Technology for a Better World Its Impact on Consumers, Businesses, and Society

My research investigates how tech businesses alter society by engaging with their consumers in online and mobile spaces. In the first chapter, I examine the effect of a user deterrence policy - a policy that adds friction to information sharing and promotion to curb malicious activities of abnormal users - on regular users in an online platform. According to a quasi-experiment on an online news site, the deterrence policy increases regular users’ feedback activities by 0.11 percent by upvoting or downvoting others’ comments. To examine the underlying rationale for effect, I use the rational voting decisions framework and find that the deterrent policy enhances the subjective likelihood of affecting the popularity of comments among regular users by casting a decisive vote, due to the expected drop in abnormal user activity. Additionally, I observe that the deterrence policy strongly affects active users and political extremes. As disinformation poses a substantial threat to the sustainability of online platforms, this study provides valuable insights for businesses and policymakers as they assess the consequences of abnormal user deterrence policies. In the second chapter, I develop a conceptual model that shows how the efficacy of artificial intelligence positively affects firm performance, which is mediated by improved distributive equity. Using a dataset of 45 million users from 35 countries across 5 continents collected from a global artificial intelligence-powered education app, I find strong support for distributive equity as a mediator between the perceived efficacy of artificial intelligence and firm performance. I also find that the mediating effect of distributive equity is more pronounced in severe environmental conditions regarding political regimes, economic development, socio-cultural aspect, and technological resources, hence aiding in the actualization of artificial intelligence in such contexts. This research contributes to the growing popularity of the blended value proposition, such as the simultaneous pursuit of financial and social interests, by expanding a business model from a bottom line to a double bottom line approach. I discuss how this study extends the literature and provides managerial implications of artificial intelligence firms for global expansion, recruitment, and an inclusive information system.