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Mohammad Saifur Rahman

Professor of Management
Daniels School Chair in Management
Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. School of Business
Purdue University

Personal Website

Research

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

Working Papers

Research in Progress 

  • Implications of Priority Access in Markets with Experts: Evidence from Online Marketplace Lending, with M. Alyakoob and A. Mahalingam.

  • Online Reputations and Market Power, with M. Alyakoob and F. Rossi.

  • Not-so-Dumb Money: Beating the Competition with Talent Acquisition, with T. Havakhor.

  • Website Engagements and Advertisements, with W. Kar.

  • The Impact of IT Usage on the Evolution of a Decision Bias: An Empirical Study, with P. Herrmann and D. Kundisch.

  • Physical Stores in the Age of Omnichannel Retailing, with B. Nault.

Other Publications

  • Digital Economy and Technology Adoption: A Research Commentary, Industry Canada, Government of Canada. 2013.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • SSHRC Insight Grant ($97,397), (co-applicant with W. Jabr), 2013.

  • SSHRC SRG Grant ($85,547), 2011.

  • SSHRC Development Grant ($1,000), University of Calgary, 2010.

  • Dean's Research Publication Award ($20,000), Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary, 2009, 2010, 2013.

  • Internal Awards ($17,855), University of Calgary, 2009.

  • Dean's Research Grant ($40,000), Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary, 2008.

  • Purdue Research Foundation (PRF) Dissertation Research Grant for the 2007-2008 Academic Year ($18,000).

  • 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

    • 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.

    • Cybersecurity Investments and the Cost of Capital, with T. Havakhor, T. Zhang, Workshop on the Economics of Information Security (WEIS), Brussels, 2020.

    • 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].

    • 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.

    • Shared Prosperity (or Lack Thereof) in the Sharing Economy, with M. Alyakoob, NBER Economics of Digitization Meeting, Stanford, 2020.

    • 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.

    • 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.

    • Not-so-Dumb Money: Beating the Competition with Talent Acquisition, with T. Havakhor, Conference on Information Systems and Technology (CIST), Seattle, 2019.

    • 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.

    • Not-so-Dumb Money: Beating the Competition with Talent Acquisition, with T. Havakhor, Statistical Challenges in Electronic Commerce Research (SCECR), Hong Kong, 2019.

    • Shared Prosperity (or Lack Thereof) in the Sharing Economy, with M. Alyakoob, Workshop on Information Systems Economics (WISE), San Francisco, 2018.

    • Airbnb: Is it a Curse or a Blessing for Restaurant Employment with M. Alyakoob, International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), San Francisco, 2018.

    • Shared Prosperity (or Lack Thereof) in the Sharing Economy, with M. Alyakoob, Conference on Information Systems and Technology (CIST), Phoenix, AZ, 2018.

    • 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.

    • 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.

    • When Enough Ad is Enough: Who Tolerates and Who Doesn't?, with W. Kar, 40th Annual ISMS Marketing Science Conference, Philadelphia, 2018.

    • Shared Prosperity (or Lack Thereof) in the Sharing Economy, with M. Alyakoob, Statistical Challenges in Electronic Commerce Research (SCECR), Rotterdam, Netherlands, 2018.

  • 2013-2017

    • 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.

    • 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.

    • 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.

    • 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.

    • 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.

    • 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.

    • 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.

    • 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.

    • 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.

    • 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.

    • 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.

    • An Internet-Enabled Move to the Market, with F. Gong and B. Nault, POMS 25th Annual Conference (POMS), Seattle, WA, 2014.

    • 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.

    • 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.

    • Reach Versus Competition in Channels with Internet and Traditional Retailers, with B. Nault, Theory in Economics of Information Systems 2013, Monterey, CA, 2013.

    • Digital Economy and Technology Adoption, 47th Annual Conference of the Canadian Economic Association, Montreal, Canada, 2013.

    • 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.

    • 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.

  • 2010-2012

    • 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.

    • 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.

    • The Role of Online Reviews in Mitigating Product Uncertainties, with W. Jabr, INFORMS Annual Meeting 2012 (co-author presented), Phoenix, AZ, 2012.

    • 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.

    • 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.

    • 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.

    • IT, Logistics Outsourcing and Industry-level Productivity, with F. Gong and B. Nault, INFORMS Annual Meeting 2011 (co-author presented), Charlotte, NC 2011.

    • 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.

    • 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.

    • 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.

    • 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.

    • 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.

  • 2003-2009

    • 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.

    • Advance Selling of Services Through Infomediaries, with M. T. Ackura and Z. Ozdemir, INFORMS Annual Meeting 2009 (co-author presented), San Diego, 2009.

    • When and How Should Service Providers Adopt Internet Infomediaries? with M. T. Ackura and Z. Ozdemir, CORS/INFORMS International Meeting 2009, Toronto, Canada, 2009.

    • Strategic Adoption of Internet Agents, with M. T. Ackura and Z. Ozdemir, INFORMS Marketing Science Conference 2009 (co-author presented), Ann Arbor, 2009.

    • 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.

    • 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.

    • 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.

    • The Impact of Technology Usage on Consumer Demand, with P. De and Y. Hu, Workshop on Information Systems Economics (WISE), Montréal, Québec, Canada, 2007.

    • 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.

    • 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.

    • 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.