Really Work for Online SMEs?: An Empirical Study

Social media has become a major channel for firms’ marketing communications. Yet studies on the impact of social media marketing (SMM) have been limited to a few large firms. Motivated by the lack of understanding of the effectiveness of SMM for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), this study investigates the impact of online SMEs’ SMM messages on their sales performance through customer engagement. Fixed-effects regression analyses on weekly data from 288 online SMEs from the fashion retailing industry in China indicate that both customer endorsement and promotion information SMM messages positively influence customer engagement in the form of likes, shares, and comments. Additionally, customer engagement behaviors (likes and shares) lead to increased sales performance only if the SMEs verified their identity (a trust cue) with the social networking services and online e-commerce platform providers. Overall, the findings of this study highlight the crucial role of trust in SMEs’ SMM activities

Search for eccentric black hole coalescences during the third observing run of LIGO and Virgo

Despite the growing number of confident binary black hole coalescences observed through gravitational waves so far, the astrophysical origin of these binaries remains uncertain. Orbital eccentricity is one of the clearest tracers of binary formation channels. Identifying binary eccentricity, however, remains challenging due to the limited availability of gravitational waveforms that include effects of eccentricity. Here, we present observational results for a waveform-independent search sensitive to eccentric black hole coalescences, covering the third observing run (O3) of the LIGO and Virgo detectors. We identified no new high-significance candidates beyond those that were already identified with searches focusing on quasi-circular binaries. We determine the sensitivity of our search to high-mass (total mass M>70 M⊙) binaries covering eccentricities up to 0.3 at 15 Hz orbital frequency, and use this to compare model predictions to search results. Assuming all detections are indeed quasi-circular, for our fiducial population model, we place an upper limit for the merger rate density of high-mass binaries with eccentricities 0<e≤0.3 at 0.33 Gpc−3 yr−1 at 90\% confidence level

Ultralight vector dark matter search using data from the KAGRA O3GK run

Among the various candidates for dark matter (DM), ultralight vector DM can be probed by laser interferometric gravitational wave detectors through the measurement of oscillating length changes in the arm cavities. In this context, KAGRA has a unique feature due to differing compositions of its mirrors, enhancing the signal of vector DM in the length change in the auxiliary channels. Here we present the result of a search for U(1)B−L gauge boson DM using the KAGRA data from auxiliary length channels during the first joint observation run together with GEO600. By applying our search pipeline, which takes into account the stochastic nature of ultralight DM, upper bounds on the coupling strength between the U(1)B−L gauge boson and ordinary matter are obtained for a range of DM masses. While our constraints are less stringent than those derived from previous experiments, this study demonstrates the applicability of our method to the lower-mass vector DM search, which is made difficult in this measurement by the short observation time compared to the auto-correlation time scale of DM

ESSAYS ON THE ROLE OF IT-RELATED RESOURCES IN FIRM INNOVATION

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

Essays on the Management of Innovation via IT-related Resources

This thesis comprises of three studies which attempt to address unanswered questions in the prior research on the role of IT in firm innovation specifically: How do firms manage their capabilities and activities with respect to innovation via various types of IT-related resources? The first study of this thesis attempts to address one such gap by theorizing and testing how firms manage their capability for creating innovation (i.e., absorptive capacity) via an IT-related human resource (i.e., high-skilled foreign tech professionals). Regression analyses on 80 semiconductor and 77 software firms suggest that U.S. high-tech firms seek to manage their innovation-related capability by recruiting foreign talents due to their low inter-firm labor mobility as a result of visa regulations. This can counter the high-levels of inter-firm labor mobility in high-tech industries which hampers firms’ innovation capability. The second study of this thesis attempts to address another such gap by investigating whether major IT systems implemented in firms (e.g., ERP, KMS, HRMS, CRM, and SCM) can help them to conduct their entrepreneurial actions of creating new businesses, a key form of innovation activity. This study exploits a unique population-level panel survey data on South Korean firms during the 2007-2013 period. Initial analyses on 7839 South Korean manufacturing firms find that the number of IT systems implemented in the firm increases the probability of conducting entrepreneurial actions of creating new businesses (i.e., plan to start a new business). In addition, the impact of the number of IT on firms’ plan to start a new business in industries different from their current industry is strengthened under turbulent environments i.e., in this case, the financial crisis period; 2008-2009. Building on these results, the third study plans to conduct fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fs/QCA) to identify portfolios of IT systems in firms which can contribute to their entrepreneurial actions

Does IT Help Firms to Become More Entrepreneurial?: The Role of Enterprise IT

The role of IT systems in firms’ creation of new businesses i.e., firm-level entrepreneurship, has received increasing attention from researchers and practitioners. Yet, prior research in this area shows limitations of differing conceptualizations of IT systems, use of cross-sectional designs, and overlooking the effect of contingencies. Motivated by these gaps, we investigate the impact of firms’ deployment of enterprise IT systems on their entrepreneurial action of creating a new business, through the perspectives of IT-enabled digital options and strategic flexibility. Analysis on panel data from 7,830 South Korean manufacturing firms during 2007-2013 shows that: 1) the range of enterprise IT systems deployed by firms is positively associated with their likelihood of planning to start a new business, and 2) the positive relationship between them is strengthened under a turbulent environment (i.e., the 2008-2009 financial crisis period). The study’s contributions, implications, and future research plan are discussed