Recent studies on the business impacts of information technology (IT) have examined these impacts in the context of either other organizational resources or contingency factors. In this study we integrate these perspectives to develop a contingent interaction model. This model examines how a firm’s IT investment interacts differently with resources focusing on creating value (i.e., R&D) and resources focusing on value appropriation (i.e., advertising), depending on the environmental turbulence in the firm’s industry. The results indicate that a firm’s IT interacts differently with other organizational resources depending on (a) the resource’s focus on value creation through innovation or value appropriation in the market; and (b) the extent of turbulence in the firm’s industry. Thus, managers should consider IT’s interactions with other resources while making IT investments. In turbulent and stable environments, managers should seek ways to use IT to complement R&D investments and advertising investments, respectively. Managers should also recognize that IT may erode some of the benefits of R&D and advertising investments in stable and turbulent environments, respectively. They should therefore exercise caution when making concurrent investments in IT and R&D in stable environments and exercise similar caution when making concurrent investments in IT and advertising in turbulent environments.
The dynamic information technology (IT) market—characterized by frequent new releases, designs, and changing options—requires senior IT executives to look closely at new technologies while deriving long-term benefits from the firm’s current technologies. This study focuses on the allocation of IT resources to new or current technologies, which is becoming even more important with tighter IT budgets. The results indicate that a joint consideration of a firm’s core business strategy and organizational commitment to IT provides insights into whether the firm should emphasize new IT or current IT when allocating IT investments. With an increase in organizational commitment to IT, firms pursuing stable products/markets (i.e., Defender(s)) benefit more from current IT, whereas firms seeking new products/markets (i.e., Prospector(s)) benefit more from new IT. Finally, for firms seeking some stable products/markets and some new ones (i.e., Analyzer(s)), organizational commitment to IT does not influence the benefits from emphasizing new or current IT. This study initiates a line of inquiry on the factors influencing the value firms derive from new and current IT. Senior IT executives should carefully examine their firm’s business strategy and organizational commitment to IT when prioritizing investments in new IT relative to the refinement of current IT.
Abstract. Social media platforms serve as important tools for diffusing knowledge within organizations. The factors affecting knowledge diffusion through social media networks (SMNs) need to therefore be better understood. Accordingly, this paper focuses on two SMN-specific characteristics -reputation mechanisms and the distribution of knowledge roles -which are argued to enhance and enable, respectively, the smooth transfer of knowledge in a SMN. To examine their effects, we distinguish between two types of reputation mechanisms -adaptive and objective -and across three distinct knowledge roles in SMNs: seekers, contributors and brokers. We argue that the extent of knowledge diffusion in the SMN depends on the type of mechanism and the relative distribution of these three roles. Using data collected through an agent-based simulation, we find that (a) the distribution of knowledge roles affects knowledge diffusion, with distributions consisted of more brokers outperforming others and (b) objective reputation mechanisms outperform adaptive mechanisms. Furthermore, we find that reputation mechanisms and distribution of knowledge roles interact to influence knowledge diffusion. The study's implications for future research and practice are discussed in the light of its limitations.
Firms are increasingly turning to social media platforms for complaint handling. Past research and practitioners’ reports highlight the benefits of complaint handling on social media, urging firms to provide prompt and detailed responses to complaints. However, little research has explored the possible drawbacks of such practices, especially when responses inadvertently further publicize complaints. Utilizing two unique data sets in a series of observational and quasi-experimental analyses, this research provides the first evidence of complaint publicization in social media, a phenomenon in which firm responses to complaints on popular social media platforms increase the potential public exposure of complaints. This negative effect can outweigh any positive customer care-signaling impact from firm responses. The authors show that a response strategy that engenders a high level of complaint publicization – e.g., providing detailed responses through multiple communication exchanges with a complainant – could negatively impact perceived quality and firm value, diminish the positive impact of a firm’s own posts, and increase the volume of future complaints. Additional analyses reveal that these adverse impacts are stronger for firms that are targeted by retail investors. The authors also uncover specific response strategies and styles that could mitigate these effects.
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