Current Research Focus
Digital Transformation and Local Market Structure
- Analyzing consumer debt management strategies in the era of fintech (e.g., the impact of local financial market structure on peer-to-peer platform borrowers).
- Business value of physical stores in omnichannel retailing.
- Welfare impact of Internet usage on local product variety and its interaction with market structure and demographics.
Digital Traces
- Harnessing the promise of digital traces (e.g., role of digital traces in AI-assisted shopping).
- Measuring and quantifying geographic divide in information consumption.
- Economics of geography-conscious recommendation systems.
Crowdsourcing and the Sharing Economy
- The impact of sharing economy activities on wealth creation and employment shifts.
- Generating competitive intelligence from crowdsourced information (e.g., Yelp reviews).
Publications
Publications
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Where You Live Matters: Local Bank Competition, Online Marketplace Lending, and Disparity in Borrower Benefits, with M. Alyakoob and Z. Wei, Information Systems Research forthcoming.
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Shared Prosperity (or Lack Thereof) in the Sharing Economy, with M. Alyakoob, Information Systems Research forthcoming.
- Crowd-Driven Competitive Intelligence: Understanding the Relationship between Local Market Structure and Online Rating Distributions, with D. Gutt and P. Herrmann, Information Systems Research 30(3) 711-1105, 2019.
- Proximity to a Traditional Physical Store: The Effects of Mitigating Online Disutility Costs, with B. Nault, Production and Operations Management 28(4) 1033-1051, 2019.
- Avoid These Five Digital Retailing Mistakes, with P. De and Y. Hu. . MIT Sloan Management Review Frontiers, Digital Edition, January, 2018.
- Economic and Policy Implications of Restricted Patch Distribution, with K. Kannan and M. Tawarmalani, Management Science 62(11) 3161-3182, 2016.
- An Internet-Enabled Move to the Market in Logistics, with F. Gong and B. Nault, Information Systems Research 27(2) 440-452, 2016.
- Beating Irrationality: Does Delegating to IT Alleviate the Sunk Cost Effect?, with P. Herrmann and D. Kundisch. Management Science 61(4) 831-850, 2015.
- Online Intermediary as a Channel for Selling Quality Differentiated Services, with M. T. Ackura and Z. Ozdemir. Decision Sciences 46(1) 37-62, 2015.
- Product-Oriented Web Technologies and Product Returns: An Exploratory Study, with P. De and Y. Hu. Information Systems Research 24 (4) 998–1010, 2013.
- Competing in the Age of Omnichannel Retailing, with E. Brynjolfsson and Y. Hu. MIT Sloan Management Review 54(4) 23-29, 2013 (Summer 2013 Featured Cover Article).
- Technology Usage and Online Sales: An Empirical Study, with P. De and Y. Hu. Management Science 56(11) 1930-1945, 2010.
- Battle of the Retail Channels: How Product Selection and Geography Drive Cross-channel Competition, with E. Brynjolfsson and Y. Hu. Management Science 55(11) 1755-1765, 2009 (Lead Article and Focus of INFORMS press release on November 18, 2009).
Working Papers
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The Effects of Sister-Store Presence and Market Competition on Product Assortment: Evidence from Book Retailing, with T. Chen, Y. Hu, and J. Sun.
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IT Centralization, IT Portfolio Similarities, and Cross-Unit IT Synergies, with T. Havakhor and P. Setia.
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Disclosure of Cybersecurity Investments and the Cost of Capital, with T. Havakhor and T. Zhang.
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Big Data, Retail Investors, and Financial Markets, with T. Havakhor, T. Zhang, and C. Zhu.
Research in Progress
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Implications of Priority Access in Markets with Experts: Evidence from Online Marketplace Lending, with M. Alyakoob and A. Mahalingam.
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Online Reputations and Market Power, with M. Alyakoob and F. Rossi.
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Not-so-Dumb Money: Beating the Competition with Talent Acquisition, with T. Havakhor.
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Website Engagements and Advertisements, with W. Kar.
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The Impact of IT Usage on the Evolution of a Decision Bias: An Empirical Study, with P. Herrmann and D. Kundisch.
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Physical Stores in the Age of Omnichannel Retailing, with B. Nault.
Other Publications
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Digital Economy and Technology Adoption: A Research Commentary, Industry Canada, Government of Canada. 2013.
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Do All Product-Oriented Web Technologies Reduce Product Returns?, with P. De and Y. Hu. ISB Insight 10(1), 2012.
