Computers and Information Systems

The focus of Information Systems is on business aspects of information technology use and management. The program emphasizes analytic and quantitative tools and techniques from economics, operations research, and decision sciences to address these issues.

The research conducted by the students and faculty has significantly advanced the state of the art in research on information systems in general, and information systems economics, in particular.

Faculty and Research Interests

• Rajiv M. Dewan: His interests include the economics of information management, finance and accounting information systems, high-tech marketing, telecommunications network design, and data management.
• Roy Jones: His interest is in strategy and information technology. He studies markets for information goods and the impact of development costs, and the complexity of the development process on market structure.
• Ravi Mantena: His research explores how the increasing information technology content in products alters competition, strategy and market structure.
• Huaxia Rui: His research interests include the study of social media, online advertising, and securitization. His current research focuses on the patterns of content dissemination on social broadcasting networks (SBN) such as Twitter, and how brands use social media.
• Abraham Seidmann: His interests include flexible manufacturing systems management, corporate information systems, computer control of production systems, and financial information systems development.
• David Tilson: His research interests are the interrelationship between technical standards and industry standards and the impact of mobile and ubiquitous information systems.

Recent Research in Information Systems

Is Software Better Off in the Cloud?

Abraham (Avi) Seidmann

Nowadays, businesses are turning more and more to the use of cloud services. Software applications and services known as software as a service (SaaS) are available online on demand. In this way, SaaS brings corporate users an alternative to modifiable off-the-shelf software (MOTS). A new study by Abraham (Avi) Seidmann, Xerox Professor of Information Systems and Operations Management, and Dan Ma ’03S (MS), ’06 (PhD) of Singapore Management University, shows MOTS packages still have an important role to play. They built a game-theory model to study the competition between SaaS and MOTS. Read more about Software in the Cloud.

Is Good Customer service a popularity contest?

Huaxia Rui, Abraham Seidmann, and Priyanga Gunarathne

Recent research by Simon faculty shows that for customers with a problem to be solved, Twitter is the way to go—as long as they have a lot of followers. In their paper, “Customer Service on Social Media: Do Popularity and Sentiment Matter?” professors Huaxia Rui and Avi Seidmann and doctoral graduate student Priyanga Gunarathne gathered over a half-million tweets sent to and by American Airlines, United Airlines, and Air Canada. Read more about Customer Service on Social Media.

Online Reviews Prove Trustworthy

Huaxia Rui and Susan Lu

A new paper by assistant professors Huaxia Rui and Susan Lu suggests that despite media criticism to the contrary, online physician reviews can be trusted, at least those of cardiac surgeons. The paper, “Can We Trust Online Physician Ratings? Evidence from Cardiac Surgeons in Florida,” is the first to look systematically at the correlation between online ratings and medical performance. Read more about Online Reviews Prove Trustworthy.

Upgrade Intervals Affect Profitability

Abraham Seidmann, Amit Mehra, and Probal Mojumder

In a new paper published by Production and Operations Management Journal, “Product Life Cycle Management of Packaged Software,” Simon professor Abraham Seidmann and co-authors Amit Mehra and Probal Mojumder study the optimal intervals between software upgrades and analyze how these intervals change over a product’s life cycle. Read more about Upgrade Intervals.