Sinan Aral obtained his PhD in Information Systems from MIT. He is a faculty member in the Information, Operations and Management Sciences department of the NYU Stern School of Business and affiliated faculty at MIT. His research has won the ICIS Best Overall Paper Award (2006, 2008), the ICIS Best Paper in IT Economics Award (2006), the ICIS Best Paper in IT Business Value Research Award (2006), the ACM SIGMIS Best Dissertation Award (2007), and the 2009 IBM Faculty Award. Sinan is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Northwestern University and holds masters degrees from the London School of Economics and Harvard University. He has been a Fulbright Scholar and is currently on the Academic Advisory Board of the Institute for Innovation and Information Productivity. Sinan's research interests include 1) how information flows impact information worker productivity, 2) how information diffusion in massive online social networks influences demand patterns, consumer e-commerce behaviors and word of mouth marketing, and 3) how investments in IT capital and complementary intangible assets combine to create productivity and business value benefits for firms. The Workshop on Information in Networks (WIN) website: www.winworkshop.net Current Papers Aral, S., Muchnik, L. & A. Sundararajan (2009) "Distinguishing Influence Based Contagion from Homophily Driven Diffusion in Dynamic Networks" (Forthcoming in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)) Lazer, D., Pentland, A., Adamic, L., Aral, S., Barabasi, A.L., Brewer, D., Christakis, N., Contractor, N., Fowler, J., Gutmann, M., Jebara, A., King, G., Macy, M., Roy, D., Van Alstyne, M., (2009) "Computational Social Science" (Science, Feb. 6, 2009.) Online Supporting Material. Aral, Brynjolfsson & Van Alstyne (2008) "Antecedents and Consequences of Mutual Knowledge in Teams" Aral & Van Alstyne (2008) "Networks, Information & Brokerage: The Diversity-Bandwidth Tradeoff" (formerly titled "Network Structure & Information Advantage") (Workshop on Information Systems Economics 2006,  International Conference on Network Science 2007, Academy of Management Conference 2007) Aral, Brynjolfsson & Van Alstyne (2007) "Productivity Effects of Information Diffusion in Networks" (International Conference on Network Science 2007, International Conference on Information Systems 2007) Aral, Brynjolfsson & Van Alstyne (2006) "Information, Technology & Information Worker Productivity: Task Level Evidence" (Winner - Best Overall Paper - International Conference on Information Systems 2006, Milwaukee, WI. Currently Under Review) Wu, Waber, Aral, Brynjolfsson & Pentland (2008) "Mining Face to Face Interaction Networks Using Sociometric Badges: Predicting Productivity in an IT Configuration Task" (Winner - Best Overall Paper - International Conference on Information Systems 2008, Paris, France. Winter IS Conference 2008) Aral, Brynjolfsson & Wu (2006) "Which Came First, IT or Productivity? The Virtuous Cycle of Investment & Use in Enterprise Systems" (Winner - Best  Paper - Valuing IT Opportunities Track - International Conference on Information Systems 2006, Milwaukee, WI; also presented at Workshop on Information Systems Economics 2005) Aral & Weill (2007) "IT Assets, Organizational Capabilities & Firm Performance: How Resource Allocations and Organizational Differences Explain Performance Variation" (Organization Science, 18(5), September-October: 1-18.) Aral, Wu & Morabito (2007) "Regional Economic Context and the Value of Firm-Level IT Investment" (Workshop on Information Systems Economics 2007) Weill & Aral (2006) "Generating Premium Returns on Your IT Investments" Sloan Management Review, 47(2): 39-48. (One of Sloan Management Review's 20 Most Popular Articles - view all 20 here) Aral, Berman & Aral (2002) "Anticipating Outbreaks: A Prevention Role for Integrated Information Systems" (Sexually Transmitted Diseases, 29: 6-12.) Aral, Escobari, Nishina (2001) "Assessing Network Applications for Economic and Social Development: Sustainable Access in Rural India" (Position Paper of the Sustainable Access in Rural India (SARI) Project). Bio & Research Sinan's research examines the role of information and information technology in the productivity and performance of firms. Specifically, his research follows three streams: The first stream measures how information flows and IT use impact the productivity of information workers, who now account for over 60 percent of the labor force and nearly 70 percent of the GDP of the United States. This research aims to understand the dynamics of social networks and how they impact the diffusion of information and knowledge; and measures the impact of IT use, IT