<div>Digitization has led to emergence of many platforms-based markets. In this dissertation I focus on three different design problems in these markets. The first essay relates to augmented-reality platforms. Pok\'emon Go, an augmented-reality technology-based game, garnered tremendous public interest upon release with an average of 20 million active daily users. The game combines geo-spatial elements with gamification practices to incentivize user movement in the physical world. This work examines the potential externalities that such incentives may have on associated businesses. Particularly, we study the impact of Pok\'emon Go on local restaurants using online reviews as a proxy for consumer engagement and perception. We treat the release of Pok\'emon Go as a natural experiment and study the post-release impact on the associated restaurants. We find that restaurants located near an in-game artifact do indeed observe a higher level of consumer engagement and a more positive consumer perception as compared with those that have no in-game artifacts nearby. In addition, we find that the heterogeneous characteristics of the restaurants moderate the effect significantly. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to examine the economic implications of augmented-reality applications. Thereby, our research lays the foundations for how augmented-reality games affect consumer economic behavior. This work also builds insights into the potential value of such associations for business owners and policymakers. </div><div><br></div><div>The second essay focuses on the platform design problem in sponsored seaerch ad-market.Recent advances in technology have reduced frictions in various markets. In this research, we specifically investigate the role of frictions in determining the efficiency and bidding behavior in a generalized second price auction (GSP) -- the most preferred mechanism for sponsored search advertisements. First, we simulate computational agents in the GSP setting and obtain predictions for the metrics of interest. Second, we test these predictions by conducting a human-subject experiment. We find that, contrary to the theoretical prediction, the lower-valued advertisers (who do not win the auction) substantially overbid. Moreover, we find that the presence of market frictions moderates this phenomenon and results in higher allocative efficiency. These results have implications for policymakers and auction platform managers in designing incentives for more efficient auctions.</div><div><br></div><div>The third essay is about user-generated content platforms. These platform utilize various gamification strategies to incentivize user contributions. One of the most popular strategy is to provide platform sponsorships like a special status. Previous literature has extensively studied the impact of having these sponsorships user contributions. We specifically focus on the impact of losing such elite status. Once their contributions to the platform reduce in volume, elite users lose status. Using a unique empirical strategy we show that users continue to contribute high quality reviews, even though they lose their status. We utilize NLP to extract various review characteristics including sentiment and topics. Using an empirical strategy, we find that losing status does not modify the topic of the reviews written by the users, on average. </div><div><br></div>

The problem of unit commitment in an electric utility system is analyzed. The types of generating units considered include nuclear-steam, fossil-steam, thermalpeaking, conventional and pumped-storage hydro. The large problem of generating unit commitment, due to the inclusion of the nuclear unit, is decomposed into two stages. In the first stage, the relatively stable nuclear generation is optimized with respect to the generation from the large fossil-steam unit. Hourly generation levels for all the units in the system are determined in the second stage. AS a result of considering the startup-shutdown cost, the objective function has a fixed charge component in addition to first and second degree polynomials. Representation of the minimum turndown level and minimum Shutdown duration of the generator necessitates the use of O-1 variables along with continuous variables. The solution methodology presented here, applying an extension of the Lambda-Separable Programming, can handle these requirements efficiently. Application of the algorithm results in a minimum-cost generation schedule for all units in the system. Optimum generation levels of energy limited units are determined without using a preselected unit commitment order. The effect of startup-shutdown costs on the number of hours a Plant should operate is established. The cost and benefit of spent nuclear fuel reprocessing is analyzed and the effect of uranium prices on it (reprocessing) is shown. The model is tested using a sample system of six generating units. Hourly generation schedules, includig purchase and sale, are determined for two one-week periods while the nuclear generation is optimized for an entire year. / Ph. D.

There is a management revolution in American industry, where many organizations are Switching from the old “control” paradigm to the new paradigm in “high involvement organizations.” Assumptions of the involvement paradigm are employees can make important contributions and are capable of making decisions about their jobs given the right training and information. One characteristic of high involvement organizations is self-managing teams. Self-managing teams have received an increasing amount of attention and research recently in the management literature. Frequently researched areas are the role of the supervisor and outcomes (group and organizational performance) of self-managing teams. One area which has not been well documented is the information teams need to execute the additional responsibilities and decisions they have in a team environment. The purpose of this study is to fill this gap in the literature. This study used the case study method to study how five organizations share information with self-managing teams. The organizations vary in the type of industry (manufacturing and service), the scope of the self-managing team effort (new design, or “greenfield”, and redesign sites), the presence of a union, and in size. Data collection for the case studies included interviews with managers, supervisors, and team members, as well as organizational documentation, and observations. One of the outputs of this research study was detailed case descriptions of each organization. Another output of this study is a list of “design features” for information systems to support self-managing teams. These design features are characteristics of information shared with teams and represent what has worked well for the set of organizations studied. / Master of Science

