The Covid-19 health crisis has placed millions of employees under lockdown. While digital technology enables some to work remotely, others are forced into unemployment, hence disrupting business operations in an unprecedented way. Is this a case for the development of the use of artificial intelligence and robots to assist or to replace humans? HEC Paris Assistant Professor Sangseok You, explains how AI and robots are used and what it means for the future of work.
Administrations invest significant time and money into the development of e-government websites. Ultimately, the reward is cost savings and greater efficiency for governments, but this depends on the public’s initial adoption and continued use of the sites. A new research paper investigates the factors that influence people’s usage of e-government sites and offers tips to improve service quality.
By Shirish Srivastava
Robots are increasingly being used in environments where they must interact closely with humans to perform tasks together. Sangseok You (Assistant Professor at HEC Paris) and colleagues have found surprisingly simple ways to get humans to bond with robots and thus work together more effectively.
By Sangseok You
In this article we share testimonials from our professors about their personal experience with online education.
Robots are making their way into diverse fields of work but human workers often still feel unsafe working alongside them, regardless of the true levels of risk. Sangseok You (Assistant Professor at HEC Paris) and colleagues have used virtual reality to explore how humans can be made to feel safer while working with robots.
Sam Aflaki and Serguei Netessine’s new research uncovers a problem with renewable energy incentive policies, such as feed-in tariffs and carbon taxes. Renewables like wind and solar power often depend on carbon costly backups which stunt investment rewards.
By Sam Aflaki
This special issue of Knowledge@HEC highlights several research projects and teaching initiatives at HEC Paris in the context of big data and business analytics. Nowadays it does not take much to convince students or managers alike of the importance of data for businesses. As Wedel and Kannan (2016) put it, “data is the oil of the digital economy”. Indeed, data is completely transforming organizations, and data-driven decision making is becoming more and more a part of a company’s core. In an increasing digital world, all of us are walking data generators, leaving long data trails: we have more data on everything.
In a bid to make it easier for financial reports to be processed by computers, these must now be submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in a new language in addition to the traditional HTML format. In their recent study, Xitong Li, Hongwei Zhu and Luo Zuo explore how adopting the eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) is leading to more complex HTML-formatted financial reports. Instead of saving time and money, they find that submitting additional XBRL-formatted reports is costly to firms.
By Xitong Li
Xitong Li crafted a study with a clear purpose: to find out if deal promotions like those offered via Groupon can have a positive effect on businesses’ online reputations. He found that despite an overall negative impact, certain merchants could boost their online review ratings by running Groupon-type deals. Li discusses the need for managers to assess online reviews and ratings carefully, and to consider both the pros and cons of Groupon-type promotions.
Professor Andrea Masini, Professor at HEC Paris, looks at the policymaking issues at the stake at COP21, the challenges posed by grid integration and the role played by business and government alike in facilitating investment, as well as opportunities for entrepreneurs in the renewable space.
