Eric Shih

IT diffusion in developing countries

Policymakers need to recognize that developing economies have different drivers for IT investment than their wealthier brethren.

Research Note: Determinants of Country-Level Investment in Information Technology

Investment in information technology (IT) is an important driver of economic growth and productivity in the United States and other developed countries, but as yet it is not shown to be a significant driver in developing countries. Previous research suggests that IT investment and complementary assets are insufficient for developing countries to realize economic benefits. This research note examines the factors that influence IT investment in developed and developing countries to determine how greater investment might be stimulated to achieve productivity gains. We use the flexible accelerator model of investment and find that it is a good predictor of country-level IT investment. We also extend the model to include country-level variables, and find a negative relationship between IT investment and interest rates, but positive and significant relationships between investment, openness to trade, and telecommunications infrastructure. When we include interaction effects between national income levels and country variables, we find that the impacts of interest rates, size of the financial sector, teledensity, and intellectual property rights are strongest in shaping IT investment for developed countries. In contrast, we find that the impact of openness to trade is greater for developing countries, as is the size of government and education levels.

Information technology and productivity in developed and developing countries

Previous research has found that information technology (IT) investment is associated with significant productivity gains for developed countries but not for developing countries. Yet developing countries have continued to increase their investment in IT rapidly. Given this apparent disconnect, there is a need for new research to study whether the investment has begun to pay off in greater productivity for developing countries. We analyze new data on IT investment and productivity for 45 countries from 1994 to 2007, and compare the results with earlier research. We find that upper-income developing countries have achieved positive and significant productivity gains from IT investment in the more recent period as they have increased their IT capital stocks and gained experience with the use of IT. We also find that the productivity effects of IT are moderated by country factors, including human resources, openness to foreign investment, and the quality and cost of the telecommunications infrastructure. The academic implication is that the effect of IT on productivity is expanding from the richest countries into a large group of developing countries. The policy implication is that lower-tier developing countries can also expect productivity gains from IT investments, particularly through policies that support IT use, such as greater openness to foreign investment, increased investment in tertiary education, and reduced telecommunications costs.

How banner ads can be effective: investigating the influences of exposure duration and banner ad complexity

This research examines the impacts of exposure duration and banner ad complexity on advertising persuasion in a web advertising environment. Processing fluency is used to explain the underlying process that occurs among consumers during exposure to advertisements, and refers to the ease of stimulus encoding and processing that is facilitated by prior exposure to a banner ad. Based on previous studies (e.g. Reber et al. 1998), this research used a priming phase and a testing phase, in which respondents viewed two banner ads for the same brand. A banner ad presented in the priming phase facilitates viewer processing of a target banner ad in the testing phase due to processing fluency. The findings show that, when a banner ad is difficult to process in the priming phase, increasing the duration of exposure to the ad in the priming phase causes a linear increase in respondent attitudes towards the target ad and brand in the testing phase. When the priming banner ad is moderately difficult to process, increasing the exposure duration in the priming phase first increases, and then decreases, respondent attitudes towards the target ad and brand (an inverted-U pattern) in the testing phase. When the priming banner ad is easy to process, increasing the exposure duration in the priming phase first decreases, and then increases, respondent attitudes towards the target ad and brand (a U pattern) in the testing phase.

Teaching Design Thinking in Marketing: Linking Product Design and Marketing Strategy in a Product Development Class:

Design thinking refers to the implementation of a firm’s design philosophy into design processes and outputs. This article introduces two design thinking approaches—user-centered design and design-driven innovation—that frame product design activities and show how these approaches can be incorporated into marketing curricula. The aim of this article is to show how marketing educators can help students appreciate and understand the processes and consequences of developing new products using different design thinking approaches. First, an experiment is conducted to examine the effect of design thinking approaches (user-centered design, design-driven innovation) on design and marketing outcomes (perceived originality, perceived usefulness, and perceived value). Second, based on the results of the study, the article develops a step-by-step guide on how to execute a design thinking module in a product-oriented marketing course.

Glucose Depletion and Decision Making: An Examination of Choice in Context

This paper investigates the idea of an energy model which suggests that the mind requires energy resource when making effortful decisions. In particular, we hypothesize that ingestion of sugar provides the body with glucose as fuel for the brain, and this can reduce reliance on intuitive, heuristic-based decision making. In three experiments, we tested this hypothesis on three types of choices in context, namely reference dependence, attraction, and compromise effect. Participants completed a choice task after drinking lemonade sweetened with either sugar (glucose condition) or Splenda (placebo condition). The results showed that participants who drank lemonade with sugar made more choices that were consistent with using deliberative thinking processes.