SMARTech Community: College of Management (CoM)

Three Essays on the Economics of Information Technology Innovation

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 22:58:59 GMT

Title: Three Essays on the Economics of Information Technology Innovation

Authors: Qu, Zhe

Abstract: There are three essays on the economics of information technology innovation in my dissertation: 1. Procurement contracting strategies in a hierarchical supply network; 2. R and D offshoring and technology learning in emerging economies firm level evidence from the information technology industry; 3. Software design strategies in markets with open source competitors. The first essay addresses the impact of an information technology enabled hierarchical supply structure on a firm s procurement strategies. The second essay investigates information technology hardware innovation. I examine R and D offshoring of information technology hardware firms and its impact on R and D effort of firms in host countries. The third essay focuses on software innovation. I investigate open source software and its impact on the design of proprietary software in terms of number of features bundled in the software.

Zigzagging across the boundary: examining the interplay of marketing activities within and between firms

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 22:58:59 GMT

Title: Zigzagging across the boundary: examining the interplay of marketing activities within and between firms

Authors: Murtha, Brian Robert

Abstract: This thesis consists of two central Parts. Part 1 examines the extent to which an agent s transaction-specific investments (TSIs) in a customer relationship increase his/her concerns for opportunism by his/her own co-workers. Thus, unlike prior research in marketing that examines opportunism by the recipient of TSIs, I show that agents become concerned with opportunism by non-recipients of TSIs. I then introduce novel moderators that shape the relationship between TSIs and concerns for internal opportunism. Importantly, I also show that in response to concerns for internal opportunism, agents will engage in internal safeguarding behaviors. Notably, unlike external safeguards between firms which tend to benefit firms (e.g., relational norms), I show that internal safeguarding has a deleterious effect on performance. I test the set of hypotheses with data collected from two sources: account managers and their supervisors. In Part 2, I advance the emerging view on customer solutions by simultaneously examining the networks within and between selling and buying teams involved in the development and deployment of complex customer solutions. Such a concurrent within-and-between perspective helps to bridge research on buying and selling teams, which prior research tends to examine only in isolation of each other. This research also extends the literature by showing how within-team network characteristics interact with between-team network characteristics to affect solution effectiveness. Notably, I advance the literature by moving beyond firm-level and individual-level dyads to team-level dyads and introduce a new network characteristic mirrored ties to help our understanding of the interactions between these dyads. I develop my hypotheses in the context of a sales team selling a complex customer solution to a buying team and test the hypotheses using an innovative, picture-based conjoint field experiment from 233 purchasing managers.

Accounting-based Earnings Management and Real Activities Manipulation

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 22:58:59 GMT

Title: Accounting-based Earnings Management and Real Activities Manipulation

Authors: Yu, Wei

Abstract: In the first essay, I examine the association between auditor industry specialization and earnings management choices. Prior research suggests that industry specialist auditors constrain accounting-based earnings management. But such actions may cause client companies to seek alternative means to manage earnings. Specifically, companies that hire industry specialist auditors may alter operating decisions to meet earnings targets, referred to as real activities manipulation. This essay investigates whether clients of industry specialist auditors that have an incentive to manage earnings are constrained from managing earnings through accruals manipulation and, therefore, are more likely to engage in real activities manipulation. Further, I examine whether operating performance declines for firms suspected of real activities manipulation. My findings indicate that clients of industry specialist auditors with incentives to manage earnings have lower absolute value of accruals relative to firms with incentives to manage earnings that do not hire industry specialist auditors. These clients of industry specialist auditors are also more likely to engage in real activities manipulation, suggesting this is a possible unintended consequence of hiring an industry specialist auditor. I also document evidence that firms suspected of real activities manipulation have lower future operating performance relative to firms not suspected of real activities manipulation. In the second essay, I examine the association between the tightness of accounting standards and earnings management choices. Prior studies suggest that managers switch from accounting-based earnings management to real activities manipulation in response to tightening accounting standards. My study investigates this line of reasoning. I develop an analytical model and conduct an experimental examination of the effect of flexibility of accounting standards under different institutional environments. I find that managers switch from accounting-based earnings management to real activities manipulation with tightening accounting standards only when the institutional investors have a short-term investment horizon. In contrast, when managers are monitored by institutional investors with a long-term investment horizon, they do not engage in such behavior.

The Cash Flow Growth(tm) and the Retail Industry: Signs of a Slowing?

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 22:58:59 GMT

Title: The Cash Flow Growth(tm) and the Retail Industry: Signs of a Slowing?

Authors: Mulford, Charles W.; Singh, Vipul Pratap

Abstract: A slowing U.S. economy is impacting retail sales and hurting the retailers. The purpose of this study is to examine the extent to which problems seen at the macro level are hurting the retailers as a group and within four industry sub-groups, department stores (fashion), department stores (variety), warehouse stores and dollar stores. We look at the performance of 22 retailers using the Operating Growth Profile(tm); and Free Cash Growth Profile(tm);, two metrics that are very useful in evaluating a firm's ability to generate cash flow as it grows. While the Profile for the retail industry did improve each year between 2002 and 2006, a decline is noted in the twelve months ended with the third quarter of 2007. However, not all industries are declining. We noted modest improvements for the warehouse stores and dollar stores.