Sinan Aral is a faculty member in the Information, Operations and Management Sciences Department of the NYU Stern School of Business. He received his PhD from the IT Group at MIT's Sloan School of Management.

Current Papers

Aral & Van Alstyne (2008) "Networks, Information & Social Capital" (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" (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"

"Causes and Consequences of Common Knowledge Failures"

"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.*
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SINAN ARAL

sinana@mit.edu

sinan@stern.nyu.edu

MIT

 

Recent Awards
Current Collaborators
I  have had the priveldge of working with some incredible colleagues...
Speaking Engagements

Upcoming:

SAP Academic Symposium. August 2008. [PDF]

National Institutes of Heath, Meeting on Modeling Social Behavior.
November 2008. [PDF]

Recently Held:

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. [PDF]

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

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Last Updated: 06/07