Published ETD Collection
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10657/2
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Browsing Published ETD Collection by Department "Decision and Information Sciences, Department of"
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Item Can Threats and Fear Foster Security? Cognitive and Emotive Forces of Fear Appeals on Information Security Behavior(2018-12) Durner, Vanessa; Cooper, Randolph; Elfenbein, Hillary Anger; Grimes, G. Mark; Johnson, Norman A.; Patrick-Ralhan, Vanessa M.Individual users can create vulnerabilities in an organization’s information security by carelessness, negligence, and/or noncompliance with security policies and procedures, so it is important for organizations to motivate employees’ security behavior. Fear appeals are messages designed to motivate behavioral change by describing a threat associated with a behavior, but existing theories fail to explain how a fear appeal evokes fear and how fear influences behavior. A better understanding of the factors influencing responses to information security fear appeals would help organizations to design security messages in ways that increase their persuasive effectiveness. Therefore, this dissertation offers theoretical and empirical work to expand knowledge about these factors. This research develops an emotion process model and a behavior process model for fear appeal threats, based on a synthesis of theories from psychology, organizational behavior, and neuroscience. These models were tested in a series of experimental studies to investigate how threat-based message components can drive emotion and cognition to motivate appropriate security behavior. The first study consisted of a lab experiment that manipulated each message component (threat severity, threat vulnerability, and emotional interest) in a separate stimulus to determine its influence on an individual’s feeling state. The second study consisted of a lab experiment that manipulated combinations of fear appeal components to determine the influence of their interactions on an individual’s feeling state. The results of these experiments indicate that fear appeals influence an individual’s feeling state in different ways, depending on the fear appeal’s composition. The third study consisted of a field experiment that investigated the degree to which fear appeals motivate individuals to improve their password behavior. The results of this experiment indicate that feeling state fully mediates the relationship between a fear appeal’s threat verbalization and an individual’s beliefs, where those beliefs subsequently influence attitude, intention, and observed and perceived behavior associated with password use. This dissertation thus provides evidence that security messages can leverage emotion to motivate individuals to perform appropriate security behavior.Item Care Coordination in Interhospital Transfer: Different Transfer Types, Coordination Mechanisms, and Destination Choice Strategies(2020-08) Fan, Lei (Raymond); Peng, David Xiaosong; Zhao, Ming; Sahin, Funda; Du, Rex Y.Interhospital transfer (IHT) is common in care delivery. As a form of care transition, IHT faces coordination challenges and can negatively affect care outcomes. Understanding the underlying reasons and the associated operational challenges of different IHT types can help hospital managers design mitigation mechanisms to improve the IHT care outcomes. Existing studies generally find that IHT has unfavorable impacts on care outcomes. However, different IHT types may be associated with distinct coordination characteristics, and thus they may have different impacts on care outcomes. How to differentiate IHT types, both conceptually and empirically? How do different IHT types affect hospital care outcomes? This dissertation attempts to develop a conceptual and empirical method to differentiate two IHT types, namely clinical transfer (due to hospitals’ limited service scope) and non-clinical transfer (due to other factors such as temporary unavailability of staffed beds), from a service design perspective and compare care outcomes associated with the two IHT types. A lot of the errors and failures in healthcare happen during care transitions. Inadequate coordination is frequently cited as a root cause of care quality problems. As such, care coordination has long been identified to be critical to transition of care as patients transfer between different locations or different levels of care within the same location. IHT inherently involves care transition between hospitals, and it is critical to identify coordination mechanisms that could improve IHT outcomes. What coordination mechanisms can hospitals use to improve IHT coordination? Do they impact different transfer types differently? This dissertation strives to examine three coordination mechanisms, namely system affiliation, transfer routinization, and electronic health record (EHR) interoperability, and evaluates their mitigation effects on care outcomes of clinical versus non-clinical transfers. My dissertation first conceptually differentiates between clinical and non-clinical transfers based on their unique characteristics. Then, we develop our hypotheses about the impacts of IHT types on care outcomes and the mitigation effects of the coordination mechanisms. Next, we develop a method to empirically separate the two IHT types using patient-level discharge data and test their impacts on care outcomes, including length of stay (LOS), readmission, and mortality. We find that non-clinical transfers have worse care outcomes than clinical transfers, perhaps due to their inadequate care coordination. We also find that the three coordination mechanisms are associated with improved IHT outcomes, and two of them seem to have stronger effects for non-clinical transfers. Specifically, system