UMD Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/3
New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a given thesis/dissertation in DRUM.
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Item Analysts Unchained—Expanded Information Processing Capacity and Effort Transfer under Technology Adoption(2020) Feng, Ruyun; Kimbrough, Michael; Business and Management: Accounting & Information Assurance; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Analysts acquire and disseminate information to assist investors in equity valuation. Despite their expertise in equity valuation, sell-side analysts are economic agents with limited time and cognitive resources. The constraint on an analyst’s information processing capacity is reflected by the previously documented negative association between an analyst’s forecast accuracy for a focal firm and the total number of firms the analyst covers. While prior research focuses on analysts’ attributes and portfolio firm characteristics as factors impinging on analysts’ information processing capacity, I examine whether information technology—an exogenous factor—can alleviate this constraint. Using the recent exogenous shock of XBRL adoption, I find that the widespread adoption of XBRL expands analysts’ information processing capacity. I document two consequences of this expanded capacity. As an analyst’s information processing capacity increases, the analyst either improvs the forecast accuracy for non-adopting firms in the existing portfolio or increases the size of the portfolio. This finding indicates that the adoption of XBRL generates a positive externality from the adopting firms due to the transfer of analyst effort away from those firms. This study provides the first evidence that exogenous factors such as the adoption of new technology can expand analysts’ information processing capacity, thereby allowing analysts to improve the overall quality of existing coverage and allowing more firms to enjoy the benefits of analyst coverage. The paper also provides the new insight that information externalities can exist among firms that are fundamentally unrelated by identifying another channel—the effort channel—as a source of such externalities.Item LEARNING MECHANSIMS AND HEALTH INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY(2012) Kothari, Anupama Kunal; Agarwal, Ritu; Viswanathan, Siva; Business and Management: Marketing; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Health information technology (HIT) is gaining momentum and widespread use globally in healthcare institutions through the implementation and use of HIT such as telemedicine and electronic medical records. Literature has discussed various aspects of health information technology such as increasing the accessibility of healthcare, improving the efficacy and reducing associated errors. However, the potential of HIT as a medium of learning has largely been ignored by extant literature. This dissertation seeks to understand the mechanisms of learning in the context of health information technologies, specifically- telemedicine and electronic medical records. The two essays investigate the characteristics of learning under telemedicine and under electronic records. The first essay uses a quantitative mode of investigation, while the second essay utilizes a qualitative mode of research. The first essay deals with telemedicine, a healthcare information technology that provides healthcare across geographic boundaries. The essay investigates how the telemedicine process facilitates synchronous learning in terms of a facilitator-learner theoretical model. It explores the impact of facilitator characteristics and learner characteristics on synchronous learning. Additionally, the essay also examines the impact of organizational variables such as technology on the relationship between learning and facilitator-learner mechanics. Data for this essay is drawn from surveys administered over several hospitals that use telemedicine in India. The second essay studies the role of electronic medical records in information dissemination and learning. In this essay, the role of electronic medical records in providing healthcare personnel with asynchronous learning opportunities is investigated. It explores the impact of individual and organizational factors on discovery learning through electronic medical records. The essay identifies factors such as case complexity, status, familiarity with technology and clinical specialty that influence learning through electronic medical records. The second essay draws on interviews of members of a healthcare team in a multiple specialty hospital that uses electronic medical records. Together, the essays explore various aspects of learning through health information technology, including synchronous learning, asynschronous learning, learning mechanics and motivations for learning.Item Understanding Scientific Literature Networks: Case Study Evaluations of Integrating Visualizations and Statistics(2011) Gove, Robert Paul; Shneiderman, Ben; Computer Science; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Investigators frequently need to quickly learn new research domains in order to advance their research. This thesis presents five contributions to understanding how software helps researchers explore scientific literature networks. (1) A taxonomy which summarizes capabilities in existing bibliography tools, revealing patterns of capabilities by system type. (2) Six participants in two user studies evaluate Action Science Explorer (ASE), which is designed to create surveys of scientific literature and integrates visualizations and statistics. Users found document-level statistics and attribute rankings to be convenient when beginning literature exploration. (3) User studies also identify users' questions when exploring academic literature, which include examining the evolution of a