In recent decades auto industry has undergone serious changes both in US and abroad. Many major c... more In recent decades auto industry has undergone serious changes both in US and abroad. Many major car manufacturers are under extreme market pressure to re-align their corporate strategy to a highly dynamic global and domestic market. GM, a major US auto manufacturer has approached our consulting company, Ingrid.Inc a strategic planning consulting company, to study GM’s present positioning in the auto industry. The following report is the result of a 3-month extensive study of GM’s business strategy in staying ahead of competition as well as increasing its market share. Our recommendation to GM is based on a SWOT analysis, followed by KSF. GM’s present strategy is evaluated and gap’s between present strategy and KSF and CI’s are identified. Lastly, we have come up with a list of recommendations along with implementation timelines for short, medium, and long term, that GM’s senior management needs to consider in order to stay ahead of the competition and remain a market force in the global market for auto industry
Aristotle's dictum scio nescio (I know that I don't know) may serve as a source of enhanced perfo... more Aristotle's dictum scio nescio (I know that I don't know) may serve as a source of enhanced performance for organizations. Awareness of nescience sets the direction for further inquiry, as managers tend to move in the direction that they believe will reduce nescience most. However, nescience is difficult to quantify, so, to date, managers have primarily relied on intuition. Observing business analytics practices in three industries-semiconductor manufacturing, medical diagnostics and social media analytics-suggests that nescience can be measured using metrics from information theory. In semiconductor manufacturing, strategies for problem solving can be explained in terms of Shannon's entropy formula, which indicates the most effective pathway for reducing nescience and identifying the practice with the highest benefit/cost ratio. In medical diagnostics, variants of this formula can be used to reduce nescience to improve the quality of diagnosis. Social media analytics firms reduce nescience to identify loci of influence in online social networks. Nescience is measured by centrality and centralization metrics from information theory. In the aggregate, these observations suggest that metrics for nescience that are based on information theory may serve as a decision aid for practicing managers.
2013 Proceedings of PICMET '13: Technology Management in the IT-Driven Services (PICMET), 2013
This paper discusses how gossip propagates through modern social media. We simulate 80 random dir... more This paper discusses how gossip propagates through modern social media. We simulate 80 random directed interaction networks to address three questions: 1)Does information propagation and consumption impact network structure? 2)Does network structure impact information propagation and consumption? 3)How do information propagation, information consumption and network structure affect the ability to synchronize innovation? We find that network structure and synchronization of innovation are distinct phenomena. Information flow influences network structure, and conversely. Thus both virtuous and vicious cycles of innovation are possible. Furthermore, the ability to synchronize innovation goes up with network density, but the efficiency of the network decreases once the number of shortest paths decrease. These findings are of particular importance to marketing experts who want to propagate their messages through modern social media.
2019 Portland International Conference on Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), 2019
A study of the online social networks of six Twitter conversations about six YouTube product cate... more A study of the online social networks of six Twitter conversations about six YouTube product categories reveals that directionality and network size affect the structure of online social networks. Our results indicate that large networks tend to be non-random, regardless of whether they are directional or not, suggesting that structural attributes of the online networks under study are a true reflection of network's features. Smaller non-directional networks also tend to be non-random, whereas smaller directional networks tend to be random in nature. However, very small networks tend to be random in nature, whether they are directional or not. Our results suggest that larger online networks undergo different generation mechanisms than smaller real-world networks, especially if these networks are directional. Extant theory, which is almost exclusively derived from observation of real-world networks, may thus not adequately describe the behavior of online networks. We propose rese...
2011 Proceedings of PICMET '11: Technology Management in the Energy Smart World (PICMET), 2011
A major supplier of computer products would like the users of its software platforms to enhance t... more A major supplier of computer products would like the users of its software platforms to enhance the value of its software platforms by engaging in peer production and open innovation. The company is designing a social network that is based on Web 2.0 technologies and acts as a virtual user group. This paper discusses the most important issues pertaining to that endeavor including the need to develop new metrics for network structure and performance. The relative merits of various performance metrics is tested against empirical data. The paper also discusses an approach for forecasting revolutions in network performance in an open innovation system through simulation.
It has always been assumed that a large conversation about a topic on social media implies that t... more It has always been assumed that a large conversation about a topic on social media implies that the topic is popular. However, an empirical study of Twitter conversations about a variety of YouTube product categories, which is described in this paper, has shown that this is not necessarily the case. Popularity as measured by distribution volume is not necessarily a reliable indicator of the size of a community or conversation that is associated with a product category. This suggests that current online marketing practices are not nearly as effective as has been assumed to date. Novel, potentially more effective approaches to online marketing are suggested in the paper.