affiliation and transfer routinization can reduce LOS and readmission for non-clinical transfers. Further, we find that EHR interoperability has universally positive effects on both IHT types. We perform several robustness checks to address concerns on transfer type classification, sample selection bias, and workload impacts, etc. The results are consistent. My dissertation uncovers IHT care coordination characteristics neglected in the literature and offer valuable insights to hospital managers for improving IHT care outcomes. The findings can shed light on the operations natures of IHT and provide hospital managers with coordination tools that can improve care outcomes.Item Disaster Relief Supply Chain Management: the Effect of Organizational Factors on Improvisation and Performance(2013-08) Strakos, Joshua K.; Bregman, Robert L.; Chin, Wynne W.; Robinson, Powell; Sahin, Funda; Vera, Dusya M.; Altay, NezihWithin the past decade disasters have taken a tremendous humanitarian and economic toll globally. Providing effective relief to the victims of these disasters requires efficient management of a quickly formed supply chain in the context of a rapidly changing and extremely uncertain environment. Supply chain management under these circumstances requires both planning and improvisation. In an effort to help organizations use scarce time and resources more efficiently, this research examines the relationships between planning, capability factors, improvisation, and performance in disaster relief supply chains. Survey data from disaster relief practitioners is analyzed using the partial least squares method of structural equation modeling. Factors and capabilities which affect the effectiveness of planning and the incidence and effectiveness of improvisation in disaster relief supply chain management are presented. Incidence of Improvisation is found to have a positive effect on the performance of disaster relief supply chains. Creative capability, empowerment, and information focus are found to increase the incidence of improvisation. Information focus and empowerment are found to have a positive direct effect on performance. Overall, the factors studied show how planning, capabilities, improvisation, and performance are related in the realm of disaster relief supply chain management.Item Does Similarity Produce Synergy in Horizontal Hospital Acquisitions? Linking Operations Characteristics to Operations Strategy(2019-08) Cheng, Yuqiao; Peng, David Xiaosong; Robinson, Powell; Sahin, Funda; Kirk, Terry D.The efficiency gains of hospital mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are derived not only from the market, financial, and managerial synergies, but also from operational synergies in economies of scale, clinical standardizations, service line optimizations, and so forth. To understand the roles that operations characteristics, and operations strategy play in hospital acquisitions, this dissertation examines the direct effects of geographic proximity and the service overlap on an acquired hospital’s post-acquisition operational performance (i.e., cost and quality) and its post-acquisition service-mix changes. The dissertation presents the findings from two essays. The first essay examines whether acquisitions benefit hospitals in terms of cost and quality. In addition, we try to determine the extent to which these benefits stem from similarities in two operational characteristics (i.e., service lines and geographical location). In the second essay, we test the effects of geographic proximity and market competition on an acquired hospital’s operations strategy (i.e., the service-mix changes). Analyzing four years (2010-2013) of data from 218 acquired hospitals in the U.S. (i.e., target hospitals), we find that hospital acquisitions result in lower readmission rates and operating expenses for the acquired hospitals. Also, the degree of geographic proximity is positively related to the post-acquisition quality improvements of the acquired hospitals. More important, there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between the pre-acquisition degree of service line similarity between the acquired and the acquirer hospitals and the post-acquisition quality improvements of the acquired hospital. Moreover, the relationship between the degree of service similarity and an acquired hospital’s post-acquisition quality performance is moderated by the degree of geographic proximity between the acquired and the acquirer hospitals. Finally, geographic proximity and market competition have some effects on an acquired hospital’s post-acquisition service-mix changes.Item Essays on Designing and Managing Service Outsourcing Contracts(2017-08) Ye, Yuan; Peng, David Xiaosong; Robinson, Powell; Narayanan, Arunachalam; Vera, Dusya M.The global market for outsourced services has doubled to more than one hundred billion dollars over the past decade. While firm-level service outsourcing has received growing attention in the literature, there is less research on designing and managing contracts for outsourced services (i.e., service contracting). Practically speaking, many services are highly specialized or unique, creating significant challenges when it comes to designing and managing outsourcing contracts effectively. By examining decisions related to contract design and management, this dissertation seeks to provide managerial insights on service outsourcing not revealed in the prior literature. Specifically, an in-depth survey has been conducted in multiple industries (healthcare, oil and gas, and manufacturing) to collect information on a variety of outsourced services. The dissertation consists of two essays. Drawing on transaction cost theory (TCT), the first essay investigates the relationships among transaction hazards, contract specificity, monitoring, and service performance. The