Christina Y. Jeong

The information and communication technology (ICT) value creation process is inherently unobservable. In addition to the direct effect of ICT on productivity, some information or knowledge can value through other knowledge activities. In this paper, we study the impact of ICT on productivity through R&D. We tested the mediating effect of R&D between ICT and productivity using panel data from 47 US industries from 1987 to 2013 from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The results show that R&D partially mediates ICT and productivity. That is, ICT directly increases productivity, and some of its effects can be realized through R&D. Recipients who acquire knowledge through ICT have to interpret codified ideas and apply them to practice. The increased absorptive capacity that can be developed through R&D improves interpretation ability, allowing employees to share more complex ideas. Thus, ICT helps people to effectively communicate, but some information and knowledge can be realized and applied through R&D knowledge activities. This is the first study empirically examining the process of ICT value creation through R&D. It also provides practical guidelines for knowledge management, such as making decisions about ICT and R&D investments that are better done concurrently rather than individually to maximize their impact on productivity.

In current business climate, a firm’s information systems security is no longer independent from the industry’s broader security environment. A question arises, then, whether stock market values reflect the interdependence of security breaches and investments. In this paper, we used the event study methodology to investigate how a firm’s security breaches and IT security investments influence its competitors. We collected and reviewed 118 information security breaches and 98 IT security investment announcements from 2010 to 2017. We found substantial evidence supporting our hypothesis that information security breaches do, indeed, have a competition effect: when one firm is breached, its competitors have opportunities to absorb market power. For the IT security investment announcements, however, we observed the positive externalities, or contagion effect, in play: market investors feel that the security investments made by one firm increase the security level of the entire network, and hence, competitors also get benefits. Additionally, we found that the competition effect was higher when the breaches occurred after the preceding security investments than when there were no preceding investments before the breaches.

Socializing and informal communications among co-workers is known to play an important role at the workplace, as it can enhance work-related outcomes. As an increasing number of firms now have jobs that are fully or partially compatible with remote work after the pandemic, it is important to understand if online avenues of socializing would produce similar benefits. In addition, there are well-known gender disparities in reaping the work-related benefits of socializing in offline settings. However, whether these disparities would manifest with online socialization is unclear. Intrigued by these questions, we undertook an empirical effort to study the impacts of participating in online social groups on subsequent work-related participation levels, and whether online socializing had a greater effect on certain user groups. To empirically test this, we relied on the user-level participation data from an ESM software company that is used by thousands of companies. A difference-in-difference approach was used to contrast the change in workgroup participation of treated users who participate in social groups to the workgroup participation of control users who do not join social groups. To alleviate endogeneity concerns, we used various matching methods and constructed appropriate control groups to difference-out selection effects that are inherent in our context. Our results reveal that participation in social groups has a positive spillover on user participation in workgroups. We find that women tend to experience a larger spillover effect, indicating that online social groups help to connect female employees to others, which in turn spur them to contribute more to work related discussions. At the same time, the spillover effect has a greater impact among lower-ranked employees, suggesting that social group participation can alleviate participation concerns stemming from hierarchy asymmetry. We further find that the effect of social groups are greater among small groups and indirect participation (via post liking and favoriting) can also improve workgroup participation among a select set of users. Study implications are discussed.

In a highly digitalized society, fast-paced consumption of information along with the enormous amount of content on social media often make it difficult for users to distinguish fake information from objective facts. Consequently, the rampant propagation of fake news on the Internet has become a pressing societal concern. Understanding how individuals process online news is crucial to unveil why fake news spreads and how biased judgments are formed. Of particular interest is whether frequently occurring events that are more readily recalled are considered important or true in all contexts. Immediate recall can be used as a heuristic in assessing the authenticity of news, which could, in turn, influence the sharing of fake news. Despite this possibility, the literature is surprisingly silent on the role of the availability heuristic in influencing whether people share information, in particular fake news. In addition, the degree of reliance on heuristics is often dependent on individuals’ involvement with the issue. Thus, our study is mainly interested in assessing the interaction between availability and involvement on individuals’ intention to share news articles. Importantly, we assess if the use of the availability heuristic differs under exposure conditions to true versus fake news. 

We also provide deeper insights by examining the role of believability and novelty in mediating the focal relationship. To empirically test this role, we conducted a randomized experiment where we manipulated the availability and involvement of three news articles rooted in different contexts. Based on responses to these experimental conditions, our results reveal that high availability is considered more believable and less novel than low availability. Interestingly, the intention to share news is driven by availability effect regardless of the authenticity of the news is fake, which offers another explanation for why users spread fake news. In addition, our analyses reveal an interaction between availability and involvement. Highly involved individuals are more likely to share news that depicts highly available events, which we found to be driven by the perceived believability of the news. However, we found no difference in sharing intentions across news with high and low availability for individuals with low involvement. The results indicate that their decision to share is driven by both the perceived believability and novelty of the news.

(forthcoming)