2017 Portland International Conference on Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), Jul 1, 2017
Online social networks, which have been defined as aggregated organizations that emerge from the ... more Online social networks, which have been defined as aggregated organizations that emerge from the Internet when people carry on public discussions, are increasingly becoming the vehicle of influence in social, political and economic discourse. Yet, despite its increasing importance, the nature of influence in online social networks is not really understood. Practitioners openly admit that they lack the experience to make sense of the phenomenon, and extant theory of influence in networks, which extrapolates from observations of the real world, is demonstrably inadequate when it comes to explaining influence online. The paper introduces a novel approach to analyzing influence online, which is based on the premise that knowledge flows rather than connectivity or position determine loci and regions of influence. The authors propose an exploratory, longitudinal population study of 100 highly diverse online social networks. The study will 1) benchmark a set of metrics for influence in these networks to determine which metrics are best suited for measuring influence in a plethora of contexts; 2) characterize the nature and properties of knowledge flows within each network; and 3) determine how knowledge flows impact the (virtual) spatial and temporal distribution of influence within that network.
Aristotle's dictum scio nescio (I know that I don't know) may serve as a source of enhanc... more Aristotle's dictum scio nescio (I know that I don't know) may serve as a source of enhanced performance for organizations. Awareness of nescience sets the direction for further inquiry, as managers tend to move in the direction that they believe will reduce nescience most. However, nescience is difficult to quantify, so, to date, managers have primarily relied on intuition. Observing business analytics practices in three industries-semiconductor manufacturing, medical diagnostics and social media analytics-suggests that nescience can be measured using metrics from information theory. In semiconductor manufacturing, strategies for problem solving can be explained in terms of Shannon's entropy formula, which indicates the most effective pathway for reducing nescience and identifying the practice with the highest benefit/cost ratio. In medical diagnostics, variants of this formula can be used to reduce nescience to improve the quality of diagnosis. Social media analytics fi...
Traditional marketing models are swiftly being upended by the advent of online social networks. Y... more Traditional marketing models are swiftly being upended by the advent of online social networks. Yet, practicing firms that are engaging with online social networks neither have a reliable theory nor sufficient practical experience to make sense of the phenomenon. Extant theory in particular is based on observations of the real world, and may thus not apply to online social networks. Practicing firms may consequently be misallocating a large amount of resources, simply because they do not know how the online social networks with which they interact are organized. v Acknowledgements Over the years I have received support and encouragement from a great number of individuals. Dr. Charles M. Weber has been a mentor, colleague, and friend. His guidance has made this a thoughtful and rewarding journey. I would like to thank my dissertation committee of Dr. Timothy Anderson, Dr. Charla Mathwick and Dr. Antonie Jetter for their support over the past years as I moved from an idea to a completed study. I express my special gratitude to Dr. Antonie Jetter for guiding me through the comprehensive exam process and for always being there whenever I needed her support and guidance. I would like to thank Matt Hixson for being my partner in crime and for all the valuable conversations and ideas over the years, my Tellagence team (especially Trevor and Jeff) for being supportive of my efforts and a constant source of encouragement. Special thanks to Ann-Marie Lamb for being a good friend and support system. I would also like to thank Bill Pearson from Intel Corporation for lighting the fire and providing opportunities to explore social networks. Finally, thanks to my colleagues and friends at ETM Department who made my time spent in school memorable. vi
International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management
Aristotle’s dictum scio nescio (I know that I don’t know) may serve as a source of enhanced perfo... more Aristotle’s dictum scio nescio (I know that I don’t know) may serve as a source of enhanced performance for organizations. Awareness of nescience sets the direction for further inquiry, as managers tend to move in the direction that they believe will reduce nescience most. However, nescience is difficult to quantify, so, to date, managers have primarily relied on intuition. This paper introduces a theoretical framework for managing nescience that is based on information theory. This framework is tested in three exploratory empirical studies that take place in highly contrasting settings: semiconductor manufacturing, medical diagnostics and social media analytics. All three studies demonstrate that metrics related to information entropy can be used to quantify nescience. However, practitioners value the framework and its metrics more highly in the settings where the quality of or access to information drives successful product development. The problems encountered in these settings t...
