Strategic utilization of software patents to counteract rival penetration in the IT industry

Authors: Sunghun Chung, Kunsoo Han, Animesh Animesh and Alain Pinsonneault

Publication: Journal of Strategic Information Systems Volume 33, Issue 1, March 2024, 101820

Abstract:

Impacts of Social Interactions and Peer Evaluations on Online Review Platforms

Authors: Yinan Yu, Warut Khern-am-nuai, Alain Pinsonneault and Zaiyan Wei

Publication: Journal of Management Information Systems Volume 40, Issue 4, December 2023, Pages 1271-1300

The impacts of industry environment on software insourcing, outsourcing, and buying

Authors: Xiaowei Liu, Wen Guang Qu and Alain Pinsonneault

Publication: Industrial Management and Data Systems, Volume 122, Issue 7, June 2022, Pages 1541 - 1559

Purpose:

Digital-enabled strategic agility: it’s time we examine the sensing of weak signals

Authors: Alain Pinsonneault and Inmyung Choi

Publication: European Journal of Information Systems, Forthcoming

Abstract:

Augmenting Password Strength Meter Design using the Elaboration Likelihood Model: Evidence from Randomized Experiments

Authors: Warut Khern-am-nuai, M.J. Hashim, Alain Pinsonneault, W. Yang and N. Li

Publication: Information Systems Research, Forthcoming

Abstract:

Professors Vaast and Pinsonneault awarded 2021 SSHRC Insight Grant

Emmanuelle Vaast, Professor of Information Systems and Alain Pinsonneault, Professor of Information Systems, awarded 2021 SSHRC Insight Grant

Relating agility and electronic integration: The role of knowledge and process coordination mechanisms

Authors: S. Nazir and Alain Pinsonneault Publication: The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, Volume 30, Issue 2, June 2021, 101654 Abstract:

2020 SSHRC Insight Grants awarded

When Paying for Reviews Pays Off: The Case of Performance-Contingent Monetary Rewards

Authors: Y. Yu, Warut Khern-am-nuai and Alain Pinsonneault Publication: MIS Quarterly, Forthcoming Abstract:

When Digital Technologies Enable and Threaten Occupational Identity: The Delicate Balancing Act of Data Scientists

Authors: Emmanuelle Vaast and Alain Pinsonneault Publication: MIS Quarterly, Forthcoming Abstract:

Occupations are increasingly embedded with and affected by digital technologies. These technologies both enable and threaten occupational identity and create two important tensions: they make the persistence of an occupation possible while also potentially rendering it obsolete and they bring about both similarity and distinctiveness of an occupation with regard to other occupations. Based on the critical case study of an online community dedicated to data science, we investigate longitudinally how data scientists address the two tensions of occupational identity associated with digital technologies and reach transient syntheses in terms of “optimal distinctiveness” and “persistent extinction.” We propose that identity work associated with digital technologies follows a composite life-cycle and dialectical process. We explain that people constantly need to adjust and redefine their occupational identity (i.e., how they define who they are and what they do). We contribute to scholarship on digital technologies and identity work by illuminating how people deal in an ongoing manner with digital technologies that simultaneously enable and threaten their occupational identity.

Financial Returns to Firms’ Communication Actions on Firm-Initiated Social Media: Evidence from Facebook Business Pages

Authors: S. Chung, Animesh Animesh, Kunsoo Han and Alain Pinsonneault

Publication: Information Systems Research, Volume 31, Issue 1, March 2020, Pages 258-285.

Abstract:

The primary goal of this study is to investigate the financial returns to firms’ communication actions on a firm-initiated social media platform by focusing on Facebook Business pages. To this end, we conceptualize and quantify two types of firms’ communication actions on social media: posts and responses to customer messages. Furthermore, we classify a firm’s responses to customer messages based on the valence of customer messages—positive versus negative—and examine the effects of volume as well as timeliness of the two types of a firm’s responses to customer messages on firm performance. Using a sample of 63 South Korean firms across industries over a three-year period (5,566 firm-week observations), we find that the volume and timeliness of a firm’s responses to negative customer messages, which are associated with an increase in customer satisfaction, have a significant positive impact on the firm’s market performance measured by abnormal returns and Tobin’s q. Interestingly, the results suggest that a firm’s posts and its responses to positive customer messages are not significantly associated with firm performance. Furthermore, we find that a firm’s posts and its responses to negative customer messages exhibit complementarities in contributing to firm performance. Our results are robust to various alternative specifications, econometric concerns, and Facebook’s policy changes, such as EdgeRank and Promoted Post. Our findings underscore the business value of firms’ actions on social media and provide unique and important implications for theory and practice regarding the appropriate ways to use social media for building and managing customer relationships.

