Robert H. Smith School of Business
Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/1584
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Item Mechanism Designs to Mitigate Disparities in Online Platforms: Evidence from Empirical Studies(2020) Mayya, Raveesh K; Viswanathan, Siva; Business and Management: Decision & Information Technologies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)With the rising ubiquity of online platforms, there is an increasing focus on platforms’ role in enabling fair exchanges between buyers and sellers. Traditionally, platforms have inbuilt mechanisms such as screening or upfront data-gathering disclosure that encourage transactions between unfamiliar participants. Since such mechanisms can introduce power disparities between different sides, platforms have enacted policy changes to fix the imbalance. Extant literature hasn’t studied the unintended consequences of such policy changes. My dissertation seeks to fill this gap by examining platforms’ decisions to enact policy/mechanism changes that level the playing field by decentralizing choices for different sides. Using empirical studies, my dissertation seeks to causally identify the impact of such changes on outcomes for participants as well as for the platform. The first essay in my dissertation examines the impact Airbnb’s decision to make screening optional. There is increasing evidence that two-way screening mechanism has been used as a tool by users on the platform to discriminate against some users on the other side. In making screening optional, I find that African American hosts and female hosts are more likely to forgo screening and they benefit the most (in terms of occupancy, price and/or ratings) from forgoing screening, indicating that making screening optional can serve as a useful mechanism in helping alleviate reverse discrimination of hosts by guests. The second essay studies platforms’ attempts to provide smartphone users with better choice over which sensitive information can mobile apps access. In particular, I examine the timing of mobile apps' decisions to upgrade to Android 6.0, which restricts the ability of mobile apps from seeking blanket permissions to sensitive user information at download, instead requiring them to request à la carte permissions at run-time. I find that apps that over-seek (access information that are non-essential to their functionality) sensitive information from users strategically delay upgrading to Android 6.0. However, these apps suffer popularity and reputational costs in the Android marketplace. Collectively, the findings in my dissertation provides valuable theoretical as well as practical insights about the welfare implications of choice decentralization on all sides in online platforms, not just the intended side.Item Information Technology and Its Transformational Effect on the Health Care Industry(2007-04-25) Angst, Corey M; Agarwal, Ritu; Business and Management: Decision & Information Technologies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation examines the adoption of health IT by addressing the barriers to adoption from the perspective of multiple stakeholders. I examine three different phenomena using alternative methodologies and theoretical lenses. Essay 1: The Impact of Firm Characteristics and Spatial Proximity on the Diffusion of Electronic Medical Records: A Hazard Modeling Analysis. This study, positioned at the inter-organizational level, draws upon adoption and diffusion literature to predict the likelihood of EMR adoption by hospitals. I theorize that adoption is driven by factors such as the concentration and experience with complementary HIT and an environmental factor, spatial proximity. Using a hazard model fitted to data from a sample drawn from almost 4,000 hospitals, I find support for a positive relationship between IT concentration and likelihood of adoption. I also find that spatial proximity explains variance in adoption and that its effect diminishes as distance increases. Essay 2: Isolating the Effects of IT on Performance: An Empirical Test of Complementarities and Learning. An issue at the organizational level is whether benefits result from investment in HIT. I apply a knowledge-based lens to the examination of IT adoption and process-level value, incorporating the effects of learning occurring through complementary IT adoption. I test hypotheses using data from almost 400 nationally-representative hospitals matched with quality and financial performance data and find that learning associated with more experience with IT leads to superior performance. Essay 3: Adoption of Electronic Medical Records in the Presence of Privacy Concerns: The Elaboration Likelihood Model and Individual Persuasion. At the individual level, privacy concerns can inhibit the adoption of EMRs. I draw from literature on attitude change to develop hypotheses that individuals can be persuaded to support the use, and ultimately opt-in to EMRs, even in the presence of significant privacy concerns if compelling arguments about the value of EMRs are presented. Using a quasi-experimental methodology, I find that privacy concerns interact with argument framing and issue involvement to affect attitudes toward the use of EMRs. In addition, results suggest that attitude towards EMR use and CFIP directly impact the likelihood of adoption of EMR technology.