Concentrated shareholdings and the number of outside analysts

Assuming some fixed cost to information acquisition, diffuse shareholders in publicly held firms have little incentive to produce information that can substitute for the services of financial analysts. However, we argue that concentrated shareholdings, either by outsiders like institutions or by inside managers, reduce the demand for analyst services. The former group finds it worthwhile to produce its own information and avoid any moral hazard problems associated with analyst forecasts, while the concentration of shareholdings by insiders reduces the moral hazard problem associated with outside claimants (Jensen and Meckling 1976) and may work as an independent signal of quality (Leland and Pyle 1977). Earlier authors have provided evidence that the number of analysts following a firm is associated with the distribution of shareholdings between institutions, insiders, and other shareholders. In this paper we provide evidence that, after controlling for any average distributional effects, increased concentration of shareholdings by either insiders or outsiders (like institutions) is associated with lower analyst following. The results are robust to alternative measures of concentration and the definition of outside shareholders.Business enterprises ; Investments ; Stockholders

Hacking the Bomb: Cyber Threats and Nuclear Weapons: by Andrew Futter

Publisher: Georgetown University Press Location: Washington, DC ISBN 978-162616565

Measuring the business value of IT: simplify with caution

Firms should not use single performance or IT metrics, excluding the context, write Rajiv Sabherwal and Anand Jeyara

The Societal Impacts of Generative Artificial Intelligence: A Balanced Perspective

The discourse surrounding the societal impacts of generative artificial intelligence (GAI), exemplified by technologies like ChatGPT, often oscillates between extremes: utopian visions of unprecedented productivity and dystopian fears of humanity’s demise. This polarized perspective neglects the nuanced, pragmatic manifestation of GAI. In general, extreme views oversimplify the technology itself or its potential to address societal issues. The authors suggest a more balanced analysis, acknowledging that GAI’s impacts will unfold dynamically over time as diverse implementations interact with human stakeholders and contextual factors. While Big Tech firms dominate GAI’s supply, its demand is expected to evolve through experimentation and use cases. The authors argue that GAI’s societal impact depends on identifiable contingencies, emphasizing three broad factors: the balance between automation and augmentation, the congruence of physical and digital realities, and the retention of human bounded rationality. These contingencies represent trade-offs arising from GAI instantiations, shaped by technological advancements, stakeholder dynamics, and contextual factors, including societal responses and regulations. Predicting long-term societal effects remains challenging due to unforeseeable discontinuities in the technology’s trajectory. The authors anticipate a continuous interplay between GAI initiatives, technological advances, learning experiences, and societal responses, with outcomes depending on the above contingencies

A PROCESS MODEL FOR THE CONTROL OF INFORMATION SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS

A process model to portray the dynamics of Information Systems Development (ISD) is presented. The model, while primarily rooted in earlier process models, also incorporates two key contextual factors -- the perceived threat to users and the relative power of the users and the systems group -- from past factor studies. The model is then used to generate four scenarios across the ISD process. These are co-operative, user-dominated, MIS-dominate£4 and con/lict. The scenarios are illustrated with summaries from recent case studies in ISD. This indicates the effectiveness of the model. The paper concludes with suggestions for using the model to identify the relevant scenario and thereby improve the management of the ISD process

The Bass Model of Diffusion: Recommendations for Use in Information Systems Research and Practice

The Bass Model (TBM), first introduced in 1969, has been used in several fields – including sociology, economics, marketing, and communication studies – to understand diffusion of products and innovations, but has received limited attention in information systems (IS) research and practice. TBM views diffusion as occurring through a combination of innovation (p) and imitation (q). Innovation and imitation describe the extents to which influences external to the population and influences internal to the population respectively affect diffusion. To encourage and enable greater use of TBM in IS research and practice, we describe an application process for using TBM and illustrate potential applications of TBM

Information Technology Impacts on Firm Performance: An Extension of Kohli and Devaraj (2003)

Despite the importance of investing in information technology, research on business value of information technology (BVIT) shows contradictory results, raising questions about the reasons for divergence. Kohli and Devaraj (2003) provided valuable insights into this issue based on a meta-analysis of 66 BVIT studies. This paper extends Kohli and Devaraj by examining the influences on BVIT through a meta-analysis of 303 studies published between 1990 and 2013. We found that BVIT increases when the study does not consider IT investment, does not use profitability measure of value, and employs primary data sources, fewer IT-related antecedents, and larger sample size. Considerations of IT alignment, IT adoption and use, and interorganizational IT strengthen the relationship between IT investment on BVIT, whereas the focus on environmental theories dampens the same relationship. However, the use of productivity measures of value, the number of dependent variables, the economic region, the consideration of IT assets and IT infrastructure or capability, and the consideration of IT sophistication do not affect BVIT. Finally, BVIT increases over time with IT progress. Implications for future research and practice are discussed

Communicating Climate Change Beyond Western Societies: A Tale of the Czech Republic and India

Despite being a global problem, climate change has disproportionately large impacts on non-Western countries in the form of extreme weather events, threats to food security, and displacement of communities. Climate change mitigation is therefore an immediate priority requiring both international and local efforts. Motivating public action is especially important because pro-climate policies require public mandate to be approved and implemented. Behavioural scientists have identified communication strategies that can effectively motivate public support for climate action. However, most of this research has been conducted on Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich, and Democratic (or WEIRD) populations, making it unclear if these strategies can be applied elsewhere. In this perspective, we discuss climate change communication strategies that have been developed on WEIRD samples. These include using partisan messengers, conveying social norms, and citing experts. We posit that these climate communication strategies developed in Western societies may not be applicable in other populations. We then consider the cases of two countries–the Czech Republic and India to discuss how context-specific insights about citizens’ priorities, concerns, and experiences with nature can be used to communicate climate change. We build on these case studies to propose INCLUDE, a framework that can be adopted by communicators such as policymakers, elected officials, scientists, and activists in non-WEIRD societies to develop effective climate communication strategies informed by context specific and culture-specific insights