W hich service occupations are the most susceptible to global disaggregation? What are the factors and mechanisms that make service occupations amenable to global disaggregation? This research addresses these questions by building on previous work by Apte and Mason (1995) and Rai et al. (2006) that focuses on the unbundling of information and physical flows. We propose a theory of service disaggregation and argue that high information intensity makes an occupation more amenable to disaggregation because the activities in such occupations can be codified, standardized, and modularized. We empirically validate our theoretical model using data on more than 300 service occupations. We find that at the mean skill level, the information intensity of an occupation is positively associated with the disaggregation potential of that occupation, and the effect of information intensity on disaggregation potential is mediated by the modularizability of an occupation. We also find that skills moderate the effect of information intensity on service disaggregation.Furthermore, we study the patterns in U.S. employment and salary growth from 2000 to 2004. Contrary to popular perception, we do not find any adverse effect in terms of employment growth or salary growth for high information-intensity occupations at the mean skill level. Our findings show that high-skill occupations have experienced higher employment and salary growth than low-skill occupations at the mean level of information intensity. Notably, high information-intensity occupations that require higher skill levels have experienced higher employment growth, though this employment growth is accompanied by a decline in salary growth. Occupations with a higher need for physical presence have also experienced higher employment growth and lower salary growth. Overall, these results imply that firms and managers need to consider the modularizability of occupations as they reallocate global resources to pursue cost and innovation opportunities. For individual workers, our results highlight the importance of continuous investments in human capital and skill acquisition because high information-intensity and high-skill occupations appear to be relatively less vulnerable to global disaggregation.

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology promises to transform supply chain management. Building on previous research in information systems and supply chain management, this paper proposes a theoretical framework for RFID adoption and benefits, and tests the framework using data on u. s. firms. Our analysis suggests that there is a positive association between information technology (IT) application deployment and RFID adoption. We find that RFID implementation spending and partner mandate are associated with an expectation of early return on RFID investment, and a perceived lack of industry‐wide standards is associated with an expectation of delayed return on RFID investment. These results suggest that firms with broad IT application deployment and a critical mass of RFID implementation spending are more likely to report early returns from RFID deployments. This paper extends previous research to understand the relationship between organization characteristics and adoption and expected benefits of the emerging RFID technology.

spans a number of areas, including the productivity effect of information technology, the role of technology in product development, and the economics of software development. He has consulted extensively with Fortune 1000 companies as a Principal with PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting. His research on information work productivity has been featured in business publications such as Optimize.JONATHAN WHITAKER is a Ph.D. candidate in the Business Information Technology department at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business. Prior to pursuing the Ph.D., he worked ten years in technology strategy consulting and professional services with A.T. Kearney and Price Waterhouse, and earned his MBA at the University of Chicago. Jonathan's primary research focus is the use of information technology to reshape the operating characteristics of firms, with resulting implications for firm performance, vendors, and consumers. He is currently working on several research projects related to onshore and offshore business process outsourcing. His

While the past two decades have produced much promise (and accompanying research) on the use of information technology (IT) in business school courses, it is not entirely clear whether IT has truly 'transformed' management education. There are compelling arguments on both sides. On one hand, advocates for the transformative role of IT can point to several success stories. On the other hand, skeptics on the role of IT in management education can also point to support for their view. This lack of consensus has led researchers in Academy of Management Learning and Education to call for scholars to confront the bias against online education (Redpath, 2012) and engage in serious research on online education (Arbaugh, DeArmond, & Rau, 2013). In this work, we respond to these calls for research by using Adaptive Structuration Theory to develop a conceptual model of three factors that influence the use of IT in business education. We review prior research for each factor and use the conceptual model to identify implications for the design and delivery of business education. Based on the implications, we offer recommendations and recognize challenges for business schools and faculty related to the use of IT in business education. 1 Throughout the paper, we use the term 'information technology' (abbreviation IT) to refer to the overall domain or discipline, and we use the descriptive term 'technology' (or technology tools) to refer to the specific information technologies used in business education. Use of the descriptive term 'technology' is consistent with Adaptive Structuration Theory research on which the conceptual model in this paper is based (DeSanctis & Poole, 1994; Orlikowski, 1992).