Digital Investment Research Articles

FINRA's Report on Robo-Advisors: Fiduciary Implications

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) recently issued a report on robo-advisors entitled “Report on Digital Investment Advice.” The report addresses the various features of robo-advisors and highlights investor protection concerns and regulatory issues that may arise from their use by investment professionals and individual investors. The report implicitly raises the question of whether robo-advisors meet the fiduciary standard of care applicable to broker-dealers and investment advisers. The report suggests that, on a stand-alone basis, robo-advisors do not meet a fiduciary standard when they advise individual investors. The report supports the view that human judgment by a trained financial professional is a necessary element of the fiduciary standard. This paper analyzes the findings and implications of the FINRA report in light of the fiduciary standard of care and poses questions that need to be answered by regulators concerning the fiduciary standard to which robo-advisors — as well as investment advisers and broker-dealers — will be held in the future.

How and where the R&D takes place in creative industries? Digital investment strategies of the book publishing sector

ABSTRACTThe innovative and strategic models of creative industries (CIs) in the digital economy are capturing an increasing interest in recent years. Yet, most of the literature deals with creation and talent and very little with technological and innovation perspectives. Innovation is in general considered from a single viewpoint: a means to develop new creative contents. This article investigates an important issue that has been surprisingly neglected in scientific literature and public reports: the topic of R&D and technological innovations in CIs. The article characterises how and where R&D takes place in the book publishing industry. A systematic identification of R&D developments concerning e-book technology has been achieved using an original methodology set up to feature the technological strategic evolutions. The results provide a reliable cartography of the value chain through an adaptation of the open systems interconnection layers model. This framework helps to understand the new digital ecosystem of the book publishing sector and the strategies carried out by the editorial houses.

Mergers and Telecommunications Infrastructure Deployment

We retrospectively evaluate the impact of the various mergers of the local exchange companies in the United States telecommunications industry between 1988 and 2001 on technology investment levels. We use treatment effects modeling to evaluate major mergers in a sector where technology diffusion is important, and the approach accounts for selection bias and the endogenous nature of mergers. Our framework is based on behavioral theories of the firms and we use co-evolutionary and dynamic capabilities approaches in framing our analyses and explaining our results. We find that across firms and time, the merger events are positively and significantly associated with investments in fiber and digital assets. We stratify the data by size of firm to undertake detailed data analysis because of the presence of firm-specific heterogeneities and find that for the smaller merging firms there is a negative and significant association of mergers with investments in fiber and digital assets while for the larger merging firms this mergers and fiber and digital assets investments association is positive and significant. Our results support the predictions of the behavioral theories of the firm, and particularly the dynamic capabilities perspective. We draw implications for theory and competition policy of our results.

New Approaches in Glass Investment Casting: Creative Practitioners Researching and Innovating in the Field of Digital Fabrication

ABSTRACTThis paper describes a research project aimed at delivering innovation in a combined sphere of digital fabrication and glass investment casting.The project has established an entirely new method for creating glass casting moulds directly from three-dimensional computer files without the need for a physical mould pattern, by using a moulding approach based on Additive Layer Manufacturing (ALM) technology.While the paper includes a narrative of the development of the moulding process, the central argument of the paper is rooted in the project's research/innovation methodology. This argument concerns our profile as creative practitioners and the impact this position has on the research/innovation scenario. Also central in this argument is the use of ‘emergent methodologies’ and ‘reflective practice’. A new type of rich media enabled research journal to aid the use of these methodologies was developed as a part of this project and is also presented in this paper.

The impact of supply-side electronic integration on customer service performance

Although information technologies have been expected to directly enhance firm performance in specific value chain activities (e.g., supplier performance or customer service performance), their advanced capabilities offer the promise of organizational integration and spill-over benefits. Enterprise systems provide firms with platforms for electronically integrating their supplier and demand chain activities. Spill-over benefits refer to the impacts that occur when IT investments in one organizational domain benefit performance in a different value chain side of the firm. Supply-side electronic integration (SEI) refers to the use of electronic means to integrate the exchange of information and transactions with suppliers through enterprise systems. In our research, we examine whether SEI generates spill-over effects on customer service performance, over and beyond firms’ direct investments in customer-side digitization. We also examine whether structural attributes of the firm (e.g., vertical integration, diversification, and centralization) moderate the effects of supply-side electronic integration on customer service performance. Our analysis of a secondary dataset of InformationWeek 500 firms shows that SEI helps firms realize cost-savings in their customer service performance, especially if they are less vertically integrated. In addition, SEI investments help diversified and centralized firms achieve cross-selling with their customers. We also find that SEI is more likely to help decentralized and diversified firms achieve customization in their customer service activities. These results suggest that SEI helps firms achieve twin goals in customer service: cost reduction and revenue expansion. Overall, our research reveals how supply-side electronic integration could generate benefits in customer service performance in firms.