Grants
- Adobe Digital Marketing Award ($50,000), (co-applicant with W. Kar) 2020.
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Trask Trust Fund ($21,218), 2019.
- Adobe Digital Marketing Award ($50,000), (co-applicant with W. Kar) 2017.
- NSF I-Corps Grant ($50,000), 2017.
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SSHRC Insight Grant ($97,397), (co-applicant with W. Jabr), 2013.
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SSHRC SRG Grant ($85,547), 2011.
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SSHRC Development Grant ($1,000), University of Calgary, 2010.
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Dean's Research Publication Award ($20,000), Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary, 2009, 2010, 2013.
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Internal Awards ($17,855), University of Calgary, 2009.
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Dean's Research Grant ($40,000), Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary, 2008.
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Purdue Research Foundation (PRF) Dissertation Research Grant for the 2007-2008 Academic Year ($18,000).
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2002 Research Institute for the Study of Man (RISM)/Landes Supervised Fieldwork Grant ($5,000), RISM, New York. (Supervisor: K. Ward, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL).
Conference Presentations/ Proceedings
Presentations/Proceedings
- 2018-2020
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Implications of Priority Access in Markets with Experts: Evidence from Online Marketplace Lending, with M. Alyakoob and A. Mahalingam, International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), India, 2020.
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Cybersecurity Investments and the Cost of Capital, with T. Havakhor, T. Zhang, Workshop on the Economics of Information Security (WEIS), Brussels, 2020.
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Implications of Priority Access in Markets with Experts: Evidence from Online Marketplace Lending, with M. Alyakoob and A. Mahalingam, Third Toronto Fintech Conference, Toronto, 2020. [Best PhD paper award winner].
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Big Data and Noise Trading: Evidence from a Natural Experiment, with T. Havakhor, T. Zhang, and C. Zhu, Statistical Challenges in Electronic Commerce Research (SCECR), Madrid, Spain, 2020.
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Shared Prosperity (or Lack Thereof) in the Sharing Economy, with M. Alyakoob, NBER Economics of Digitization Meeting, Stanford, 2020.
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How Does Big Data Impact Small Investors' Decision Quality? Evidence from a Natural Experiment, with T. Havakhor, T. Zhang, and C. Zhu, Workshop on Information Systems Economics (WISE), Munich, Germany, 2019.
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How Does Big Data Impact Small Investors' Decision Quality? Evidence from a Natural Experiment, with T. Havakhor, T. Zhang, and C. Zhu, Conference on Digital Experimentation (CODE), Cambridge, MA, 2019.
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Not-so-Dumb Money: Beating the Competition with Talent Acquisition, with T. Havakhor, Conference on Information Systems and Technology (CIST), Seattle, 2019.
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Not Knowing What to Do With or Without Machine Intelligence: Evidence from a Natural Experiment Involving Retail Investors, with T. Havakhor, T. Zhang, and C. Zhu, Conference on Information Systems and Technology (CIST), Seattle, 2019.
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Not-so-Dumb Money: Beating the Competition with Talent Acquisition, with T. Havakhor, Statistical Challenges in Electronic Commerce Research (SCECR), Hong Kong, 2019.
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Shared Prosperity (or Lack Thereof) in the Sharing Economy, with M. Alyakoob, Workshop on Information Systems Economics (WISE), San Francisco, 2018.
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Airbnb: Is it a Curse or a Blessing for Restaurant Employment with M. Alyakoob, International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), San Francisco, 2018.
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Shared Prosperity (or Lack Thereof) in the Sharing Economy, with M. Alyakoob, Conference on Information Systems and Technology (CIST), Phoenix, AZ, 2018.
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The Power of a few “Superstar” Reviews: Empirical Evidence and a Quasi-Natural Field Experiment on Amazon, with W. Jabr, Conference on Information Systems and Technology (CIST), Phoenix, AZ, 2018.
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Sharing Economy as a Local Economic Engine: The Heterogeneous Impact of Airbnb on Restaurant Employment Growth, with M. Alyakoob, Sixth Annual Platform Research Symposium, Boston, 2018.
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When Enough Ad is Enough: Who Tolerates and Who Doesn't?, with W. Kar, 40th Annual ISMS Marketing Science Conference, Philadelphia, 2018.
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Shared Prosperity (or Lack Thereof) in the Sharing Economy, with M. Alyakoob, Statistical Challenges in Electronic Commerce Research (SCECR), Rotterdam, Netherlands, 2018.