Evaluation is a vital--yet challenging--part of IS/IT management and governance. The benefits (or lack therefore) associated with IS/IT investments have been widely debated within academic and industrial communities alike. Investments in information technology may or may not result in desirable outcomes. Yet, organizations must rely on information systems to remain competitive. Effective evaluation serves as one pathway to ensuring success. However, despite a growing multitude of measures and methods, practitioners continue to struggle with this intractable problem. Responding to the limited success of existing methods, scholars have argued that academicians should first develop a better understanding of the process of IS/IT evaluation. In addition, scholars have also posited that IS/IT evaluation practice should be tailored to fit a given organization's particular context. Of course, one cannot simply tell practitioners to "be contextual" when conducting evaluations and then hope for improved outcomes. Instead, having developed an improved understanding of the IS/IT evaluation process, researchers should articulate unambiguous guidelines to practitioners. The researcher addressed this need using a multi-phase research methodology. To start, the researcher conducted a literature review to identify and describe the relevant contextual elements operating in the IS/IT evaluation process: the purpose of conducting the evaluation (why); the subject of the evaluation (what); the specific aspects to be evaluated (which); the particular evaluation methods and techniques used (how); the timing of the evaluation (when); the individuals involved in, or affected by, the evaluation (who); and the environmental conditions under which the organization operates (where). Based upon these findings, the researcher followed a modeling-as-theorizing approach to develop a conceptual model of IS/IT evaluation. Next, the conceptual model was validated by applying it to multiple case studies selected from the extant literature. Once validated, the researcher utilized the model to develop a series of methodological guidelines to aid organizations in conducting evaluations. The researcher summarized these guidelines in the form of a checklist for professional practitioners. The researcher believes this holistic, conceptual model of IS/IT evaluation serves as an important step in advancing theory. In addition, the researcher's guidelines for conducting IS/IT evaluation based on organizational goals and conditions represents a significant contribution to industrial practice. Thus, the implications of this study come full circle: an improved understanding of evaluation should result in improved evaluation practices.

The thesis is dealing with the methods of management of an enterprise and its information system. The main goal of this thesis is to depict the ties of those methods. The other goals are derived from the main one. They are structuring management methods and evaluating the appropriateness for managing IT in the small and medium enterprise. The first step for thorough mapping of the ties is structuring the methods into clearly defined approaches. The criteria gained from the systematic approach to enterprise are used for the analysis of the management methods. The mainly used management methods which have the impact on operational activity and distinct innovative character enter the analysis. In the next chapter, the basic ties of the approaches to the department of business informatics, information system and to the methods of business informatics are set. Subsequently the outputs relevant to business informatics management are extracted. The main contribution of the thesis lies in the systematic approach to methods of management which enables further research of ties to information system and its management. The second more concrete contribution lies in basic definition of the conclusions for the needs of business informatics.

This thesis addresses the problem of reactive power scheduling in a power system with several areas controlled by independent transmission system operators (TSOs). To design a fair method for optimizing the control settings in the interconnected multi-TSO system, two types of schemes are developed. First, a centralized multi-TSO optimization scheme is introduced, and it is shown that this scheme has some properties of fairness in the economic sense. Second, the problem is addressed through a decentralized optimization scheme with no information exchange between the TSOs. In this framework, each TSO assumes an external network equivalent in place of its neighboring TSOs and optimizes the objective function corresponding to its own control area regardless of the impact that its choice may have on the other TSOs. The thesis presents simulation results obtained with the IEEE 39 bus system and IEEE 118 bus systems partitioned between three TSOs. It also presents some results for a UCTE-like 4141 bus system with seven TSOs. The decentralized control scheme is applied to both time-invariant and time-varying power systems. Nearly optimal performance is obtained in those contexts.

