Jungpil Hahn

How Do We Understand a System with (So) Many Diagrams? Cognitive Integration Processes in Diagrammatic Reasoning

In order to understand diagrammatic reasoning with multiple diagrams, this study proposes a theoretical framework that focuses on the cognitive processes of perceptual and conceptual integration. The perceptual integration process involves establishing interdependence between relevant system elements that have been dispersed across multiple diagrams, while the conceptual integration process involves generating and refining hypotheses about a system by combining higher-level information inferred from the diagrams. This study applies a diagrammatic reasoning framework of a single diagram to assess the usability of multiple diagrams as an integral part of a system development methodology. Our experiment evaluated the effectiveness and usability of design guidelines to aid problem solving with multiple diagrams. The results of our experiment revealed that understanding a system represented by multiple diagrams involves a process of searching for related information and of developing hypotheses about the target system. The results also showed that these perceptual and conceptual integration processes were facilitated by incorporating visual cues and contextual information in the multiple diagrams as representation aids. Visual cues indicate which elements in a diagram are related to elements in other diagrams; the contextual information indicates how the individual datum in one diagram is related to the overall hypothesis about the entire system.

Why are some diagrams easier to work with? Effects of diagrammatic representation on the cognitive intergration process of systems analysis and design

Various diagrams have been used heavily in systems analysis and design without proper verification of their usability. However, different diagrammatic representations of the same information may vary in the computational efficiency of working with these diagrams. The objective of this research was to explore the effects of diagrammatic representations on the task of integrating multiple diagrams. The domain of systems analysis and design was used to generate examples and test the theory. A cognitive model of diagram integration was proposed, and an experimental study was conducted, both to explore the effects of representa-tional features of diagrams on the cognitive process of diagram integration. Results of the experiment show that the representational features of the diagrams acted as the criteria for selecting among various methods for analyzing and designing the integrated diagram. In addition, the difference in the selected methods resulted in different task performances in terms of analysis and design errors. This article concludes with the implications of the results for the development of cognitively compelling diagrams.

Information Technology Spillover and Productivity: The Role of Information Technology Intensity and Competition

We study interindustry information technology (IT) spillover wherein IT investments made by supplier industries increase the productivity of downstream industries. Using data from U.S. manufacturing industries, we find that industries receive significant IT spillover benefits in terms of total factor productivity growth through economic transactions with their respective supplier industries. More importantly, we find that two characteristics of downstream industries, namely, IT intensity and competitiveness, which have been shown to moderate the effect of internal IT investments, play an important role in IT spillovers as well. Our results suggest that IT intensity as well as competitiveness of the downstream industry moderate the effect of IT spillovers—industries that are more IT intensive and more competitive benefit more from IT spillovers. Finally, our results suggest that the long-term effects of spillovers are greater than short-term effects, suggesting that learning periods are required to reap the benefits from the IT spillovers.

The dynamics of mass online marketplaces: a case study of an online auction

The Internet has dramatically changed how people sell and buy goods. In recent years we have seen the emergence of electronic marketplaces that leverage information technology to create more efficient markets such as online auctions to bring together buyers and sellers with greater effectiveness at a massive scale. Despite the growing interest and importance of such marketplaces, our understanding of how the design of the marketplace affects buyer and seller behavior at the individual level and the market effectiveness at the aggregate level is still quite limited. This paper presents a detailed case study of a currently operational massive scale online auction marketplace. The main focus is to gain initial insights into the effects of the design of the marketplace. The results of the study point to several important considerations and implications not only for the design of online marketplaces but also for the design of large-scale websites where effective locating of information is key to user success.

Knowledge management systems and organizational knowledge processing challenges: A field experiment

This paper investigates the appropriateness of knowledge management system (KMS) designs for different organizational knowledge processing challenges. Building on the theory of task-technology fit (TTF), we argue that different KMS designs are more effective for different knowledge tasks. An exploratory field experiment was conducted in the context of Internet-based knowledge sharing services to provide empirical support for our hypotheses. The results of our experiment show that a KMS designed to support the goal GENERATE is more appropriate for divergent type knowledge problems because of its affordances for iterative brainstorming processes. Conversely, for convergent type knowledge processing challenges, a KMS with the goal CHOOSE that supports the ability to clarify and to analyze is more effective.