In recent decades auto industry has undergone serious changes both in US and abroad. Many major c... more In recent decades auto industry has undergone serious changes both in US and abroad. Many major car manufacturers are under extreme market pressure to re-align their corporate strategy to a highly dynamic global and domestic market. GM, a major US auto manufacturer has approached our consulting company, Ingrid.Inc a strategic planning consulting company, to study GM’s present positioning in the auto industry. The following report is the result of a 3-month extensive study of GM’s business strategy in staying ahead of competition as well as increasing its market share. Our recommendation to GM is based on a SWOT analysis, followed by KSF. GM’s present strategy is evaluated and gap’s between present strategy and KSF and CI’s are identified. Lastly, we have come up with a list of recommendations along with implementation timelines for short, medium, and long term, that GM’s senior management needs to consider in order to stay ahead of the competition and remain a market force in the global market for auto industry
Aristotle's dictum scio nescio (I know that I don't know) may serve as a source of enhanced perfo... more Aristotle's dictum scio nescio (I know that I don't know) may serve as a source of enhanced performance for organizations. Awareness of nescience sets the direction for further inquiry, as managers tend to move in the direction that they believe will reduce nescience most. However, nescience is difficult to quantify, so, to date, managers have primarily relied on intuition. Observing business analytics practices in three industries-semiconductor manufacturing, medical diagnostics and social media analytics-suggests that nescience can be measured using metrics from information theory. In semiconductor manufacturing, strategies for problem solving can be explained in terms of Shannon's entropy formula, which indicates the most effective pathway for reducing nescience and identifying the practice with the highest benefit/cost ratio. In medical diagnostics, variants of this formula can be used to reduce nescience to improve the quality of diagnosis. Social media analytics firms reduce nescience to identify loci of influence in online social networks. Nescience is measured by centrality and centralization metrics from information theory. In the aggregate, these observations suggest that metrics for nescience that are based on information theory may serve as a decision aid for practicing managers.
2013 Proceedings of PICMET '13: Technology Management in the IT-Driven Services (PICMET), 2013
This paper discusses how gossip propagates through modern social media. We simulate 80 random dir... more This paper discusses how gossip propagates through modern social media. We simulate 80 random directed interaction networks to address three questions: 1)Does information propagation and consumption impact network structure? 2)Does network structure impact information propagation and consumption? 3)How do information propagation, information consumption and network structure affect the ability to synchronize innovation? We find that network structure and synchronization of innovation are distinct phenomena. Information flow influences network structure, and conversely. Thus both virtuous and vicious cycles of innovation are possible. Furthermore, the ability to synchronize innovation goes up with network density, but the efficiency of the network decreases once the number of shortest paths decrease. These findings are of particular importance to marketing experts who want to propagate their messages through modern social media.
2019 Portland International Conference on Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), 2019
A study of the online social networks of six Twitter conversations about six YouTube product cate... more A study of the online social networks of six Twitter conversations about six YouTube product categories reveals that directionality and network size affect the structure of online social networks. Our results indicate that large networks tend to be non-random, regardless of whether they are directional or not, suggesting that structural attributes of the online networks under study are a true reflection of network's features. Smaller non-directional networks also tend to be non-random, whereas smaller directional networks tend to be random in nature. However, very small networks tend to be random in nature, whether they are directional or not. Our results suggest that larger online networks undergo different generation mechanisms than smaller real-world networks, especially if these networks are directional. Extant theory, which is almost exclusively derived from observation of real-world networks, may thus not adequately describe the behavior of online networks. We propose rese...
2011 Proceedings of PICMET '11: Technology Management in the Energy Smart World (PICMET), 2011
A major supplier of computer products would like the users of its software platforms to enhance t... more A major supplier of computer products would like the users of its software platforms to enhance the value of its software platforms by engaging in peer production and open innovation. The company is designing a social network that is based on Web 2.0 technologies and acts as a virtual user group. This paper discusses the most important issues pertaining to that endeavor including the need to develop new metrics for network structure and performance. The relative merits of various performance metrics is tested against empirical data. The paper also discusses an approach for forecasting revolutions in network performance in an open innovation system through simulation.
It has always been assumed that a large conversation about a topic on social media implies that t... more It has always been assumed that a large conversation about a topic on social media implies that the topic is popular. However, an empirical study of Twitter conversations about a variety of YouTube product categories, which is described in this paper, has shown that this is not necessarily the case. Popularity as measured by distribution volume is not necessarily a reliable indicator of the size of a community or conversation that is associated with a product category. This suggests that current online marketing practices are not nearly as effective as has been assumed to date. Novel, potentially more effective approaches to online marketing are suggested in the paper.