With the advent of new interactive Internet technologies in government, a move from the transactional loop of electronic government to a more web-like structure of interaction is anticipated for government information systems. It has been argued that that web-like structure of information systems will dictate a new organizational form for government organization. Explored within the dissertation are two primary research questions. The first research question relates to understanding the nature of adoption of new interactive Internet tools in government agencies and whether that adoption differs from the adoption process for transactional systems. To understand the nature of interactive technology adoption, presidential directives, legislation, and laws implementing transactional and interactive information systems are evaluated. Discovered in evaluation are the motivating factors in technology adoption and related technology adoption and organizational outcomes. Accompanying that evaluation is an exploration of the new technologies being used by government agencies as a part of the technology adoption process. To understand the nature of the differences in infrastructure of information systems associated with transactional information technologies and interactive information technologies, a series of case studies were developed. For each case, an exploration of the technology implemented and a map of the Internet architecture for the technology were constructed. Findings suggest that the adoption process and the information system architecture of transactional and interactive technologies are different. Though it is too early in the adoption and implementation process to discern any impacts to the government organization, the technology adoption and implementation is couched in larger organizational theory. Extrapolations are made to address the future form of the government organization and policy outcomes for continued implementation of interactive systems and the organizational impacts are discussed. The second research question relates to the value associated with the implementation of new interactive Internet technologies. To understand any value associated with implementation of technologies, a qualitative assessment of the value conversations within government agencies was conducted, an assessment of citizen value ranking of data was undertaken, and a quantitative analysis of differences in customer service scores given the use of interactive information technologies is conducted. This analysis is triangulated against a historical evaluation of increasing and decreasing scores and an exploration of specific evaluations conducted for interactive technology projects. Findings suggest that that there is value in implementing interactive Internet technologies. However, that signal is weak. A suggestion of research is that evaluation metrics be developed to understand the value of implementing of interactive technologies. Policy suggestions are outlined for technology value evaluation. The concluding outcome of the dissertation is a suggestion of a path forward for interactive Internet technology development in government and an argument for the construct of the emerging organizational structure associated with information organizations. / text

Σε αυτήν τη διπλωματική εργασία θα ασχοληθούμε με την απομακρυσμένη διαχείριση συστημάτων και δικτύων, ως υπηρεσία σ’ ένα μεγάλο δίκτυο όπως το Πανελλήνιο Σχολικό Δίκτυο. Η εργασία αποτυπώνει τους παράγοντες που επηρεάζουν τη διαχείριση των συστημάτων ενός δικτύου και την ανάπτυξη μιας υπηρεσίας απομακρυσμένης κεντρικής διαχείρισης υπολογιστικών συστημάτων σε IP δίκτυα ευρείας περιοχής. Μελετήθηκε η υπάρχουσα αρχιτεκτονική μιας τέτοιας υπηρεσίας, έγινε επανασχεδιασμός και εφαρμογή της. Παράλληλα μελετήθηκαν οι δυνατότητες προσαρμοστικότητας ενός εμπορικού και ενός ανοικτού κώδικα εργαλείου. Στη συνέχεια παρουσιάστηκαν τα αποτελέσματα εφαρμογής και των δύο εργαλείων και έγινε μια συγκριτική μελέτη. Τέλος προτάθηκαν λύσεις ανάπτυξης λογισμικού(agile development) με βάση τις state of the art εξελίξεις της διαχείρισης τέτοιων ομάδων, και πως μπορούν να εφαρμοστούν στην υπηρεσία απομακρυσμένης διαχείρισης και να της δώσουν ένα μακροπρόθεσμο κύκλο ζωής και ανάπτυξης / The object of the thesis is the remote management of systems of a network, as a service at the Greek School Network (GSN). The thesis presents the factors that influence the management of the systems of a network and the development of the central remote system management service via IP networks of wide area. We studied the already status of such a service and then we preceded at the redesign and implementation. We also studied the adaptability of one commercial and one open source tool. The next step is to present the results of the implementation of the above two tools and the compare between them. At the end, we suggested processes of software development, according to the principles of agile development. We presented how these techniques can give long life and support at the service of remote system management.

