Category: Managing IT

Quantifying the intangible: Determining the performance of knowledge workers

Measuring the performance of workers on an assembly line is simple: Count the objects produced and find out how long the process took. That should reveal the productivity of the factory workers. But how do you determine the performance of knowledge workers? Observing and measuring what they do is an enormous challenge. They often work unscripted and alone. The workers themselves may be unaware of the individual steps they take when carrying out an assignment. Professor Robert St. Louis and Assistant Professor Michael Lee of the W. P. Carey School’s Department of Information Systems and Robyn Raschke of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, are tackling this issue in an unusual study that could hit close to home for the researchers.

Shared values help companies connect with consumers

Online retailers looking to connect with customers and increase sales and profits would be wise to demonstrate values that appeal to those customers, according to researchers in the Department of Information Systems. A pair of experimental studies conducted by Associate Professor Benjamin Shao and Professor Robert St. Louis found that consumers respond very differently to the values a company projects. Subjects in experiments were more likely to buy a product — and to pay more for it — if the seller’s values were aligned with those of the buyer.

The Ph.D. experience: A student’s life is intense, focused

If you choose the academic life, you will always be two things at once: a student — continuously uncovering and processing new knowledge; and a teacher — conveying what you know to others. This dual life begins in the Ph.D. program, when candidates are both students taking classes and working on research, and teachers of undergraduates. At this time of year, people interested in the academic life are looking at the doctoral degree and deciding whether this intense and highly focused career is right for them. To learn what it’s really like, knowIT went to someone with first-hand knowledge — doctoral candidate Juliana Tsai.

Your own personalized shopper

While shopping online for a computer a few years ago, Fred Riggins noted that three Compaq models offered the FireWire feature he wanted. The three were priced on a low, medium and high range, corresponding to which processor they used. While Riggins might have bought a more expensive model if that’s all he saw, he nevertheless bought a cheaper one because it was staring right at him on the screen. For Riggins, an information systems professor who’s been teaching courses on e-commerce since 1996, the experience got him questioning the effectiveness of product display and pricing online. In his working paper, "Using Personalization Technology to Reduce Product Cannibalization," Riggins looks at how online stores can segment and sell to high- and low-end customers without cannibalizing their best sales.

Barbara Hoffnagle: Transforming IT at SRP

Barbara Hoffnagle had not contemplated becoming the first Chief Information Executive (CIE) at Salt River Project (SRP), the country’s third-largest public power utility. In fact, when she was named CIE three and a half years ago, her main focus was managing the company’s internal operations support services. At the time, an outside consulting firm had been brought in to assess the effectiveness of SRP’s information technology investment. Hoffnagle had participated in interviews where she shared her concerns, not knowing it would become her role to drive the IT transformation. Hoffnagle was a featured speaker at a fall session of the IT Leadership Seminar Series, which brings experts to campus to speak about how their companies have strategically used IT to transform major aspects of their businesses for building a competitive advantage in their industries.

Outstanding Senior brings global perspective to IS

The rapidly globalizing world of business and information systems doesn’t scare Nadine Yassine — in fact, she welcomes it. As a first-generation American born to parents of Lebanese descent, Nadine understands the importance of a global viewpoint, and knew she wanted to incorporate that perspective into her education.