The Dynamics of the Performance--Risk Relationship Within a Performance Period: The Moderating Role of Deadline Proximity

Risky organizational decisions are frequently made within the confines of performance periods with predefined durations and deadlines for achieving desired levels of performance. The relationship between performance and risk taking has been studied mostly across such periods but rarely within them. Building on the shifting-focus-of-attention model of organizational risk taking, we argue that the temporal proximity of deadlines regulates the focus of organizational attention within a performance period. Decision makers will focus their attention on attaining and maintaining aspirations early in a period; however, as deadlines approach, decision makers in underperforming firms will increasingly be likely to focus on ensuring survival, whereas decision makers in outperforming firms will increasingly be likely to focus on experimenting with slack resources. We propose that the relationship between performance and risk taking should thus be moderated by deadline proximity within a performance period. We tested and found support for our hypotheses in the context of 22,603 fourth-down decisions made by the 32 National Football League teams during the 2000--2005 regular season games. Our findings suggest that the notion of temporally bound performance periods and deadline proximity should play a more central role in attention-based frameworks of organizational risk taking.

Impact of Social Ties on Open Source Project Team Formation

In this paper, we empirically examined the role of social ties in OSSD team formation and developer joining behavior. We find that the existence and the amount of prior social relations in the network do increase the probability of an OSS project to attract more developers. Interestingly, for projects without preexisting social ties, developers tend to join the project initiated by people with less OSSD experience. This research fills a gap in the open source literature by conducting an empirical investigation of the role of social relations on project team formation behavior. Furthermore, the adoption of social network analysis, which has received little attention in the OSS literature, can yield some interesting results on the interactions among OSS developers.

Designing for ROI: toward a value-driven discipline for e-commerce systems design

E-business management is an on-going process of understanding consumer needs and developing online solutions to meet those needs. To be effective in todays competitive environment of e-commerce, e-businesses cannot afford to neglect justifying the return on investment (ROI) of their online operations. Ideally, companies would like to understand how users are using their Web site and how this translates into value creation (or value leakage) so that online solutions can be implemented to increase business performance. However, the current situation is that such value-driven management is not possible due to the lack of tools and methods that can provide a clear link between systems design and business performance. This paper presents a value-driven systems design methodology for e-commerce Web sites. The focus of our methodology is on identifying value-creating opportunities and value-diminishing problems through the analysis of actual customer Web site usage behaviors through Web usage mining. The identification of value-creating opportunities and value-diminishing problems enables us to plan for designing additional Web site features and for redesigning existing functionalities to increase business performance and maximize design ROI.

Information Foraging in Internet-Based Selling: A System Design Value Assessment Framework

Information foraging theory provides a theoretical perspective for the study of different online consumer purchase behaviors that need to be understood to support a sound basis for the measurement of business value of the design of Web-based applications. In this chapter, we examine the extent to which online consumer purchases are effectively supported through systems design choices in Web-based applications through a series of five classical stages in consumer purchase decision-making. They include need arousal, information search, product evaluation, purchase decision, and post-purchase evaluation. We distinguish between different purchase behavior settings through a framework that identifies purchase decision-making contingencies in the context of three different consumer purchase scenarios: convenience goods, researched goods, and replenishment goods. The different types of purchase scenarios reflect distinctions in terms of the extent of consumer involvement in information processing and evaluation leading up to the purchase decision, and the frequency of repeat purchases. We then illustrate and evaluate the extent to which the framework offers insights into the evaluation of the efficacy of systems design for Internet-based selling with reference to a number of minicases for each of the three types of purchase scenarios. The primary means for assessing the efficacy of the Web-based support in a given setting is the extent to which the consumer is able to achieve high levels of return on information foraging. We also consider differences that may arise between information goods and physical goods, and the Internet-based selling of goods versus services, in general. The results of our analysis suggest a number of new design guidelines for software application development in this area, and provide an initial assessment of the extent to which information foraging theory can be leveraged as a means to understand the referents of systems value.

A cognitive engineering study on the development of an object oriented process modeling formalism

The task of business engineering (BE) would be effective if provided with tools that support the analysis and understanding of a business system. The study aims at: 1) empirically investigating the cognitive processes of analyzing multiple models of the object oriented methodology; 2) identifying the problem solving strategy for understanding a business system; and 3) proposing a modeling formalism that fits the problem solving strategy. The results of this study show that existing object oriented methodologies need to be revised for providing integrated and multi dimensional views of the core business process. We suggest low level use case diagrams and time, cost and quality dimensional message trace diagrams to provide a comprehensive modeling formalism of object oriented business engineering.