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- 2013-2017
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Where You Live Matters: The Impact of Local Financial Market Competition in Managing Online Peer-To-Peer Loans, with M. Alyakoob and Z. Wei, Conference on Information Systems and Technology (CIST), Houston, TX, 2017.
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Geography and the Rise of FinTech: Evidence from Peer to Peer Lending, with M. Alyakoob and A. Mahalingam, The First Toronto Annual FinTech Conference, Ontario, Canada, 2017.
- Where You Live Matters: The Impact of Local Financial Market Competition on a Borrower’s Debt Management Strategies, with M. Alyakoob and Z. Wei, Third Workshop on Marketplace Innovation, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 2017.
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Where You Live Matters: The Impact of Local Financial Market Competition on a Borrower’s Debt Management Strategies, with M. Alyakoob and Z. Wei, Boulder Summer Conference on Consumer Financial Decision Making, Boulder, CO, 2017.
- To Prepay or Default? The Impact of Local Financial Market Competition in Online Debt Crowdfunding, with M. Alyakoob and Z. Wei, POMS 28th Annual Conference (POMS), Seattle, WA, 2017.
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To Prepay or Default? The Role of Local Financial Market Competition in Online Peer-to-Peer Lending, With M. Alyakoob and Z. Wei, Workshop on Information Systems Economics (WISE), Dublin, Ireland, 2016.
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Choice of IT Governance Mode in Multi Business Firms: The Effect of Technology Embeddedness, with T. Havakhor and P. Setia, Conference on Information Systems and Technology (CIST), Nashville, TN, 2016.
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Crowd-Driven Competitive Intelligence: Understanding the Relationship between Local Market Structure and Online Rating Distributions, with D. Gutt and P. Herrmann, INFORMS Annual Meeting 2016 (co-author presented), Nashville, TN, 2016.
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Crowd-Driven Competitive Intelligence: Understanding the Relationship between Local Market Structure and Online Rating Distributions, with D. Gutt and P. Herrmann, NBER Summer Workshop on Economics of IT and Digitization, Boston, 2016.
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The Hunt for Quality in a Market: Exploring the Relationship between Local Market Structure and Digitized Customer Experience, with P. Herrmann, Workshop on Information Systems Economics (WISE), Auckland, New Zealand, 2014.
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The Hunt for Quality in a Market: Exploring the Relationship between Local Market Structure and Digitized Customer Experience, with P. Herrmann, Workshop on e-Business (WeB), Auckland, New Zealand, 2014.
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What is the Relationship between Market Structure and Digitized Customer Experience?, with P. Herrmann, INFORMS Annual Meeting 2014 (co-author presented), San Francisco, CA, 2014.
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Exploring the Relationship between Local Market Structure and Digitized Customer Experience, with P. Herrmann, Conference on Information Systems and Technology (CIST), San Francisco, CA, 2014. [Best Research Video Award]
- The Effect of Sister-Store Presence and Market Competition on Product Assortment: Evidence from Book Retailing, with T. Chen, Y. Hu, and J. Sun, POMS 25th Annual Conference (POMS), Seattle, WA, 2014.
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An Internet-Enabled Move to the Market, with F. Gong and B. Nault, POMS 25th Annual Conference (POMS), Seattle, WA, 2014.
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Dynamics of the Market for Information: An Analysis of the Online Word-of-Mouth, with W. Jabr, International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Milan, Italy, 2013.
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The Impact of Technology Clusters on Centralization of IT Governance, with T. Havakhor and P. Setia, INFORMS Annual Meeting 2013 (co-author presented), Minneapolis, MN, 2013.
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Reach Versus Competition in Channels with Internet and Traditional Retailers, with B. Nault, Theory in Economics of Information Systems 2013, Monterey, CA, 2013.
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Digital Economy and Technology Adoption, 47th Annual Conference of the Canadian Economic Association, Montreal, Canada, 2013.
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Dynamics of the Market for Information: An Analysis of the Online Word-of-Mouth, with W. Jabr, Ninth Symposium on Statistical Challenges in Electronic Commerce Research (SCECR) (co-author presented), Lisbon, Portugal, 2013.
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Does it Pay Off to Bid Aggressively? An Empirical Study, with P. Herrmann and D. Kundisch, Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Hawaii, 2013.