2017 Portland International Conference on Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), Jul 1, 2017
Online social networks, which have been defined as aggregated organizations that emerge from the ... more Online social networks, which have been defined as aggregated organizations that emerge from the Internet when people carry on public discussions, are increasingly becoming the vehicle of influence in social, political and economic discourse. Yet, despite its increasing importance, the nature of influence in online social networks is not really understood. Practitioners openly admit that they lack the experience to make sense of the phenomenon, and extant theory of influence in networks, which extrapolates from observations of the real world, is demonstrably inadequate when it comes to explaining influence online. The paper introduces a novel approach to analyzing influence online, which is based on the premise that knowledge flows rather than connectivity or position determine loci and regions of influence. The authors propose an exploratory, longitudinal population study of 100 highly diverse online social networks. The study will 1) benchmark a set of metrics for influence in these networks to determine which metrics are best suited for measuring influence in a plethora of contexts; 2) characterize the nature and properties of knowledge flows within each network; and 3) determine how knowledge flows impact the (virtual) spatial and temporal distribution of influence within that network.
Aristotle's dictum scio nescio (I know that I don't know) may serve as a source of enhanc... more Aristotle's dictum scio nescio (I know that I don't know) may serve as a source of enhanced performance for organizations. Awareness of nescience sets the direction for further inquiry, as managers tend to move in the direction that they believe will reduce nescience most. However, nescience is difficult to quantify, so, to date, managers have primarily relied on intuition. Observing business analytics practices in three industries-semiconductor manufacturing, medical diagnostics and social media analytics-suggests that nescience can be measured using metrics from information theory. In semiconductor manufacturing, strategies for problem solving can be explained in terms of Shannon's entropy formula, which indicates the most effective pathway for reducing nescience and identifying the practice with the highest benefit/cost ratio. In medical diagnostics, variants of this formula can be used to reduce nescience to improve the quality of diagnosis. Social media analytics fi...
Traditional marketing models are swiftly being upended by the advent of online social networks. Y... more Traditional marketing models are swiftly being upended by the advent of online social networks. Yet, practicing firms that are engaging with online social networks neither have a reliable theory nor sufficient practical experience to make sense of the phenomenon. Extant theory in particular is based on observations of the real world, and may thus not apply to online social networks. Practicing firms may consequently be misallocating a large amount of resources, simply because they do not know how the online social networks with which they interact are organized. v Acknowledgements Over the years I have received support and encouragement from a great number of individuals. Dr. Charles M. Weber has been a mentor, colleague, and friend. His guidance has made this a thoughtful and rewarding journey. I would like to thank my dissertation committee of Dr. Timothy Anderson, Dr. Charla Mathwick and Dr. Antonie Jetter for their support over the past years as I moved from an idea to a completed study. I express my special gratitude to Dr. Antonie Jetter for guiding me through the comprehensive exam process and for always being there whenever I needed her support and guidance. I would like to thank Matt Hixson for being my partner in crime and for all the valuable conversations and ideas over the years, my Tellagence team (especially Trevor and Jeff) for being supportive of my efforts and a constant source of encouragement. Special thanks to Ann-Marie Lamb for being a good friend and support system. I would also like to thank Bill Pearson from Intel Corporation for lighting the fire and providing opportunities to explore social networks. Finally, thanks to my colleagues and friends at ETM Department who made my time spent in school memorable. vi
International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management
Aristotle’s dictum scio nescio (I know that I don’t know) may serve as a source of enhanced perfo... more Aristotle’s dictum scio nescio (I know that I don’t know) may serve as a source of enhanced performance for organizations. Awareness of nescience sets the direction for further inquiry, as managers tend to move in the direction that they believe will reduce nescience most. However, nescience is difficult to quantify, so, to date, managers have primarily relied on intuition. This paper introduces a theoretical framework for managing nescience that is based on information theory. This framework is tested in three exploratory empirical studies that take place in highly contrasting settings: semiconductor manufacturing, medical diagnostics and social media analytics. All three studies demonstrate that metrics related to information entropy can be used to quantify nescience. However, practitioners value the framework and its metrics more highly in the settings where the quality of or access to information drives successful product development. The problems encountered in these settings t...
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