Ali Tafti

The Effect of Information Technology--Enabled Flexibility on Formation and Market Value of Alliances

This study investigates the effect of information technology IT architecture flexibility on strategic alliance formation and firm value. We first examine the effect of three dimensions of IT architecture flexibility open communication standards, cross-functional transparency, and modularity on formation of three types of alliances arms-length, collaborative, and joint-venture alliances, respectively. Then, we examine how capabilities in IT flexibility can enhance the value derived from alliances. Our sample includes data from 169 firms that are publicly listed in the United States and that span multiple industries. We find that adoption of open communication standards is associated with the formation of arms-length alliances, and modularity of IT architecture is associated with the formation of joint ventures. We also find that IT architecture flexibility enhances the value of arms-length, collaborative, and joint-venture alliances. The contribution of IT flexibility to value is greater in the case of collaborative alliances than in arms-length alliances. Taken together, these findings suggest that appropriate investments in IT can help to facilitate reconfiguration of resources and modification of processes in collaboration-intensive alliances. This paper was accepted by Ramayya Krishnan, information systems.

Information technology and administrative efficiency in U.S. state governments: a stochastic frontier approach

This paper explores value creation from government use of information technologies (IT). While the majority of studies in the information systems (IS) discipline have focused on discovering IT business value in for-profit organizations, the performance effects of IT in the public sector have not been extensively studied in either the IS or the public administration literature. We examine whether IT improves administrative efficiency in U.S. state governments. Utilizing IT budget data in state governments, the census data on state government expenditures, and a variety of information on public services that states provide, we measure technical efficiency with a stochastic frontier analysis and a translog cost function and estimate the effect of IT spending on efficiency. Our analyses provide evidence for a positive relationship between IT spending and cost efficiency and indicate that, on average, a

Evolution of communication in perfect and imperfect worlds

1 increase in per capita IT budget is associated with

Real-Time Diffusion of Information on Twitter and the Financial Markets

1.13 in efficiency gains. This study contributes to the IS literature by expanding the scope of IT value research to public sector organizations and provides meaningful implications for elected officials and public sector managers.

Do CIO IT Budgets Explain Bigger or Smaller Governments? Theory and Evidence from U.S. State Governments

We extend previous work on cooperation to some related questions regarding the evolution of simple forms of communication. The evolution of cooperation within the iterated Prisoners Dilemma has been shown to follow different patterns, with significantly different outcomes, depending on whether the features of the model are classically perfect or stochastically imperfect (Axelrod, 1980a,b, 1984, 1985; Axelrod and Hamilton, 1981; Nowak and Sigmund, 1990, 1992; Sigmund, 1993). Our results here show that the same holds for communication. Within a simple model, the evolution of communication seems to require a stochastically imperfect world.

Social Networking in the Enterprise

Do spikes in Twitter chatter about a firm precede unusual stock market trading activity for that firm? If so, Twitter activity may provide useful information about impending financial market activity in real-time. We study the real-time relationship between chatter on Twitter and the stock trading volume of 96 firms listed on the Nasdaq 100, during 193 days of trading in the period from May 21, 2012 to September 18, 2013. We identify observations featuring firm-specific spikes in Twitter activity, and randomly assign each observation to a ten-minute increment matching on the firm and a number of repeating time indicators. We examine the extent that unusual levels of chatter on Twitter about a firm portend an oncoming surge of trading of its stock within the hour, over and above what would normally be expected for the stock for that time of day and day of week. We also compare the findings from our explanatory model to the predictive power of Tweets. Although we find a compelling and potentially informative real-time relationship between Twitter activity and trading volume, our forecasting exercise highlights how difficult it can be to make use of this information for monetary gain.

Information Technology and Integration Effects on Merger Value in the U.S. Commercial Banking Industry

Given the recent concern on “big governments” and rising budget deficits in the United States and European nations, there has been a fundamental economic debate on the proper boundary and role of governments in a society. Inspired by this debate, we study the relationship between information technology (IT) and government size. Drawing on a broad range of the literature from multiple disciplines such as information systems, industrial organization, and political sciences, we present several theoretical mechanisms that explain the impact of IT on government expenditures. Using a variety of data on IT spending and state government expenditures, we find that greater IT investments made by a state chief information officer (CIO) are associated with lower state government spending. It is estimated that on average, a

Information Technology, Revenues, and Profits: Exploring the Role of Foreign and Domestic Operations

1 increase in state CIO budgets is associated with a reduction of as much as

Information technology and firm profitability: mechanisms and empirical evidence

3.49 in state overall expenditures. This study contributes to the literature by identifying a key technological factor that affects government spending and showing that IT investments can be a means to restrain government growth. This paper was accepted by Anandhi Bharadwaj, information systems.

How a firm's competitive environment and digital strategic posture influence digital business strategy

Advances in social computing can help firms enhance and leverage internal capabilities, such as knowledge work and collaboration, and seamlessly integrate the vast information resources available on the Internet. Many firms, however, are still developing the practices that will enable them to leverage social networking in the enterprise. The articles in this special issue speak to this need.