empirical results unlock these relationships by revealing that 1) transaction hazards drive contract specificity, and 2) monitoring mediates the relationship between contract specificity and performance. The second essay applies the Kraljic Portfolio Model to manage service outsourcing contracts strategically. The framework first maps services into four quadrants based on the importance of purchasing and market complexity. It further develops detailed sourcing practices for services in each quadrant based on the strategies proposed by the Kraljic portfolio purchasing model. The empirical findings of this essay shed light on identifying the most effective supply management practices for services.Item Essays on Healthcare Coordination(2018-05) Nwafor, Onyi; Johnson, Norman A.; Robinson, Powell; Sahin, Funda; Keller, Robert T.In recent years, there has been a dramatic increase in the push for various organizational interventions aimed at improving the coordination of healthcare delivery services. Two examples of such interventions are care coordination teams (CCTs), which are used in hospitals to coordinate patient flow across care units; and Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), which are used to coordinate care delivery across healthcare organizations. Despite the widespread adoption of, and continued push for these interventions, there is very little systematic and rigorous research investigating their impacts on operational performance, such that to date, how beneficial they are remains an open question. Research findings in this area have been inconclusive, and there is a lack of theory to explain or reconcile these inconclusive results. This dissertation, which consists of two essays, addresses these shortcomings. The first essay focuses on the value of CCTs to hospitals. Using theories of organizational coordination, we develop hypotheses describing the influence of CCT structure on the efficiency and effectiveness of patient flow processes, and how team-patient coordination causally mediates this direct effect. We test this hypothesis in a field study of CCTs using quasi-experimental methods. The second essay focuses on the recent emergence of ACOs as an organizational form that can promote care coordination across healthcare organizations. Drawing on the contingency theory of organization, we propose and test the hypothesis that input uncertainty, knowledge insufficiency, and prevalence influence hospitals’ decision to participate in ACOs, as well as its effect on cost and quality performance. The theoretical contribution of this dissertation focuses on clarifying how these organizational interventions work to affect performance. The practical contribution focuses on identifying specific elements of the intervention that are most beneficial to hospitals, and conditions under which these interventions work best.Item Essays on Nudges in Information Systems(2021-08) Collier, Cassie Artman; Johnson, Norman A.; Ives, Blake; Cooper, Randolph; Patrick-Ralhan, Vanessa M.; Grimes, G. MarkIndividuals increasingly make important decisions utilizing information systems. Behavioral economics research shows that aspects of a choice-making environment can influence individuals’ decision-making even though they have no impact on the rational elements of the decision. However, this perspective is under-studied in information systems research, which has primarily considered users to be rational actors. The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate how a particular design element of information systems impacts users’ decision-making in non-rational ways. The design element of interest is nudges, which are aspects of choice architecture that predictably alter decision-makers’ behavior without forbidding options or changing incentives. To date, the efficacy of nudges in IS has been understudied and the investigations that have been completed have been primarily empirical and lacking in theory. The three papers of this dissertation aim to 1) review and organize the existing fragmented IS nudge literature, 2) develop a deep theoretical understanding of a specific nudge type, and 3) empirically investigate this nudge type in a novel context with a theoretical foundation. Specifically, the first paper of this dissertation is a literature review that summarizes the role nudges have played in extant IS literature, analyzes theoretical inconsistencies in the existing research, and provides methodological and theoretical guidance for future IS researchers investigating nudges. The second paper builds on the first by delving into the many competing theoretical explanations for a specific type of nudge: the default nudge, which is a choice that will be selected if the decision-maker does not actively choose. The final paper utilizes work from the first two projects to empirically investigate how default nudges affect decision-makers’ charitable donations online. This empirical work helps to tease apart conflicting theoretical explanations and predictions to unpack what is currently a black box regarding how and why digital nudges impact behavior. It helps us understand charitable donation decision-making by incorporating social value orientation, defaults, and proximity of social norms and using both animation and real-time personalization to capitalize on attributes of the IT artifact. Overall, this dissertation enriches our understanding of nudges in general, but specifically in the context of information systems. The work contributes to future research on IS design and improves our understanding of decision-making online.Item Exploring a Broader View of Technology Acceptance(2010-05) Steel, Douglas; Chin, Wynne W.; Johnson, Norman A.; Penney, Lisa M.; Schwarz, Andrew H.The primary aim of this dissertation is to establish the generalizability of the scale items used to measure 