On the 29th of May in Room 3 E4 SR03 (via Roentgen 1), from 12.45 to 14.15 CERGAS organize the Seminar "The Role of Institutional Factors in Unstructured Data Collection Practices: Repurposing Data to Solve an Emerging Problem", speaker Monica Chiarini Tremblay, Raymond A. Mason School of Business, College of William and Mary

Abstract

The explosive growth of big data provides exciting new opportunities for organizations to reuse their data for answering questions that have not yet been formulated at the time of data collection. While much research has been attracted to business analytics, little remains known about information reuse and repurposing of unstructured data. In this study, we explore the role of data entry methods in information reuse and introduce two propositions that demonstrate the connection between institutional practices (i.e., documentation styles) and repurposing unstructured data with a goal of achieving high inferential utility. We evaluate our propositions in the context of case management in foster care. Children in foster care represent a particularly vulnerable subpopulation of US children. Much of the data collected by foster care organizations are unstructured, but these organizations have limited resources to scrutinize all of the available information for anomalies or potential problems in the case of a child. Our findings have important implications to the theory and practice of business analytics, conceptual modeling, organizational theory, and general data management; particularly when designing systems that allow for information reuse.