skills and information flows on multitasking behavior, project duration, and individual and group productivity in information intensive organizations. The second research stream measures the impact of firm-level IT investments on productivity and business value. This work examines how investments in IT capital, complementary intangible assets, organizational restructuring, and regional economic context impact firms’ productivity and performance. The aim of this stream is to understand how firms can achieve greater business value from their IT investments. The third stream examines the business value of online social networks. This work examines how information and influence diffuse online and how online social networks influence demand patterns, usage behavior, word-of-mouth advertising, and referral marketing. How does information diffuse through networks? How do individuals access different types of information in complex network topologies? What is the economic value of information distributed across a network? These questions are fundamental to our understanding of what makes knowledge workers productive, what makes word-of-mouth advertising effective, and what makes information and knowledge economically valuable. His work has been published in leading journals such as Organization Science and the Sloan Management Review, has been mentioned in popular press outlets such as the Economist, the New York Times and CIO Magazine, and has won several best paper awards. He currently serves on the advisory board of the Institute for Innovation & Information Productivity (IIIP), a collaboration of industry and academia committed to understanding productivity in the information age.                                                                                                                                                                                                      Prior to MIT, Sinan was a Fulbright Scholar, and worked as the assistant to the director of the Department of Southern Mediterranean Relations at the European Commission in Brussels and as a technology consultant for several Fortune 1000 firms. He is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Northwestern University and holds masters degrees in Information Systems and Technology policy from the London School of Economics and Harvard University respectively.  Work in Progress (An incomplete list of ongoing work. Papers are not quite ready.) "Information Theory & Anonymity: A Tool for Protecting Privacy While Preserving Content" "The Co-Evolution of Networks, Information and Uncertainty" "The Information Seeking Habits of Effective Geographically Distributed Teams" "Do Firms Profit from Geographically Distributed Work?" Current Projects Information Worker Productivity Collaborators: Erik Brynjolfsson, Marshall Van Alstyne A study of the production process of information workers aimed at measuring information worker productivity and the impact of IT and information flows on information work and information worker productivity. Supported by the National Science Foundation (grants ISS-9876233 and ISS-0085725), Intel, Cisco, France Telecom, the Marvin Bower Fellowship and the MIT Center for Digital Business. IT Assets and Business Value Collaborators: Erik Brynjolfsson, Peter Weill An international study of the impact of IT investments, IT assets and organizational practices on firm productivity and business value. Supported by the National Science Foundation (grant IIS-0085725), the MIT Center for Information Systems Research and the MIT Center for  Digital Business. The Value of Extended Enterprise Systems Collaborators: Erik Brynjolfsson, DJ Wu An eight year study of how adoption of extended enterprise systems and complimentary organizational practices impacts firm productivity and performance. A collaboration between the Georgia Institute of Technology and MIT. Past Projects The Social and Economic Explorations of Information Technology (SeeIT) Project - a five-year multidisciplinary, longitudinal study of the effects of information technology on organizational and work practices. This research is funded by the National Science Foundation grant number IIS-0085725. also see: Business Models Sub-Project - a developing framework for identifying and classifying business models by firm activities and revenue streams. IT Investment Portfolios and Firm Performance - An econometric evaluation of the relationship between strategic allocations of information technology investments and firm performance conducted through the Center for Information Systems Research at MIT. SARI (Sustainable Access in Rural India) Project - dedicated to demonstrating that the creation, deployment, and delivery of information and communication services and technologies in poor rural areas leads to improvements in health, empowerment, learning, and economic development amongst the poorest and most disadvantaged communities - and that such services can be realized in an economically sustainable fashion. VillaNet - a longitudinal assessment of the impact of access to information and communication technology and training in a low income community in South Boston. *This project is currently on hold.*