5 psychological acceptance constructs proposed by Schwarz and Chin (2007). While an initial test of validity and reliability was established by Schwarz (2003) using covariance-based structural equation modeling, a stronger test was performed to establish the generalizability of the items through a series of multigroup invariance tests. Having used 3 new independent data sets, we present the results of the combinatorial analyses of 3 pairwise comparisons of the data sets as well as a test comparing all 3 data sets simultaneously. Both confirmatory factor models and structural models were applied to examine whether item measures are identically reliable and whether the relationships among these 5 constructs also remain the same. Structurally, two models incorporating these 5 constructs were applied to predict an overall general acceptance construct and the construct of infusion. While the nomological relationships among these acceptance constructs varied as expected, the correlations and item loadings remain invariant. Therefore, the results answer the questions: (1) Can the acceptance constructs proposed by Schwarz and Chin be captured by reliable and accurate measures? (2) Are these constructs distinct from one another? and (3) Do they act similarly in different contexts? Finally, to provide a platform for more research on workplace outcomes, this research explores the notion of technology infusion, an important form of usage. Given that the 5 psychological acceptance constructs have predictive value toward infusion, we establish a means for further study of the concept.Item Impacts of Corporate Social Responsibility on New Product Development(2019-08) Sadjady Naeeni, Hannan Sadjady; Robinson, Powell; Sahin, Funda; Freeman, Nickolas K.; Hess, James D.Incorporating corporate social responsibility (CSR) considerations into product positioning decisions is an important element of the sustainable agenda for many firms. Offering a socially responsible (SR) product is expected to increase revenues due to an improved brand image, penetration into new SR market segments and the consumers’ willingness to pay a premium for an SR product. However, it can also have an adverse impact on production and supply chain costs, and elicit market response from rivals. We propose a game-theoretic duopoly model to identify product differentiation strategies, where one, none, or both firms offer socially responsible (SR) products at market equilibrium. The findings of this research contribute to the CSR product positioning literature and provides multi-disciplinary insights for strategically positioning socially responsible products in competitive markets. We show how the decision to offer an SR product depends upon the marginal cost increase of the SR product, potential market growth and the impact of the SR product on the firm’s brand image, as well as the interactions among these factors. The research examines the strategic implications of offering SR products and is the first to identify the conditions, where offering SR products can lead to intensified price competition and significant profit loss. We show that competing firms can become trapped in a prisoner’s dilemma, where both firms choose to offer competing SR products, even though it leads to a decline in profits for both. We further show how a high marginal cost for providing an SR product can lead to a quasi-monopoly situation, where one firm offers the SR product and the other a non-SR product, but both firms earn higher profits than the status quo.Item Interpreting The Process Of Configuration of Packaged Software Through the Lens of Social Construction of Technology(2010-08) Mousavidin, Elham; Silva, Leiser; Scamell, Richard W.; Porra, Jaana; Kotarba, JosephDespite the predominance of packaged application software, information systems (IS) researchers have focused more on custom software development. Packaged software deserves to be investigated separately due to the uniqueness in terms of its development and implementation. One of the challenges for organizations is to fit packaged software into their organizational context in order to reap the benefits through adopting the best practices this type of software promises to offer. This dissertation concerns the implementation of packaged software, specifically, technical and organizational aspects of its post-purchase configuration. An interpretive study aimed at investigating this process through the lens of Social Construction of Technology (SCOT) was conducted. SCOT is a sociological approach to studying development of technological artifacts. One of the main premises of SCOT is that various relevant groups influence the course of development of a technological artifact based on their varied interpretations of the artifact. SCOT lent itself well to the context of this study, in which the influence of the understanding, perceptions and expectations of various groups on the configuration process of packaged software was studied. The empirical part of this dissertation consists of two case studies: a pilot study at a non-profit organization and a main case study at a large public organization. The pilot study was conducted in 2005 with the aim of examining SCOT in the context of IS research and refining it as a theoretical lens for this dissertation. The data collection for the main case study began in Spring 2007 by contacting a public organization that was in the process of implementing a work management software package. The researcher participated as a neutral observer in the simulation sessions conducted during the configuration of this software. In addition, during the configuration process, the researcher reviewed organizational documents related to the project and conducted semi-structured interviews with the members of the configuration team. The findings of this dissertation exhibited