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- 2010-2012
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To Bid or Not to Bid Aggressively? An Empirical Study, with P. Herrmann and D. Kundisch, Workshop on Information Systems Economics (WISE), Orlando, FL, 2012.
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Does it Pay Off to Bid Aggressively? An Empirical Study, with P. Herrmann and D. Kundisch, International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Orlando, FL, 2012.
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The Role of Online Reviews in Mitigating Product Uncertainties, with W. Jabr, INFORMS Annual Meeting 2012 (co-author presented), Phoenix, AZ, 2012.
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Does it Pay Off to Bid Aggressively? An Empirical Study, with P. Herrmann and D. Kundisch, INFORMS Annual Meeting 2012 (co-author presented), Phoenix, AZ, 2012.
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The Effect of Store Coordination and Market Competition on Product Assortment: Evidence from Book Retailing, with T. Chen, Y. Hu, and J. Sun, INFORMS MSOM (Manufacturing and Service Operations Management) Conference, Columbia University, 2012.
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The Impact of Delegating Decision Making to IT on the Sunk Cost Effect, with P. Herrmann and D. Kundisch, Workshop on Information Systems Economics (WISE), Shanghai, China, 2011.
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IT, Logistics Outsourcing and Industry-level Productivity, with F. Gong and B. Nault, INFORMS Annual Meeting 2011 (co-author presented), Charlotte, NC 2011.
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Sunk Cost Effect: The Impact of Delegating Decision Making to IT, with P. Herrmann and D. Kundisch, INFORMS Annual Meeting 2011 (co-author presented), Charlotte, NC, 2011.
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Sunk Cost Effect: The Impact of Delegating Decision Making to IT, with P. Herrmann and D. Kundisch, Seventh Symposium on Statistical Challenges in Electronic Commerce Research (SCECR) (co-author presented), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 2011.
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An Empirical Investigation of the Effect of Advanced Web Technologies on Product Returns, with P. De and Y. Hu, Workshop on Information Systems Economics (WISE), St. Louis, MO, 2010.
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Product Returns: An Empirical Investigation of the Effect of Advanced Web Technologies, with P. De and Y. Hu, Conference on Information Systems and Technology (CIST), Austin, TX, 2010.
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Software Maintenance and Piracy: Economic and Policy Implications of Patch Development Resources, with K. Kannan and M. Tawarmalani, University of Alberta Workshop on Information Systems Security, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada, 2010.
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- 2003-2009
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Advance Selling Battle on Infomediaries: How Quality Differentiation Determines Price Premiums, with M. T. Ackura and Z. Ozdemir, Conference on Information Systems and Technology (CIST), San Diego, 2009.
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Advance Selling of Services Through Infomediaries, with M. T. Ackura and Z. Ozdemir, INFORMS Annual Meeting 2009 (co-author presented), San Diego, 2009.
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When and How Should Service Providers Adopt Internet Infomediaries? with M. T. Ackura and Z. Ozdemir, CORS/INFORMS International Meeting 2009, Toronto, Canada, 2009.
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Strategic Adoption of Internet Agents, with M. T. Ackura and Z. Ozdemir, INFORMS Marketing Science Conference 2009 (co-author presented), Ann Arbor, 2009.
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Website Features and Online Shopping: How Technology Usage Impacts Consumer Demand, with P. De and Y. Hu, INFORMS Annual Meeting 2008, Washington D.C., 2008.
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Website Features and Online Shopping: How Technology Usage Impacts Consumer Demand, with P. De and Y. Hu, 2008 Big Ten Information Systems Symposium (co-author presented), University of Notre Dame, IN, 2008.
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Battle of the Retail Channels: How Internet Selection and Local Retailer Proximity Drive Cross-channel Competition, with E. Brynjolfsson and Y. Hu, International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Montréal, Québec, Canada, 2007.
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The Impact of Technology Usage on Consumer Demand, with P. De and Y. Hu, Workshop on Information Systems Economics (WISE), Montréal, Québec, Canada, 2007.
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The Countervailing Incentive of Restricted Patch Distribution: Economic and Policy Implications, with K. Kannan and M. Tawarmalani, Workshop on the Economics of Information Security (WEIS), Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, 2007.
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The Impact of the Internet on the Sales Distribution: The Role of Product Attributes, 2006 Big Ten Information Systems Symposium, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL, April 29, 2006.
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Data Mining, Group Memory, Group Decision Making: A Theoretical Framework, with N. Martin and S. Paul, Proceedings of the 9th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Tampa, FL, 2003.
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