Essays on impact of information technology

The five essays in this dissertation look at how specific information technologies (such as Electronic Document Management (EDM), Semantic Web and RuleML) and IT in general can be used to automate and standardize data and processes, enable faster and more accurate information flow, and improve individual as well as firm performance. The first essay is an analytical review-type study in which we provide a comprehensive survey of research literature about different complementary organizational assets that when coupled with IT can lead to higher firm performance. In the second essay, we study the causal effects of digitizing work on information workers' time- use and performance at a large insurance firm. We make causal inferences and obtain unbiased estimates by exploiting a quasi-experiment: the phased introduction of Electronic Document Management (EDM) across multiple offices at different dates. In addition to large changes in time-use and performance, we find that digitization leads to a decline in the substitutable routine labor input and an increase in complementary non-routine cognitive labor input at the information worker level. We also uncover a new micro-level mechanism, "IT-enabled slack", that explains how exactly IT can lead to payoff in terms of information worker productivity. In the third essay, we examine the IT productivity relationship using a large primary source firm-level dataset about IT investments that spans the 2003-2005 period. Given results from previous studies, we present evidence of an inverted U-shaped returns curve, with returns now close to what they were in pre-Internet era. The fourth essay explores what high-performing firms specifically do to gain the greatest benefits from their IT investments.

Department dc:contributor.department

Sloan School of Management.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2007

Author dc:creator

• Bhansali, Sumit Milap

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Erik Brynjolfsson.

• Sloan School of Management.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/40861

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/40861