that the configuration of packaged software was an interpretive process through which various features were implemented. The final implementation of each feature was the result of the interpretation and re-interpretation of various configuration options. Each process of interpretation and re-interpretation generally resulted in a dominant interpretation, the output of which took the form of a minimal, moderate, or elaborate configuration solution. For each feature, the choice of one of these solutions was influenced by the discourse forces (optimism, pessimism, and indifference) that were dominant at the time. The generalization of these findings was theoretically modeled in a mechanism for the process of configuring packaged software. In addition, this study suggested a re-conceptualization of what constitutes an IS user. Traditionally, most IS studies have had an individualistic view of users and users are grouped based on their functional roles. The findings of this dissertation proposed treating users as social actors, the grouping of whom is based on their interpretations of the IS with which they interact. Based on such a view, grouping of users occurs after their interpretations and perceptions are sought. This is different than the prevalent approach of first grouping the users (mostly based on their functional roles) and then assigning certain beliefs and perceptions to each group. The findings of this dissertation add to IS theory and practice. A theoretical contribution consists of adding to the literature on software configuration by providing a mechanism as well as a definition of the configuration process. In addition, this research makes a contribution to the SCOT approach in the context of its application in IS research since this theory has not been applied holistically in IS studies. It is believed that practitioners can benefit from the findings of this research by applying the configuration mechanism developed as an analytical tool to understand and manage the process of configuring packaged software.Item THE ETHICAL USE OF IT: A STUDY OF TWO MODELS FOR EXPLAINING ONLINE FILE SHARING BEHAVIOR(2011-05) Shemroske, Kenneth; Ives, Blake; Chin, Wynne W.; Adams, Dennis; Elkins Longacre, TeriThe use of peer to peer (P2P) technology to download copyrighted digital material has grown substantially since its introduction to the masses with Napster in 1999. In spite of continued prosecution and law suits costing individuals totals in the millions of dollars, rather than diminish, illegal downloading behaviors continue to grow in popularity raising a question concerning the ethical use of information technology. Why do individuals participate in online file sharing activities in spite of its moral implications? This study investigates the use of two supported models of behavior (Hunt-Vitell General Theory of Ethics, Theory of Planned Behavior) to explain individuals downloading illegal media files. Specifically, the context used in this study is the downloading of illegal music. Given its nature, this context focuses on the ethical component of the use of technology. While the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) has been used to address ethical behaviors, the Hunt-Vitell (HV) model specifically addresses the moral component where it is only implied in the TPB. The two models are compared and contrasted as explanatory tools for illegal downloading behavior and subsequently, the ethical use of IT. A synthesized model based on components of the two is proposed and tested with significant results. The results of this study are beneficial to organizations attempting to deal with piracy in their retail business models, academic research in terms of validating current models and presenting a new model for investigating ethical use of IT, and extends to educational curricula and even the home regarding a need for expanding the focus of moral development to include an ever growing use of IT in the personal lives of young people.Item The Proactive Technology Project Recovery Function: A Methodological Analysis(2018-05) Skinner, Richard James; Chin, Wynne W.; Ives, Blake; Nelson, R. Ryan; Simpson, Richard J.; Scammell, Richard; Chin, Wynne W.Information Systems (IS) failure is widely recognized as a severe and ongoing problem within the IS community. As a significant component of IS failure, troubled IS project delivery is a particularly prevalent occurrence, as exemplified by only 34% of IT projects undertaken by Fortune 500 companies being completed successfully. Consequently, organizations continue to seek innovative approaches to technology project management that effectively mitigates the risk of project failure. This dissertation examines a novel approach to such a scenario by investigating the concept of a project function tasked with proactively managing failing projects to closure. By examining this role in detail, this dissertation seeks to acquire managerial insights into the different components that distinguish this troubled project recovery approach from a typical project management response. However, to achieve these aims, there is a need to identify those methodologies most capable of providing insight into this subject. Therefore, this dissertation comprises three essays that, considered together, provide the IS discipline with a framework with which to explore the project recovery function in depth. The first essay provides a comprehensive analysis of the Delphi method, which is a structured approach for seeking the opinion of a group of experts. Insofar as explorative interviews have been undertaken with members of a project recovery function in a global technology organization, utilizing the Delphi method supports this dissertation’s aim by providing a framework for the IS discipline to leverage experts’ knowledge on how best to exploit such a project