field, identifying author relationships, and searching for review papers. (4) The evaluations suggest shortcomings of ASE, and this thesis outlines improvements to ASE and lists user requirements for bibliographic exploration. (5) I recommend strategies for evaluating bibliographic exploration tools based on experiences evaluating ASE.Item Model-Based Support for Information Technology Security Decision Making(2011) Chrun, Danielle; Cukier, Michel; Mosleh, Ali; Reliability Engineering; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)With the increase in the number and diversity of attacks, a main concern for organizations is to keep their network and systems secure. Existing frameworks to manage Information Technology (IT) security include empirical evaluations, security risk assessments, cost-benefit analyses, and adversary-based evaluations. These techniques are often not easy to apply and their results are usually difficult to convey. This dissertation presents a model to help reasoning about security and to support communication between IT security experts and managers. The model identifies major components of security: threat, user, organization, asset, and emphasizes the human element. Characteristics for each component are determined and cover the attacker's motivations, the user's risk perception, the IT security team expertise, and the depth of protection of the asset. These characteristics are linked through causal influences that can represent positive or negative relationships and be leveraged to rank alternatives through a set of weights. The described formalism allows IT security officers to brainstorm about IT security issues, to evaluate the impacts of alternative solutions on characteristics of security, and ultimately on the level of security, and to communicate their findings to managers. The contributions of this dissertation are three-fold. First, we introduce an approach to develop and validate a model for IT security decision making, given known issues related to this task: difficulties in sharing security data, lack of accepted security metrics, limitation in available information and use of experts. We propose a development and validation process that relies on two sources of information: experts and data. Second, we provide the results of the model development for academic environments. The resulting model is based on extended discussions with the Director of Security at the University of Maryland (UMD), two interviewed experts, fifteen surveyed experts, and empirical data collected at UMD. Finally, we demonstrate the use of the model to justify IT security decisions and present methodological steps towards measuring various characteristics of the model.Item Practices and Strategies of Distributed Knowledge Collaboration(2010) Kudaravalli, Srinivas; Faraj, Samer; Agarwal, Ritu; Business and Management: Decision & Information Technologies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Information Technology is enabling large-scale, distributed collaboration across many different kinds of boundaries. Researchers have used the label new organizational forms to describe such collaborations and suggested that they are better able to meet the demands of flexibility, speed and adaptability that characterize the knowledge economy. Yet, our understanding of the organization of such collaborative forms is limited. In this dissertation, I study distributed knowledge collaboration in the context of a unique setting - a large, distributed, professional legal association, where practice involves knowledge that is complex, highly contextualized and failures have extremely consequential results. The first essay focuses on knowledge sharing at the individual level. Differing approaches have been developed for the study of knowledge sharing - I distinguish between approaches that focus on knowledge transfer and those that highlight the need to transform knowledge to be effective. The former emphasizes availability of and access to knowledge sources while the latter argues that knowledge is difficult to share since it is `localized and embedded in practice.' In this study, I empirically examine the notion that, in the presence of novelty, knowledge sharing involves not simply the transfer of information but rather the transformation of knowledge and understanding. I proposed a theoretical model and tested it by gathering 160 survey responses from individuals who answered questions about two specific cases they encountered - one routine and one novel. The results largely support the key arguments presented here. The second essay examines, at the organizational level, the practices used to mitigate the challenges of distributed collaboration. For example, since larger geographic dispersion may result in pockets of local expertise, how is such knowledge shared with the community? What practices are used to mobilize members for collective action? I undertook a field study using a grounded theory approach and a practice lens to investigate the every day activities that are used to coordinate knowledge work. I found evidence for two distinct sets of practices - one with an internal focus and the other with an external focus. I describe these in detail and suggest that the way in which distributed communities balance the two is essential for their continued viability.Item Risk Management for Enterprise Resource Planning System Implementations in Project-Based Firms(2010) ZENG, YAJUN; Skibniewski, Miroslaw J.; Civil Engineering; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems have been regarded as one of the most important information technology developments in the past decades. While ERP systems provide the potential to bring substantial benefits, their implementations are characterized with large capital outlay, long duration, and high risks of failure including implementation process failure and system usage failure. As a