It’s still easy to think we’re in control when browsing the internet, but a new study argues much of that is ‘an illusion.’ Corporations are ‘nudging’ us online more than we realize, and often in hidden ways. Researchers analyzed click-stream data on a million people over one month of internet use to find common browsing…

A new study has found that artificial intelligence (AI) apps helped protect small and medium-sized businesses against many of the risks that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic — yet only a quarter of small firms currently use them. The research, undertaken by Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) and published in the journal Information Systems Frontiers, surveyed…

Surveys that ask too many of the same type of question tire respondents and return unreliable data, according to a new study. The study found that people tire from questions that vary only slightly and tend to give similar answers to all questions as the survey progresses. Marketers, policymakers, and researchers who rely on long…

Research shows that traffic accidents decreased by nearly half during the two-month period at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic when residents of most states were under a stay-at-home order. Using a detailed data set from the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development, Jason Huh, an assistant professor in the Department of Economics at Rensselaer,…

A team of scholars in ethics, law and informatics wrote one of the first commentaries on how NFTs could be repurposed for the healthcare industry. In a new publication in the journal Science, the researchers propose that the tool could help patients gain more control over their personal health information. NFT digital contracts could provide…

App developers can improve the profitability of free apps by strategically deploying or eliminating their paid version counterparts over an app’s lifetime. The study, forthcoming in the Journal of Marketing, is titled «Managing the Versioning Decision over an App’s Lifetime» and is authored by Seoungwoo Lee, Jie Zhang, and Michel Wedel. Is it really over…

Consumers are less forgiving of brand failures when algorithms are anthropomorphized, use machine learning, or are used for subjective or interactive tasks. The study, forthcoming in the Journal of Marketing, is titled «When Algorithms Fail: Consumers’ Responses to Brand Harm Crises Caused by Algorithm Errors» and is authored by Raji Srinivasan and Gulen Sarial-Abi. Marketers…

New research brings a methodology called tensor decomposition — used by scientists to find patterns in massive volumes of data — into the world of online shopping to recommend complementary products more carefully tailored to customer preferences. These algorithms typically work by associating purchased items with items other shoppers have frequently purchased alongside them. If…

Matrix, process, or something else? The structure of an organization is of little significance for its success, as long as there is systems intelligence, according to a new study. Systems Intelligence is a concept created by Saarinen and Hamalainen connecting human sensitivity and engineering thinking, which takes comprehensive interaction between individuals and their environments into…

Economists authored a new study showing that aging populations lead to greater implementation of robots in workplace settings. «Demographic change — aging — is one of the most important factors leading to the adoption of robotics and other automation technologies,» says Daron Acemoglu, an MIT economist and co-author of a new paper detailing the results…