Marriages Made in Silico: Essays on Social Norms, Technology Adoption, and Institutions in Online Matrimonial Matching Platforms

Simple item page
dc.contributor.advisorGopal, Anandasivamen_US
dc.contributor.authorKarmegam, Sabari Rajanen_US
dc.contributor.departmentBusiness and Management: Decision & Information Technologiesen_US
dc.contributor.publisherDigital Repository at the University of Marylanden_US
dc.contributor.publisherUniversity of Maryland (College Park, Md.)en_US
dc.date.accessioned2020-10-10T05:34:36Z
dc.date.available2020-10-10T05:34:36Z
dc.date.issued2020en_US
dc.description.abstractOnline matrimonial platforms have emerged as a way to take the highly institutionalized process of arranged marriages online while preserving the offline social, cultural, and gender norms. While there is a rich body of empirical work on online dating, the corresponding literature on online matrimonial platforms is sparse. My dissertation seeks to fill this gap. In my first essay, I look at mobile adoption's role in online matrimonial platforms' engagement and matching outcomes. The analysis shows that unlike the dating market where the market's transaction costs are eased by the ubiquity and personal nature of the mobile device for all users, here subgroups associated with strong endogamous preferences benefit with mobile adoption. My work extends the mobile ecosystem study to the societal context where institutional norms take precedence and influence mobile adoption outcomes. In my second essay, I study how the search frictions, social norms, and disempowerment that results from the gender skew in online matching platforms can be mitigated by using appropriate market design. I use a quasi-experimental methodology by relying on two interventions designed by the platform to reduce women's cognitive load. The interventions improved the overall well-being of women on platforms. My work here aims to increase awareness on the role platforms needs to play to improve women's well-being while ensuring that online platforms do not unravel. In my third essay, I look at whether the sanctity of institutional norms and traditional markers of status - involvement of multiple stakeholders through parental involvement and social norms related to endogamy and gender roles are retained in online matrimonial platforms. I find that "platformization" leads to institutional unbundling, with outcomes guided by more liberal ethos. This essay extends the platform literature on institutional contexts and shows that transition to online settings may not be seamless. My dissertation thus contributes to the literature on Information Systems by highlighting the need to consider the societal, cultural, and gender norms to further our understanding of the market design and technology adoption in highly institutionalized contexts.en_US
dc.identifierhttps://doi.org/10.13016/6hf6-qgnk
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/26601
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.subject.pqcontrolledInformation technologyen_US
dc.subject.pqcontrolledEconomic theoryen_US
dc.subject.pqcontrolledSocial researchen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledInstitutional Normsen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledMarket Designen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledOnline Matrimonial Platformsen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledOnline Platformsen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledSocial Normsen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledTechnology Adoptionen_US
dc.titleMarriages Made in Silico: Essays on Social Norms, Technology Adoption, and Institutions in Online Matrimonial Matching Platformsen_US
dc.typeDissertationen_US

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
Karmegam_umd_0117E_21087.pdf
Size:
2.44 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Download

Collections

UMD Theses and Dissertations
Decision, Operations & Information Technologies Theses and Dissertations