I have accepted an assistant professor position at the Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University

RESEARCH OVERVIEW

My research explores the ways in which the social networks of Information Technology (IT) actors (firms, managers, and workers) influence their economic actions and performances. IT related investments and activities are shrouded by uncertainty of associated costs and benefits. In such environments, IT actors may not know what their interests and actions should be. The communities, in which IT actors are embedded, shape their actions by influencing the availability of social, informational and knowledge resources. Moreover, Information Systems development projects are knowledge intensive activities which necessitates the need for access to greater quantity and diversity of knowledge resources. The relationships among IT actors have the potential to affect their performance through timely and reliable access to a variety of resources. Hence, an actor’s performance and actions are not determined solely by the characteristics of the actor as a social atom but also by the actions and characteristics of others in her community. While an actor’s characteristics or economic incentives are not irrelevant, they must take their place in a broader social context in explaining her actions and performances. In my research, I analyze economic actions and performances of IT actors through this socio-economic theoretical lens. I combine rigorous theories of industrial organizations from Economics and social networks from Sociology with robust empirical validation in an IT organizational context. This integrated approach allows me to contribute to a more complete understanding of IT issues. It is my hope that this will bridge the gap between the purely economic and social views of IT issues, making each more accessible to the other, and help develop a comprehensive theory unique to the information systems literature.

RESEARCH TRAINING

During my PhD, I was fortunate enough to design my own plan of study, and combined coursework from Information Systems, Economics, Sociology and Operations Management (selective coursework). I underwent this multidisciplinary training to build up a strong theoretical as well as methodological background of the relevant areas to contribute to a more complete understanding of strategic issues in IT.

THESIS: Open Source Software Developer Collaboration Networks as Channels for Knowledge Diffusion, Creation, and Adoption

My thesis includes four essays in OSS area:

(1) Developer Learning Dynamics in Open Source Software Projects

(2) Small World - Big Impact: The Influence of Macro Level Properties of Developer Collaboration Networks on Open Source Project Success

(3) Network Effects: The Influence of Social Capital on Open Source Project Success.

(4) Determinants of Open Source Software License Choice: A Social Influence Perspective

Check the research page for the details of each essay  

THESIS ADVISORY COMMITTEE:

Chairs:       Yong Tan

Members:  Deb Dey

                   Corey Phelps

               Nara Youn           (Minor Chair: Economics)

                Ming Fan             (Minor Chair: Research Methods)

                Apurva Jain         (Minor Chair: Operations Management)

                Timothy Nyerges (Graduate School Representative)

RESEARCH INTERESTS:

Economics of Information Systems
Social Networks (Inter- and intra-organizational, interpersonal)
Open Source Software Development
Information Systems Strategy
Adoption and Diffusion of Information Technology Innovations and Practices
Electronic Markets
Software Engineering
 

My work has been presented/accepted in leading conferences such as International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Workshop on Information Systems and Economics (WISE), Workshop on Information technology and systems (WITS), Americas' conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), Informs Annual Meeting, Doctoral Internationalization Consortium in Information Systems and is under review at top tier journals such as Management Science, Information Systems Research and ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology. I have been an ad-hoc reviewer for Information Systems Research, Management Science, Marketing Science, Informs Journal on Computing, ICIS, WITS and AMCIS.

AWARDS & HONORS:

Awarded University of Washington Graduate School Top Scholar Award (2004-2005)

Awarded Dean's Achievement Award (Awarded to the best student in the PhD program across all areas in the Business School based on performance in course work, comprehensive exam and research over the first 2 and a 1/2 years in the business program)

Nominated for the Business School Instructor of the Quarter Award for Winter 2007

Foster Endowed Fellowship dissertation funding, 2007 and 2008.

TEACHING EXPERIENCE:

Information, Technology, and Innovation (MBA IS Core)

Business Intelligence and Data Mining (MBA Course)

Introduction to Information Systems (Undergraduate IS Core)

Database Programming

Fundamentals of Business Information Technologies

Fundamentals of Application Programming

Business Data Communications

Database Management

Systems Analysis and Design

Selective Comments from students who took bachelor's core Information Systems Class from me (IS 300: Introduction to Information Systems) in Autumn 2005.

"I was dreading the thought of taking this class- but it is my favorite of all the classes that I have taken so far."

"Case discussions facilitate discussion about real life examples which is great. I like how you correlate the power-points and case studies/ articles."

        [Teaching Evaluation: Instructor's contribution : 4.6; Overall: 4.2; Out of 5.0]

Selective Comments from students who took bachelor's core Information Systems Class from me (IS 300: Introduction to Information Systems) in Winter 2007.

"I went into this class thinking I would hate it, and that it would be the worst class of the quarter. It ended up being my favorite class, and the only one that I never missed a session of. Param made the class interesting, encouraged discussion, and treated us like equals. I've never had a two hour class that went by as quickly as IS300 and I think it's all owing to him."
 

        [Teaching Evaluation: Instructor's contribution : 4.9; Overall: 4.8; Out of 5.0. Nominated for University of Washington Business School Instructor of the Quarter Award]

CONSULTING EXPERIENCE:

Requirement analysis for complete automation of Texas Bones and Joints Center, Lubbock, Texas

Requirement analysis for customization of software (developed by GlobalAdroit) for complete automation of Pizza-Mart,          Seattle, Washington 

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) research for Nordstrom, Inc.