Radhika Santhanam

Gatton Endowed Research Professor

Decision Sciences and Information Systems Area

Gatton School of Business and Economics, University of Kentucky

May 11, 2012

Speakman Hall 200, 1000am – 1130am

Seminar Title : Digital Games and Beyond: What Happens when Players Compete?

Abstract

Because digital games are fun, engaging, and popular, organizations are attempting to integrate games within organizational activities as serious games, with the anticipation that it can improve employees’ motivation and performance. But in order to do so and obtain the intended outcomes, it is necessary to first obtain an understanding of how different digital game designs impact players’ behaviors and emotional responses. Hence, in this study, we address one key element of popular game designs, competition. Using extant research on tournaments and intrinsic motivation, we model competitive games as a skill-based tournament and conduct an experimental study to understand player behaviors and emotional responses under different competition conditions. When players compete with players of similar skill levels, they apply more effort as indicated by more games played and longer duration of play. But when players compete with players of lower skill levels, they report higher levels of enjoyment and lower levels of arousal after game-playing. We discuss the implications for organizations seeking to introduce games premised on competition and provide a framework to guide information system researchers to embark on a study of games.

Click here for a copy of the paper

Gwanhoo Lee

Associate Professor, ITM

Director of the Center for IT and the Global Economy

Kogod School of Business, American University

April 27, 2012

Speakman Hall 200, 1000am – 1130am

Seminar Title : Balancing Rigor, Standardization, and Agility in Distributed IS Development: An Ambidexterity Perspective

Abstract

Distributed information systems (IS) development faces daunting challenges including communication and coordination difficulties, increased user requirement uncertainty, and greater task complexity. To cope with such challenges, distributed IS teams attempt to build effective development process capabilities such as process rigor, process standardization, and process agility. However, the complex effects of these process capabilities on distributed IS development performance are not well understood or empirically validated. To fill this gap in our knowledge, we investigate how rigor, standardization, and agility of development process respectively affect the performance of the system delivered by a distributed team. Furthermore and more importantly, we investigate the notion of IS development process ambidexterity which is defined as the simultaneous presence of alignment and agility in development process, where rigor and standardization represent two dimensions of alignment. We examine if such process ambidexterity demonstrates a positive effect on system performance. We used hierarchical regression to analyze field data from project managers of distributed IS development. Our results support a positive main effect of rigor, standardization, and agility on system performance in distributed development. We find a positive interaction effect of rigor and agility, indicating a synergistic effect of process ambidexterity. Contrary to our expectation, however, we find a negative interaction effect of standardization and agility, indicating an offsetting effect of process ambidexterity. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings for balancing rigor, standardization, and agility in distributed development in order to achieve better system performance.

Click here for a copy of the paper

Allen Lee

Dean’s Scholar Professor

Virginia Commonwealth University

April 13, 2012

Speakman Hall 200, 1000am – 1130am

Seminar Title : Linking Relevance to Practical Significance

Abstract

Researchers in academic disciplines, including but not limited to information systems, have long been aware of, but have not linked, two research issues: one issue is the lack of relevance, despite the plethora of rigor, in their research; the other issue is the distinction between statistical significance and practical significance, where the latter is no less important than the former. In this essay, we link the two issues by examining and revealing the practical significance of the research reported in a well known, published article and stating the questions that this examination raises.

Click here for a copy of the paper

Sinan Aral

Assistant Professor, Microsoft Faculty Fellow

Stern School of Business, New York University

Date: March 23, 2012

Venue: Speakman Hall 200

Title: Content & Causality in Social Networks

Abstract

Many of us are interested in whether “networks matter.” Whether in the spread of disease, the diffusion of information, the propagation of social contagions, the effectiveness of viral marketing, or the magnitude of peer effects in a variety of settings, two key questions must be answered before we can understand whether networks matter: 1) how the content that flows through networks affects the patterns of outcomes we see across nodes and 2) whether the statistical relationships we observe can be interpreted causally. Sinan will review what we know and where research might go with respect to content and causality in networks. He will provide two examples from each area to structure the discussion: One from an analysis of email networks and the information content that flows through them at a mid-sized executive recruiting firm (published in the American Journal of Sociology) and the other from a randomized field experiment on a popular social networking website that tests the effectiveness of “viral product design” strategies in creating peer influence and social contagion among the 1.4 million friends of 9,687 experimental users (the first paper published in Management Science and a second paper forthcoming in Science).

Sunil Mithas

Associate Professor,

Decision, Operations and Information Technologies Department,

Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland

March 16, 2012

Speakman Hall 200, 1000am – 1130am

Seminar Title : Information Technology and Globalization: Theory and Evidence

Abstract

Does information technology (IT) enable firms to globalize their operations and achieve higher foreign revenues and foreign profits? Although several studies have argued that IT can help firms globalize their operations, few studies have empirically tested this conjecture. We identify and discuss three mechanisms that explain why IT investments enable firms to globalize their operations – value chain coordination, value chain configuration, and local responsiveness. Using data on 259 multinational firms for an 8-year period (1999 – 2006), we find that aggregate IT investments are positively associated with higher levels of foreign revenues and lower levels of total costs. In turn, the increase in foreign revenues and reduction in total costs mediate profits from foreign operations. IT investments also help to increase domestic revenues and domestic profits. On the whole, we find that IT contributes to globalization both through higher revenues and lower total costs.

Please email swattal@temple.edu for a copy of the paper.

Robert F. Lusch

James and Pamela Muzzy Chair in Entrepreneurship and Executive Director of the McGuire Center for Entrepreneurship

Eller College of Management, University of Arizona.

Date: February 24, 2012

Venue: Alter Hall 745

Title: Service-Dominant Logic: Sensemaking of the Economy and Innovation

Abstract

An elaboration of how marketing and business has evolved from a goods-dominant to a service-dominant logic is reviewed. Implications for how to make sense of organizations, markets, economy and innovation are presented along with research opportunities and managerial suggestions. Special attention is given to bridging ideas from marketing, management and management information systems. For a background on S-D Logic, please visit (www.sdlogic.net) and see the attached articles.

Lusch_Vargo_Wessels_2008_IBM

Vargo_and_Lusch_2008_JAMS_Why_Service

Vargo_and_Lusch_2008_JAMS_Continuing

JM_Vargo_Lusch_2004