recovery structure. However, there is a need not only to acquire expert knowledge, but also to review and synthesize the diverse literature on project recovery. In as much as the relevant empirical studies are predominantly qualitative in nature and reside across many disciplines, the second essay will focus on the nature and use of the qualitative synthesis group of methodologies. This group embraces a synthesis perspective that integrates multiple qualitative studies relating to a particular topic to acquire an enhanced understanding of a phenomenon. By undertaking a detailed review of this suite of methodologies, so the knowledge required to synthesize the troubled project literature will become accessible. Finally, the third essay structures an explorative investigation into the proactive technology project recovery function itself. As shown, for the proactive project recovery function to become a value-added component of the organization, it needs to go through a development process. This involves it traversing seven stages of evolution, ranging from identifying the antecedent conditions necessary for the function’s creation, through to the team’s disbandment due to the knowledge for undertaking a recovery being disseminated across the organization and there being few if any failing projects left to recover. This dissertation also demonstrates that the skills and attributes necessary for being a project recovery specialist differ to that of a typical project manager; alternative skills and attributes include advanced negotiation, diplomacy, communication to the executive level, and knowledge of a project recovery methodology. By adopting a three-essay approach, the empirical findings from this dissertation has the potential to illuminate how organizations can effectively mitigate the damaging outcomes arising from failing technology projects via the use of a proactive project recovery team.Item The Role of Emotion in the Newsvendor Problem(2020-08) Forero, Santiago; Johnson, Norman A.; Peng, David Xiaosong; Patrick-Ralhan, Vanessa M.; Zhao, MingThe newsvendor problem is a foundational model for decision making in inventory and supply chain management. In its simplest form, the newsvendor must decide how many units to order of a perishable product that has stochastic demand. This single-period inventory problem sets the groundwork for more complex inventory decisions and has relevant applications in a diverse set of business fields such as capacity allocation, revenue management, and staffing in service industries. The optimal policy prescribing the order quantity that maximizes the expected profit is well documented. Not surprisingly, behavioral studies have found that human decision making deviates from the rational expected-profit-maximizing order. Interestingly, however, two systematic patterns arise when people make these decisions and have been replicated across multiple studies for almost two decades. First, when individuals adjust their order quantity over consecutive periods, they tend to do so in the direction of the most recent demand realization. This phenomenon is commonly referred to as demand-chasing. Second, when order quantities are averaged across periods, they tend to fall between mean demand and the optimal order quantity. This pattern has come to be known as the pull-to-center effect. Existing literature suggests dispositional factors, like whether people tend to follow an anchoring and insufficient adjustment heuristic, may explain these patterns. However, these studies have primarily assumed an observer’s perspective and have failed to identify what the cognitive mechanism that explains why people choose a particular order quantity is. Supporting this claim, a recently published literature survey concluded that there is a lack of understanding of what the cognitive processes that drive ordering behavior are and hence, it is unclear what the underlying explanation for these effects is. This dissertation addresses these shortcomings in two essays. The first essay focuses on demand-chasing. By considering the actor’s perspective, we show that the situation in which decisions are made in the newsvendor problem explains why people chase demand, and thus dispositional inferences are unwarranted. In an experimental setting, we test our hypotheses which are based on counterfactual thinking theory and find that decision makers experience a negative cognitive-based emotion—regret—, and this emotion predicts demand-chasing behavior. The second essay focuses on the pull-to-center effect. Having identified, in our first essay, a crucial cognitive mechanism through which ordering behavior can be explained, we develop hypotheses describing the influence such mechanism has on average order quantities being pulled-to-center. Results show that as decision makers chase demand their average order quantity is more pulled-to-center, but this effect is contingent on the level of knowledge individuals have about the newsvendor problem. In conjunction, these essays provide a comprehensive understanding of decision making in the newsvendor problem by identifying a cognitive-based emotion resulting from situational factors and showing how it affects ordering behavior in the form of demand-chasing, which in turn affects aggregate level patterns and performance. The theoretical implications of this dissertation focus on explaining why people order what they do and providing a single unifying mechanism through which past findings can be interpreted and reconciled. The practical implications focus on specific managerial actions that help mitigate the deleterious effects of self-blame that occur when people regret the choice they made.Item User Satisfaction with Information Systems: A Comprehensive Model of Attribute Satisfaction(2013-05) Vaezi, Reza 1982-; Chin, Wynne