Extrinsic versus Intrinsic Rewards for Contributing Reviews in an Online Platform

Authors: Warut Khern-am-nuai, Karthik Kannan, Hossein Ghasemkhani

Publication: Information Systems Research, Forthcoming

Abstract: 

Firms have considered various forms of incentives for writing reviews, including the use of extrinsic rewards to attract reviewers. Building on this literature, we study the implications of monetary incentives on online reviews in the context of a natural experiment, where one review platform suddenly began offering monetary incentives for writing reviews. We refer to this as the treated platform. Along with data from Amazon.com and using the difference-in-differences approach, we compare the quantity and quality of reviews before and after rewards were introduced in the treated platform. We find that reviews are significantly more positive but that the quality decreases. Taking advantage of the panel data, we also evaluate the effect of rewards on existing reviewers. We find that their level of participation after monetary incentives decreases but not their quality of participation. Last, even though the platform enjoys an increase in the number of new reviewers, disproportionately more reviews appear to be written for highly rated products.

Read abstract: Information Systems Research

Developing a gamified mobile application to encourage sustainable energy use in the office

Authors: Divinus Oppong-Tawiah, Jane Webster, Sandy Staples, Ann-Frances Cameron, Ana Ortiz de Guinea, Tam Y. Hung

Publication: Journal of Business Research, Forthcoming

Abstract: 

Welcoming the next wave of management researchers

The Desautels Faculty of Management welcomed its new cohort of PhD students at a lunch reception in September organized by the Desautels Doctorate Student Society (DDSS).

This year’s cohort totals 65 students (26 women, 39 men) who originate from 16 countries across the world.

Meet the 2018 incoming PhD cohort

EMBA program celebrates a decade of impact

Ten years ago, leadership from the Desautels Faculty of Management and HEC Montréal took up the ambitious challenge of joining forces to launch the McGill-HEC Montreal EMBA program.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Take a look back on how the EMBA program has evolved and the strides made since its founding.

Read more

Professor Faraj awarded six research recognitions

Over summer 2018, Professor Samer Faraj received six recognitions for the excellence of his completed and forthcoming research.

In recognition of his published research with students and collaborators, Professor Faraj was presented with the following:

Alain Pinsonneault Awarded 2018 SSHRC Insight Grant

Congratulations to Alain Pinsonneault, Professor in Information Systems, awarded the 2018 SSHRC Insight Grant “The impact of explorative and exploitive use of information technology on individual performance”.

Jui Ramaprasad and Alain Pinsonneault awarded 2018 SSHRC Insight Grant

Congratulations to Jui Ramaprasad, Associate Professor of Information Systems, and Alain Pinsonneault, Professor of Information Systems, awarded the 2018 SSHRC Insight Grant “Examining Value Creation in the Digital Economy: A Platform Engagement Perspective”.

Karla Sayegh Receives Best Student Paper Award for her Thesis Work at OBHC Conference

Karla Sayegh, PhD Student in Strategy & Organization, received the best student paper award for her thesis work at the 11th International Organizational Behaviour in Health Care (OBHC) Conference held in Montreal from May 13 –16, 2018.  

Professor Kartik Ganju's paper selected as Featured Article in Management Science

Assistant Professor in Information Systems Kartik Ganju's paper "The Spillover Effects of Health IT Investments on Regional Healthcare Costs," with co-authors Hilal Atasoy and Pei-yu Chen was selected by the Managing Editor of Management Science as one of the Featured Articles for the June 2018 issue.

Professor Emmanuelle Vaast received Best Paper Award in Academy of Management Annals

Professor Emmanuelle Vaast's paper published in the Academy of Management Annals, "Social Media and Their Affordances for Organizing: A Review and Agenda for Research," with Paul M. Leonardi were co-winners for the Best Paper Award for Volume 11 (2017).

The mission of Annals is to publish up-to-date, in-depth and integrative reviews of research advances in management.

How to maximize innovation at work

Recent research co-authored by Professor Alain Pinsonneault has shown that giving people time and resources to pursue innovation projects can produce extraordinary outcomes — but only if organizations match their “slack strategy” to employee type.

2017‐18 Desautels Distinguished Teaching Award for Undergraduate and Graduate teaching

The Desautels Faculty of Management is pleased to announce that Professor Desmond Tsang and Professor David Schumacher have been selected as recipients of the 2017‐18 Desautels Distinguished Teaching Award for Undergraduate and Graduate teaching, respectively.

From Placebo to Panacea: Studying the Diffusion of IT Management Techniques with Ambiguous Efficiencies - The Case of Capability Maturity Model (CMM)

Authors: Saeed Akhlaghpour, Liette Lapointe

Publication: Journal for the Association of Information Systems, Forthcoming

Abstract:

The Effects of Asymmetric Social Ties, Structural Embeddedness and Tie Strength on Online Content Contribution Behavior

Authors: Rishika Rishika and Jui Ramaprasad

Publication: Management Science, Forthcoming

Abstract:

For a social media community to thrive and grow, it is critical that users of the site interact with each other and contribute content to the site. We study the role of social ties in motivating user preference expression, a form of user content contribution, in an online social media community. We examine the role of three types of ties, reciprocated, follower and followee ties, and assess whether the structural and relational properties of a user’s social network moderate the social influence effect in user contribution. A unique disaggregate level panel dataset of users’ contributions and social tie formation activities from an online music platform is employed to study the impact of social ties. To address identification issues, we adopt a quasi-experimental approach based on dynamic propensity score matching. The results provide strong evidence of the influence of online network ties in online contribution behavior. We find that the influence of reciprocated ties is the greatest, followed by influence from followee ties and then follower ties. Additional analysis reveals that reciprocated and followee ties have even greater influence when they contribute new information for a focal user. Structural embeddedness and tie strength among network ties are found to amplify the effect of social contagion in online contribution. We conduct several sensitivity and robustness checks that lend credible support to our findings. The results add to the greater understanding of social influence in online contribution and provide valuable managerial insights into designs of online communities to enable greater user participation.

Love Unshackled: Identifying the Effect of Mobile App Adoption in Online Dating

Authors: JaeHwuen Jung, Ravi Bapna, Jui Ramaprasad and Akhmed Umyarov

Publication: MIS Quarterly, Forthcoming

Abstract:

The proliferation of smartphones and other mobile devices has led to numerous companies investing significant resources in developing mobile applications, in every imaginable domain. As apps proliferate, understanding the impact of app adoption on key outcomes of interest and linking this understanding to the the underlying mechanisms that drive these results is imperative. In this paper, we explore the changes in user behavior induced by adoption of a mobile application, in terms of engagement and matching outcomes in the online dating context. We also identify three mechanisms that are somewhat unique to the mobile environment, but are hitherto unestablished in the literature, that drive this shift in behavior – ubiquity, impulsivity and disinhibition. Our main identification strategy uses propensity score matching combined with difference-in-differences, coupled with a rigorous falsification test to confirm the validity of our identification strategy. Our results demonstrate that mobile app adoption induces users to become more socially engaged as measured by key engagement metrics such as visiting significantly more profiles, sending significantly more messages, and importantly, achieving more matches. We also discover various mechanisms facilitating this increased engagement: ubiquity of mobile use – users login more, and login across wider range of hours in the day. We find that men act more impulsively, in that they are less likely to check the profile of a user who messaged them before replying to them. This effect is not visible for women who continue to be deliberate in their checking before replying even after adoption of the mobile app. Finally, we find that both men and women exhibit disinhibition, in that users initiate actions to a more diverse set of potential partners than they did before on dimensions of race, education and height.