Since the introduction of computers in to organisations in the 1950s, computer information systems have become powerful organisational instruments. The uptake of information technology including information systems (IS) and the impact of these technologies have been phenomenal, particularly in the least developed countries (LDCs). Organisations in these countries have continued to utilise IS as a development tool with the belief that it will enhance business processes, in many instances accelerated by foreign assistance. IS can have a positive effect on users, organisations and national development, measured economically or otherwise at the individual, organisational, and national levels. Yet IS implementation and the measure of its success is characterised by a high rate of failure and disagreement among scholars and practitioners. The success of organisational IS is influenced by a fabric of many variables, including contextual elements. In this regard IS can be influenced by both the organisational context in terms of strategies, structures, politics and culture, and by the wider political socio-economic, cultural, and technological climate within which organisations exist. Understanding the contributing variables and the barriers that impede IS success, would better prepare organisations to overcome the inherent difficulties. There is a large body of work documenting the usefulness and consequences of IS. However, these studies have been concentrated in the developed countries (DCs), hence, little is known about IS implementation in LDCs. DCs and LDCs differ in their contextual and social settings, and a uniform analysis may not be applicable in their disparate settings. Indeed the paucity of research and data in the IS domain indicates that the study would benefit an LDC such as Papua New Guinea (PNG) and contribute to knowledge in understanding IS implementation in an LDC environment. This thesis reports on a study that examined IS implementation success in PNG organisations in the context of an LDC. Computers were introduced to PNG in the 1960s, however, no studies have been undertaken to date in this domain that the author is aware of. Hence, the objective of this study was to provide detailed analysis of IS, the context in which it was implemented, its interaction with organisational and external settings, and elicit the underlying elements associated with its success. It also explores the emphasis placed on each of the elements and the extent to which organisations effectively addressed these elements to ensure IS success. The exploratory study employs a multi method design - beginning in Stage 1 with case studies, followed by a survey in Stage 2. Stage 1 adopted a multiple case study approach. Eight case studies were undertaken, however, results of only four case studies are reported in this thesis. Data obtained in the case studies provide a useful basis for the survey. The study in Stage 2 consolidated and expanded on the case study findings from the perspective of a wider population. All the organisations contacted but not involved in the Stage 1 study contributed by participating in the survey. The study identified more than fifty elements that contributed to the success of IS in PNG organisations. There were significant similarities to the findings of studies in other DCs and LDCs despite the disparate contextual conditions. Several elements, not identified in prior studies, were also revealed. Based on this study, a set of principles pertaining to IS implementation and management in PNG were postulated. Similarly a set of recommendations were also outlined.

Thesis (MPhil (Information Science))--University of Stellenbosch, 2010. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The past decade has seen a huge increase in the implementation and use of Electronic document and records management systems (EDRMS) in many public spheres. The South African government, in this case the Presidency, has now also adopted this system to comply with current legislation requiring government institutions to replace paper with electronic media as the preferred way of conducting their official business. In general, and as is evident from the available literature, it seems that Government organisations have been lagging behind in this regard. The failure to reap the expected benefits from this step by government institutions such as the Presidency forms the basis for this investigation, which examines the failures and successes in the implementation of an EDRMS and the factors affecting this process. The study used triangulation approach in order to arrive at a more reliable conclusion. Literature research has been used as a main data collection method for this study. It also serves as a basis for the approaches to subject matter that have been adopted. Data was also collected by conducting semi –structured interviews with government institutions, including the subject of this research, that have implemented EDRMS. The critical factors that have had an effect on the implementation of EDRMS were found to be of a strategic, social and technical nature. The study also found similarities in the factors affecting EDRMS implementation within government and identifies the need for further research focusing on how these factors differ between various types of organisations. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die afgelope dekade was daar ‘n ontsaglike toename in die instelling en toepassing van elektroniese dokument- en rekordbestuurstelsels (EDRMS) op talle openbare terreine. Die Suid-Afrikaanse regering, in hierdie geval die kantoor van die Staatspresident, het nou ook hierdie stelsel aangeneem om te voldoen aan huidige wetgewing wat staatsinstellings verplig om papier te vervang met elektroniese media as die aanbevole manier om hulle amptelike besigheid te bedryf. Oor die algemeen, en soos dit ook blyk uit die beskikbare bronne, lyk dit egter asof regeringsinstansies agter geraak het wat dit betref. Die feit dat die verwagte voordele van hierdie stap nie deur staatsinstansies soos die Presidensie benut is nie, vorm die grondslag vir hierdie ondersoek, wat die prestasies en weiering wat gepaard gaan met die instelling van `n EDRMS en die faktore wat hierdie proses affekteer van nader beskou. Navorsing van die literatuur is gebruik as die belangrikse datainsamelingmetode vir hierdie ondersoek. Dit dien ook as die basis vir die manier waarop die onderwerpmateriaal benader is. Data is ook ingesamel van staatsinstansies wat `n EDRMS ingestel het, soos die instansie wat hier bestudeer word. Die kritiese faktore wat ‘n invloed gehad het op die instel van `n EDRMS het geblyk van `n strategiese, sosiale en tegnies aard te wees. Die ondersoek het ook ooreenkomste gevind in die faktore wat die instel van `n EDRMS in die regering affekteer en indentifiseer ook die behoefte aan verdere navorsing wat gerig is op hoe hierdie faktore van organisasie tot organisasie verskil.