SINAN ARAL sinana@mit.edu sinan@stern.nyu.edu Curriculum Vitae Coursework Photography   Recent Awards IBM Faculty Award 2009 Best Overall Paper ICIS 2008 Best Dissertation   ACM SIGMIS Award, ICIS 2007 Best Overall Paper ICIS 2006 Best Paper IT Economics, ICIS 2006 Best Paper IT Business Value, ICIS 2006 Press Mentions   "Putting a Price on Social Connections" - Businessweek "Deriving Real Value from the Social Graph" - Nick Carr "Five Ways IT Can Avoid Avoid A Privacy Lawsuit" - CIO Magazine "Slow Down, Brave Multitasker, and Don't Read This in Traffic" - New York Times "What Makes Information Workers Productive?" - Sloan Management Review "The Love-In: The Move to Open Innovation is Beginning to Transform Entire Industries" - The Economist Video Purpose of the Workshop on Information in Networks (WIN) - NYU Distinguishing Influence from Homophily in Dynamic Networks - NYU Information, Networks and Economic Outcomes - Harvard Using Social Data to Grow in a Down Economy - SAP Computational Social Science Panel - Harvard Audio Productivity Effects of Investments in Enterprise Software		Speaking Engagements Upcoming: Harvard University, Meeting on Methodology for Empirical Research on Social Interactions, Social Networks and Health (MERSIH). Cambridge, MA. November, 2009. Recently Held: University of Maryland, Dept. of Decision, Operations and Information Technologies. College Park, MD. October, 2009. MIT, Center for Information Systems Research. Cambridge, MA. November, 2009. University of Chicago. Innovations, Organzations and Society Conference. Chicago, IL. October, 2009. Workshop on Information in Networks (WIN). NYU Stern School of Business. New York, NY. September, 2009. Academy of Management Conference.  Panelist: Reality Mining PDW. Chicago, IL. August, 2009. NBER Summer Institute. Cambridge, MA. July 2009. London Business School - Joint with Management Sciences and Strategy. London, UK. July 2009. London School of Economics - Department of Management. London, UK. July 2009. London School of Economics - Centre for Economic Performance. London, UK. July 2009. Conference of the Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory. Ischia, Italy. July 2009. International Conference on Network Science. Venice, Italy. July 2009. Sunbelt Social Networks Conference. March 2009 [PDF] Winter IS Conference, Univeristy of Utah. February 2009. [PDF] International Conference on Information Systems. December 2008. [PDF] Workshop on Information Systems Economics. December 2008 [PDF] National Institutes of Heath, Meeting on Modeling Social Behavior. November 2008. [PDF] SAP Academic Symposium. August 2008. [PDF] MIT, CIO Symposium and Center for Digital Business Annual Conference. May 2008. [PDF] Stanford University, Management Science & Engineering Department. January 2008. [PDF] Harvard  University, Eric M. Mindich Conference on Computational Social Science, December 2007. [Video 1; Video 2] Workshop on Information Systems Economics. December 2007 [PDF] International Conference on Information Systems. December 2007. [PDF] Informs Annual Meeting. November 2007. [PDF] Chicago Graduate School of Business. October, 2007. [PDF] Harvard Business School. October, 2007. [PDF] IBM Watson Research Center - Services Research Seminar Series. October 2007. [PDF] Academy of Management Conference. August 2007. [PDF] NBER Summer Institute. July 2007. [PDF] SAP Academic Symposium. June 2007. [PDF] International Conference on Network Science (NetSci07). May 2007. [PDF] | [PDF] Center for Digital Business, MIT. CIO Symposium and Annual Conference. May 2007. [PDF] Sunbelt Social Networks Conference. May 2007 [PDF] NBER Productivity Program Meeting. March 2007. [PDF] Winter IS Conference, Univeristy of Utah. February 2007. [PDF] Center for Digital Business, MIT- Information Worker Productivity Workshop. February 2007. [PDF] | [PDF] TRIUM Program, NYU. January 2007. [PDF] Workshop on Information Systems Economics. December 2006 [PDF] International Conference on Information Systems. December 2006 [PDF] | [PDF] Center for Digital Business Lunch Series, MIT. November 2006 [PDF] Yahoo! Social Networks Workshop, July 2006. [PDF] Affiliated Research Centers
	Last Updated: 06/07