result, the adoption of ERP systems in project-based firms has been lagged behind lots of companies in many other industries. In order to ensure the success of ERP system implementations in project-based firms, sound risk management is the key. The overall objective of this research is to identify the risks in ERP system implementations within project-based firms and develop a new approach to analyze these risks and quantitatively assess their impacts on ERP system implementation failure. At first, the research describes ERP systems in conjunction with the nature and working practices of project-based firms and current status and issues related to ERP adoption in such firms, and thus analyzes the causes for their relatively low ERP adoption and states the research problems and objectives. Accordingly, a conceptual research framework is presented, and the procedures and research methods are outlined. Secondly, based on the risk factors regarding generic ERP projects in extant literature, the research comprehensively identifies the risk factors of ERP system implementation within project-based firms. These risk factors are classified into different categories, qualitatively described and analyzed, and used to establish a risk taxonomy. Thirdly, an approach is developed based on fault tree analysis to decompose ERP systems failure and assess the relationships between ERP component failures and system usage failure, both qualitatively and quantitatively. The principles and processes of this approach and related fault tree analysis methods and techniques are presented in the context of ERP projects. Fourthly, certain practical strategies are proposed to manage the risks of ERP system implementations. The proposed risk assessment approach and management strategies together with the comprehensive list of identified risk factors not only contribute to the body of knowledge of information system risk management, but also can be used as an effective tool by practitioners to actively analyze, assess, and manage the risks of ERP system implementations within project-based firms.Item e-Government Technical Security Controls Taxonomy for Information Assurance Contractors - A Relational Approach(2010) Fofana, Momodu Idris; Skibniewski, Miroslaw J; Civil Engineering; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)When project managers consider risks that may affect a project, they rarely consider risks associated with the use of information systems. The Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) of 2002 recognizes the importance of information security to the economic and national security of the Unites States. The requirements of FISMA are addressed using the NIST Special Publication 800-53 Rev 3, which has improved the way organizations practice information assurance. The NIST SP 800-53 Rev 3 takes a hierarchical approach to information assurance, which has resulted in the duplication and subsequent withdrawal and merging of fifteen security controls. In addition, the security controls are not associated with the appropriate information systems. The current security assessment model often results in a waste of resources, since controls that are not applicable to an information system have to be addressed. This research developed and tested the value of using an information system breakdown structure (ISBS) model for identification of project information system resources. It also assessed the value of using an e-Government Relational Technical Security Controls Model for mapping the ISBS to the applicable relational technical security controls. A questionnaire containing ninety-five items was developed and emailed to twenty-four information security contractors of which twenty-two efficiently completed questionnaires were received. The questionnaire assessed the value of using the ISBS, and the relationships of the e-Government Relational Technical Security Controls model. Literature review and industry experts opinion was used to triangulate the research results and establish their validity. Cronbach's Alpha coefficient for the four sections of the questionnaire established its reliability. The results of the research indicated that the ISBS model is an invaluable, customizable, living tool that should be used for identification of information system resources on projects. It can also be used for assigning responsibility for the different information systems and for security classification. The study also indicated that using the e-Government Relational Technical Security Controls provides a relational and fully integrated approach to information assurance while reducing the likelihood of duplicating security controls. This study could help project managers identify and mitigate risks associated with the use of information systems on projects.Item UNDERSTANDING THE SOCIAL AND COGNITIVE EXPERIENCES OF CHILDREN INVOLVED IN TECHNOLOGY DESIGN PROCESSES(2010) Guha, Mona Leigh; Druin, Allison; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Technology has become ubiquitous not only in the lives of adults, but also in the lives of children. For every technology, there is a process by which it is designed. In many cases, children are involved in these design processes. This study examined the social and cognitive experiences of children who were integrally involved in a technology design process in partnership with adults. This research study employed a Vygotskian lens with a case study research method, to understand the cognitive and social experiences of child technology design partners over a one-year period of design and partnership. Artifact analysis, participant observation, and interviews were used to collect and analyze data. Results from this study demonstrated that children involved in technology design process in partnership with adults experienced social and cognitive experiences which fall into the areas of