W.; Ives, Blake; Adams, Dennis; Fletcher, Elizabeth A.; Mills, AnnetteSatisfaction with information systems (IS), as an indicator of IS success, has been the subject of many studies since the inception of the field. Understanding the basis on which users form their perceptions of satisfaction has been a key area of focus. Of the many factors that have been studied, it is suggested that information quality, system quality and service quality are three major antecedents of user satisfaction with an IS. However, most studies have included only one or two of these determinants in their user satisfaction models. Prior studies have also been mostly concerned with information quality and system quality with later studies focusing on or including service quality. Further, most studies focus on the evaluative processes (i.e. assessments of quality) that inform user satisfaction. Only a few consider the outcome of these evaluations (e.g. information satisfaction, system satisfaction) and their role in determining overall user satisfaction, where overall satisfaction represents a summary judgment of one’s satisfaction with the individual aspects (or attributes) that make up the IS being evaluated. This is particularly important as satisfaction with aspects (or attributes) of an object or experience is considered a more direct and hence a more accurate predictor of overall satisfaction. This study therefore investigates the effects of three aspects of user satisfaction (i.e. information satisfaction, system satisfaction, and service satisfaction) on overall satisfaction with an IS. To investigate overall user satisfaction with an IS, this study proposes an attribute-level model of satisfaction. This model suggests that overall user satisfaction is a summary outcome of user satisfaction with three key aspects – the information output, the technical system and the supporting services – associated with a specific information system. It further specifies that user satisfaction with each of these aspects is derived from user satisfaction with individual attributes linked to each aspect (e.g. the accuracy, format and completeness of the information outputs received). The attribute-level model provides us with greater analytical and diagnostic capabilities compared to process models, which focus on the evaluative processes underlying satisfaction formation. By shifting the focus of investigation from process to outcomes (i.e. attribute-level satisfaction) this study also provides both practitioners and academics with an instrument to identify the IS attributes that are most important to overall user satisfaction. To that end, this dissertation develops and validates a survey instrument to measure user satisfaction with IS following the proposed model. It tests the model and instrument using undergraduate students enrolled in a core business class at the University of Houston as subjects. Students’ overall satisfaction as well as their satisfaction with key aspects and respective attributes of the PeopleSoft system currently in use at University of Houston is measured through the proposed model and instrument. The results of the statistical analyses confirm the validity and reliability of the model and instrument and provide further insights for future research.Item User-Generated Content and Revolutions: Towards a Theorization of Web 2.0(2010-12) Panahi, Hesam; Silva, Leiser; Scamell, Richard W.; Parks, Michael S.; Vera, Dusya M.The purpose of this dissertation is to examine how characteristics of Web 2.0, users’ beliefs on freedom of information in the Web, and external forces combine to create social stability and how changes in these factors can lead to revolts. While still an emerging phenomenon, the web has evolved from a set of hyperlinked pages to an increasingly social experience with user-generated content. Sites that harness Web 2.0 technologies typically increase in usefulness as more users interact with and contribute to the site. Web 2.0 sites are different from previous iterations of web sites because users are essentially co-developers and the “wisdom of crowds” prevails (O’Reilly, 2007). However, providing users with the powers to control the content of a site can have dangerous consequences if stability breaks down and unrest develops. Specifically, this multi-paper dissertation is composed of three papers that demonstrate how user revolts, a harsh reality for sites that rely on user-generated content, can occur. These revolts arise when a site's administrators take actions that conflict with the desires of users. For example, the act of removing posts because of cease-and-desist letters and copyright violations is viewed as a threat to freedom of speech. Subsequently, users take advantage of the technology, mobilize quickly with little organization or planning, and protest against administrative actions. User revolts have significant implications for society, web-based companies that employ Web 2.0 technologies, and traditional organizations seeking to use these technologies in the workplace. Capitalizing on user-generated content requires a careful consideration of the risks and challenges involved. Therefore, this dissertation takes a critical view towards the overwhelmingly optimistic perspective of Web 2.0 presented by technology enthusiasts and the mainstream media. A critical stance is necessary because a rosy democratic picture founded on partial assumptions is likely to generate unrealistic actions and expectations regarding Web 2.0 technology. By applying well-established theories from the philosophy of technology, political science, and philosophy of science, this dissertation attempts to provide a more holistic and realistic picture of Web 2.0 - reflecting and theorizing on how efforts to democratize media and provide an avenue for users to contribute can backfire and produce unintended consequences.