Software Patents and Firm Value: A Real Options Perspective on the Role of Innovation Orientation and Environmental Uncertainty

Authors: S. Chung, Animesh Animesh, Kunsoo Han and Alain Pinsonneault

Publication: Information Systems Research, Volume 30, Issue 3, September 2019, Pages 1073-1097.

Abstract:

Although software patents have been growing steadily since 1996, when the restrictions on the patentability of software were eliminated, their value and impacts on the firm’s profits remain unclear and ambiguous. Drawing on the real options theory and the literature on exploration and exploitation, we develop a novel theoretical framework to assess the value of software patents. Moreover, we examine the impact of contextual factors related to the nature of innovation underlying firms’ patent portfolios (exploitative versus explorative) and the environmental uncertainty (competitiveness and dynamism) on the value of software patents. Specifically, we examine the interaction effect of a firm’s software patent stock and its innovation orientation on firm value in markets exhibiting different levels of environmental uncertainty. Based on a large-panel data set consisting of 602 U.S. firms, our results indicate that a software patent portfolio having higher levels of explorative orientation is associated with a higher firm value (as measured by Tobin’s q) in environments exhibiting low dynamism and high competitiveness. By contrast, a software patent portfolio with higher levels of exploitative orientation is associated with a higher firm value in environments with high dynamism and low competitiveness. We discuss the implications for research and practice.

Sharing is caring: Social support provision and companionship activities in healthcare virtual support communities

Authors: K.-Y. Huang, I. Chengalur-Smith, and Alain Pinsonneault

Publication: MIS Quarterly: Management Information Systems, Volume 43, Issue 2, June 2019, Pages 395-423

Abstract:

Individuals increasingly rely on healthcare virtual support communities (HVSCs) for social support and companionship. While research provides interesting insights into the drivers of informational support in knowledge-sharing virtual communities, there is limited research on the antecedents of emotional support provision and companionship activities in HVSCs. The unique characteristics of HVSCs also justify the need to reexamine members’ voluntary provisions of help in such communities. This paper develops a model that examines the relationships between the structural, relational, and cognitive dimensions of social capital and the provision of informational and emotional support, and engagement in companionship activities in HVSCs. The model is tested based on data generated through an automated method that classifies and analyzes user-generated text in three healthcare virtual support communities (breast, prostate, and colorectal cancer). The results show that all three dimensions of social capital impact the provision of emotional support; both structural and relational capital facilitate engagement in companionship activities; and only cognitive capital enables the provision of informational support. Research and practical implications on the need to facilitate informational and emotional support provision and companionship activities in healthcare virtual support communities are discussed.

What users do besides problem-focused coping when facing IT security threats: An emotion-focused coping perspective

Authors: H. Liang, Y. Xue, Alain Pinsonneault and Y. Wu

Publication: MIS Quarterly: Management Information Systems, Volume 43, Issue 2, June 2019, Pages 373-394

Abstract:

This paper investigates how individuals cope with IT security threats by taking into account both problem-focused and emotion-focused coping. While problem-focused coping (PFC) has been extensively studied in the IT security literature, little is known about emotion-focused coping (EFC). We propose that individuals employ both PFC and EFC to volitionally cope with IT security threats, and conceptually classify EFC into two categories: inward and outward. Our research model is tested by two studies: an experiment with 140 individuals and a survey of 934 respondents. Our results indicate that both inward EFC and outward EFC are stimulated by perceived threat, but that only inward EFC is reduced by perceived avoidability. Interestingly, inward EFC and outward EFC are found to have opposite effects on PFC. While inward EFC impedes PFC, outward EFC facilitates PFC. By integrating both EFC and PFC in a single model, we provide a more complete understanding of individual behavior under IT security threats. Moreover, by theorizing two categories of EFC and showing their opposing effects on users’ security behaviors, we further examine the paradoxical relationship between EFC and PFC, thus making an important contribution to IT security research and practice.

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”.