Myung Ko

Using regression splines to assess the impact of information technology investments on productivity in the health care industry

Abstract.  This paper explores the impact of information technology (IT) investments on productivity using a new technique, multivariate adaptive regression splines (MARS). We believe that it provides additional insights on the nature of the impact of IT investments on productivity. The results from our study are compared with findings from a previous study that has also used the same data set. While the results of a previous study indicate that IT investments have a positive but uniform impact  on  productivity,  our  study  suggests  that  the  impact  of  IT  on  productivity  is not uniform but is contingent on other complementary factors. Our findings describe that the complementary relationship exists between IT and non‐IT related investments. Thus, improved organizational productivity cannot be expected from investment in IT alone but only together with non‐IT investments. Our findings also point out that further investment may not necessarily bring on higher organizational productivity.

Analyzing the impact of information technology investments using regression and data mining techniques

Purpose – Many attempts to justify the business value of increased investments in information technology (IT) have shown mixed results. While findings from earlier studies have been conflicting, recent firm level studies indicate that IT investments have a positive impact on productivity. However, whether IT adds value to organizations is an on going debating issue. Thus, thus it is worth of further investigation.Design/methodology/approach – The paper employs multiple techniques – a regression, regression trees, and regression splines – and integrate the responses provided from each technique.Findings – While IT investments have a positive impact on productivity, the impact is conditional and is not uniform but depends on the amounts invested in other related areas, such as non‐IT labor, non‐IT capital, and/or IT investments.Practical implications – The IT impact on productivity can be maximized when investments in other related areas are considered together than when they are considered in isolation. Th...

Post-retrieval search hit clustering to improve information retrieval effectiveness: Two digital forensics case studies

This research extends text mining and information retrieval research to the digital forensic text string search process. Specifically, we used a self-organizing neural network (a Kohonen Self-Organizing Map) to conceptually cluster search hits retrieved during a real-world digital forensic investigation. We measured information retrieval effectiveness (e.g., precision, recall, and overhead) of the new approach and compared them against the current approach. The empirical results indicate that the clustering process significantly reduces information retrieval overhead of the digital forensic text string search process, which is currently a very burdensome endeavor.

Reexamining the impact of information technology investment on productivity using regression tree and multivariate adaptive regression splines (MARS)

As health care costs increased significantly in the 1990s, investments in information technology (IT) in the health care industry have also increased continuously in order to improve the quality of patient care and to respond to government pressure to reduce costs. Several studies have investigated the impact of IT on productivity with mixed conclusions. In this paper, we revisit this issue and re-examine the impact of investments in IT on hospital productivity using two data mining techniques, which allowed us to explore interactions between the input variables as well as conditional impacts. The results of our study indicated that the relationship between IT investment and productivity is very complex. We found that the impact of IT investment is not uniform and the rate of IT impact varies contingent on the amounts invested in the IT Stock, Non-IT Labor, Non-IT Capital, and possibly time.

Financial Impact of Information Security Breaches on Breached Firms and their Non-Breached Competitors

Information security breaches pose a growing threat to organizations and individuals, particularly those that are heavily involved in e-business/e-commerce. An information security breach can have wide-ranging impacts, including influencing the behaviors of competitors and vice versa within the context of a competitive marketplace. Therefore, there is a need for further exploration of implications of information security breaches beyond the focus of the breached firm. This study investigates the financial impact of publicly announced information security breaches on breached firms and their non-breached competitors. While controlling for size and the industry the firm operates in, the authors focus on specific types of information security breaches Denial of Service, Website Defacement, Data Theft, and Data Corruption. Unlike previous studies that have used event study methodology, the authors investigate information transfer effects that result from information security breaches using the matched sampling method. The study reveals statistically significant evidence of the presence of intra-industry information transfer for some types of security breaches. The authors also found evidence of contagion effects, but no similar evidence concerning competition effect.

The productivity impact of information technology in the healthcare industry: an empirical study using a regression spline-based approach

This paper explores the productivity impact of information technology (IT) in the healthcare industry using a regression spline (RS)-based approach. Application of the RS-based approach offered additional valuable insights that contribute to our understanding of the complex relationship between investments in IT and organizational productivity. For example, the results of this study suggest that investments in the IT Stock has a positive impact on productivity only under certain conditions, and that this impact of IT is not uniform but is conditioned both by the amount invested in the IT Stock and the investments in Non-IT Capital. q 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Revisiting the Impact of Information Technology Investments on Productivity: An Empirical Investigation Using Multivariate Adaptive Regression Splines MARS

This article revisits the relationship between IT and productivity, and investigates the impact on information technology IT investments. Using the MARS techniques, we show that although IT Stock is the greatest predictor variable for productivity Ko, M.; Clark, J.G.; Ko, D.Value Added, it is only significant as an interaction variable, combined with Non-IT Capital, Non-IT Labor, Industry, or Size.

The value of the CIO in the top management team on performance in the case of information security breaches

This study investigates whether presence of a CIO in the top management team (TMT) is an important indicator for better management of information, especially when an organization is involved in an information security breach incident. Using Upper Echelons Theory, our study relates the status of the CIO in an organization to organizational performance in the case of information security breaches using Tobin’s q. We argue that when an organization experiences an information security breach, the organization that has the CIO in the TMT can recover any damages or losses from the security breach incident quicker than the organization that does not. We categorize security breach incidents using the confidentiality, integrity, and availability (CIA) triad (Solomon and Chapple 2005), and conclude that having the CIO in the TMT has a significant positive impact on firm performance in the aftermath of security breach incidents. However, the degree of impact on performance varies, depending on the type of security breach.

The effect of intrinsic and extrinsic quality cues of digital video games on sales: An empirical investigation

Abstract This study examines the effect of product quality cues on sales of digital video games, using signaling theory as a theoretical model. The quality cues are examined from two angles: intrinsic and extrinsic. The intrinsic cues, in this study, include company reputation, newness, and retro features and extrinsic cues include review valence, product popularity, price, and user engagement. Based on a publicly available panel data of 142,590 observations for 5415 digital video games, our empirical results suggest that both intrinsic and extrinsic quality cues affect sales of digital video games. Company reputation of a digital video game, however, does not have a significant effect on sales. Although an overall relationship between price and sales is positive, this is not the case for less popular digital video games. This study provides the implications for IS research and practice.

Exploring a Systematic Approach to Malware Threat Assessment

Security incidents occur at an alarming rate with malicious software (malware) involved in a large number of these incidents. Current malware evaluation and handling practices in organizations are unstandardized and intelligence regarding threat levels often comes from vendors and peers, who lack a unified threat metric system. This paper explores a method to quantify malware threats systematically and proposes a quantitative malware threat metric system. The proposed method makes communicating the level of threat more effective and efficient, particularly for information sharing organizations.