relationships, enjoyment, confidence, communication, collaboration, skills, and content.Item Battle of the Brains: Election-Night Forecasting at the Dawn of the Computer Age(2010) Chinoy, Ira; Beasley, Maurine; Journalism; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation examines journalists' early encounters with computers as tools for news reporting, focusing on election-night forecasting in 1952. Although election night 1952 is frequently mentioned in histories of computing and journalism as a quirky but seminal episode, it has received little scholarly attention. This dissertation asks how and why election night and the nascent field of television news became points of entry for computers in news reporting. The dissertation argues that although computers were employed as pathbreaking "electronic brains" on election night 1952, they were used in ways consistent with a long tradition of election-night reporting. As central events in American culture, election nights had long served to showcase both news reporting and new technology, whether with 19th-century devices for displaying returns to waiting crowds or with 20th-century experiments in delivering news by radio. In 1952, key players - television news broadcasters, computer manufacturers, and critics - showed varied reactions to employing computers for election coverage. But this computer use in 1952 did not represent wholesale change. While live use of the new technology was a risk taken by broadcasters and computer makers in a quest for attention, the underlying methodology of forecasting from early returns did not represent a sharp break with pre-computer approaches. And while computers were touted in advance as key features of election-night broadcasts, the "electronic brains" did not replace "human brains" as primary sources of analysis on election night in 1952. This case study chronicles the circumstances under which a new technology was employed by a relatively new form of the news media. On election night 1952, the computer was deployed not so much to revolutionize news reporting as to capture public attention. It functioned in line with existing values and practices of election-night journalism. In this important instance, therefore, the new technology's technical features were less a driving force for adoption than its usefulness as a wonder and as a symbol to enhance the prestige of its adopters. This suggests that a new technology's capacity to provide both technical and symbolic social utility can be key to its chances for adoption by the news media.Item SENSEMAKING: CONCEPTUAL CHANGES, COGNITIVE MECHANISMS, AND STRUCTURAL REPRESENTATIONS. A QUALITATIVE USER STUDY(2010) Zhang, Pengyi; Soergel, Dagobert; Library & Information Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The purpose of this thesis is to improve our understanding of sensemaking process as a basis for building better systems to assist sensemaking. Sensemaking is the task of creating an understanding of a problem or task so that further actions may be taken in an informed manner. Sensemaking is a pre-requisite for many other tasks such as decision making and problem solving. An important part of sensemaking involves making clear the interrelated concepts and their relationships in a problem or task space. This research investigated the question of how users create and use structured representations for sensemaking. It proposed and refined an iterative sensemaking model building upon previous sensemaking research, learning theories, cognitive psychology and task-based information seeking and use. In particular, the study focused on the processes, conceptual changes, and cognitive mechanisms used during users' sensemaking tasks. The qualitative, multi-case user study investigated how a sample of fifteen users working with news writing and business analysis tasks structure their conceptual space with the assistance of note-taking and concept mapping tools. Data on the sensemaking process were collected from multiple sources including think-aloud protocols, screen movement recordings, interviews, and intermediate and final work products. Using the iterative sensemaking model as an analytical and descriptive framework, the study captured the often idiosyncratic paths sensemakers took, ranging from planned, systematic to rather random, ad hoc patterns of "search--sensemaking" iterations. Findings also revealed various ways in which the iterations started and exited, which suggested that the heterogeneous patterns of sensemaking lie in the shifts from one iteration to the next, rather than in the iterations themselves. The knowledge structure was updated by accretion, tuning, and restructuring to produce the final knowledge representation and sensemaking product. Several cognitive mechanisms were used in processing new information, examining concepts and relationships, and examining anomalies and inconsistencies. They were used in bottom-up, top-down, and combined fashions to move the processes along and to trigger conceptual changes to the knowledge structure of users. Based on these findings, the study argues that information system that aimed to assist sensemaking should provide an architecture that links structure, data, and sources that can be represented and manipulated in multiple formats. It should also provide integrated assistances at the task and cognitive mechanism levels. The research contributes to sensemaking research by extending existing descriptive sensemaking models with an analytical framework that incorporates conceptual changes to the knowledge structure and cognitive mechanisms that trigger the processes and conceptual changes. Furthermore, the research identified core issues in designing information systems to assist sensemaking tasks and suggested design implications for sensemaking tools that may be useful in many settings such as learning, knowledge creation, organization, and sharing.