Digital identities, student investments and eGranary as a placed resource

In this article, we draw on our research on the digital portable library, eGranary, undertaken in a rural Ugandan village in 2008, to contribute to place-based studies of digital literacy. Our research project investigated the uptake of eGranary by students in the community, focusing on six secondary students who worked as library scholars in the local library. Drawing on Blommaert's construct of scale, we illustrate how both space and time were implicated in the diverse practices associated with eGranary, and their indexical meanings in the wider community. In addition, with reference to Norton's work on identity and investment, we illustrate how students’ identities shifted over time from trainee to tutor, and how the use of eGranary enhanced what was socially imaginable to the library scholars. We demonstrate that Norton's construct of investment thus serves as a useful complement to Blommaert's construct of scale. We also found, however, that students in the wider community who did not have access to eGranary engaged in practices of resistance. We conclude that while eGranary traveled well to Uganda, the limited local resources available in the community compromised its effectiveness, and may well limit the realization of students’ imagined identities for the future.

Digital health investment opportunities abound, but standouts deliver disruptive change

The convergence of ubiquitous smartphones, wireless Internet, and low-cost monitoring devices, is driving the emergence of a new world of digital health. At the same time, cost pressures on healthcare are creating demand for new ways to not just improve the way patients receive information and care and the way doctors provide it, but fundamentally change the way they interact with each other. The article discusses a venture capitalist's approach to investing in the sector.Â

Uso en publicidad de fotografías de bancos de imágenes españoles

Agencies and image banks offer millions of photographs for use in advertising and publishing. During the last decade the sector has undergone a radical change due to the digital impact and the globalization of the business. Structures have been refurbished, major investments in digitization have been made and at the same time, new marketing models have been adopted. This study reviews the use of photographs from the commercial stock photography banks in advertising in Spain. Seven agencies of different size and objectives have been chosen as a reference.

A Study on Ways to Vitalize Digital Contents Business through IP Holding Company

In order to have the highest level of a certain society's technology be evaluated as digital contents technology the value concept of such technology's social utilization must be established while active investment on the technology takes place and makes it the subject of social capitalization. This study wishes to discuss the strategies and methods of establishing and managing IP holding company which requires business activation with digital contents technology at its base, research ways of vitalizing IP holding company to expand social utility values of contents technology, suggest necessary systemic improvements and investment activation methods, management structure, and governance structure by investigating ways to stimulate the industrialization of contents technology through the establishment and management of this IP holding company, and finally come up with a realistic measure to establish and manage a IP holding company. Strategies on commercialization of digital contents technology and acceleration of technology development, as well as activation of venture business set-ups will be analyzed and suggested based on such suggestions while IP holding company's digital contents technology investment activation model will be established to produce means to realize discovering superior contents companies and activation of investment, and activating high quality contents production for the global market.

Business Technology Strategy for a Major Real Estate and Mortgage Brokerage Company

RealProp1 is a large real estate and mortgage brokerage that’s at the forefront of the emerging digital real estate industry. For many years, the company maintained an in-house technology staff, but more recently it sought new leadership to accelerate its digital investments and to explore alternative sourcing models. In this regard, the company plans to respond to new challenges that the industry is presenting as it evolves from a relatively predictable transaction model to one increasingly defined by the Internet. A phased strategy was developed that first stabilized the existing technology environment and then more strategic technology investments were made.

Strategies for Successful Digital Printing

Today the printing industry is fragmented and suffers from overcapacity, and printed material is regarded as commodity products. In this article, corporate strategy owing to the introduction of digital printing technology is studied. The focus is on companies that made digital printing investments. Differentiation is a strategic approach that is necessary for digital printing companies to compete successfully. The results show that vertical integration is a way to ensure appropriate supply to the digital printing unit and to add customer value to the service. Educating customers is a way to create a market for the value-added products of digital printing.

Avatars of the tortoise: life, longevity and simulation

This paper explores the contemporary fascination with artificial life and simulation. The concept of artificial life has broadened its reach from a rarefied speculative discipline to a phenomenon in popular culture and a fertile trope within the electronic arts. From its representation in the cinema, to virtual pets and tamagotchis, to advanced digital art, the essay examines the category of “life” in the age of digital simulation. Questions to do with artificial life range from the representation or incarnation of our “real” selves as avatars in digital spaces (such as computer games), to popular, artistic and scientific attempts to simulate autonomous life forms. In the context of digital art, the essay critically engages with the work of Australian artist Troy Innocent, in particular with his most recent installation, Artefact (2001). In Artefact, Innocent actively investigates the digital investment of life in avatars as they operate in an interactive game environment. In this work, Innocent prompts an intriguing, if troubling, question, central to the overall interests of this essay: what, in the age of digital simulation, is not alive?

ECSSL(Elliptic Curve SSL) 기반 DIT(Digital Investment Trust) 에이전트

This paper proposes DIT (Digital Investment Trust) agent based on ECSSL (Elliptic Curve SSL). This DIT agent is a banking project using IT (Investment Trust) conception based on EC (Electronic Commerce) and can manage micro payment, account opening and account transferring. In addition, ECSSL (Elliptic Curve SSL) protocol is implemented which consists of much better encryption functions than existing SSL (Secure Socket Layer) Protocol. Therefore, This DIT agent based on ECSSL protocol protects a customer`s information and asset from third party.

Book Review: Best Practices in Information Technology: How Corporations Get the Most Value from Exploiting Their Digital Investments

Book Review: Best Practices in Information Technology: How Corporations Get the Most Value from Exploiting Their Digital Investments