Big Data and Firm Risk
This paper investigates the impact of firm data collection and analysis of collected data on the riskiness of firm cash flows. I use a scraped data set of the third party resources loaded on firms’ websites as a measure of firm data collection and analysis practices. I find that firm use of less eff...
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| Format: | Thesis |
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Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2022
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/145178 |
| _version_ | 1811085456576610304 |
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| author | Paine, Fiona |
| author2 | Palmer, Christopher |
| author_facet | Palmer, Christopher Paine, Fiona |
| author_sort | Paine, Fiona |
| collection | MIT |
| description | This paper investigates the impact of firm data collection and analysis of collected data on the riskiness of firm cash flows. I use a scraped data set of the third party resources loaded on firms’ websites as a measure of firm data collection and analysis practices. I find that firm use of less effective web analytics is associated with an increase in the variance of sales, inventory, and both fixed and variable costs. This effect is despite a lack of change in the level of these variables. Looking at the effect of treatment on the treated, there is higher profit and sales variance during times of higher uncertainty. I use differences in web analytics technology and a change in their relative effectiveness as my identification strategy. As a case study of a large negative demand shock, I look at differences in firm reactions to COVID-19 based on their web analytics usage. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T13:09:53Z |
| format | Thesis |
| id | mit-1721.1/145178 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T13:09:53Z |
| publishDate | 2022 |
| publisher | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1451782022-08-30T03:30:45Z Big Data and Firm Risk Paine, Fiona Palmer, Christopher Sloan School of Management This paper investigates the impact of firm data collection and analysis of collected data on the riskiness of firm cash flows. I use a scraped data set of the third party resources loaded on firms’ websites as a measure of firm data collection and analysis practices. I find that firm use of less effective web analytics is associated with an increase in the variance of sales, inventory, and both fixed and variable costs. This effect is despite a lack of change in the level of these variables. Looking at the effect of treatment on the treated, there is higher profit and sales variance during times of higher uncertainty. I use differences in web analytics technology and a change in their relative effectiveness as my identification strategy. As a case study of a large negative demand shock, I look at differences in firm reactions to COVID-19 based on their web analytics usage. S.M. 2022-08-29T16:38:24Z 2022-08-29T16:38:24Z 2022-05 2022-06-09T14:33:31.306Z Thesis https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/145178 In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted Copyright MIT http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/ application/pdf Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| spellingShingle | Paine, Fiona Big Data and Firm Risk |
| title | Big Data and Firm Risk |
| title_full | Big Data and Firm Risk |
| title_fullStr | Big Data and Firm Risk |
| title_full_unstemmed | Big Data and Firm Risk |
| title_short | Big Data and Firm Risk |
| title_sort | big data and firm risk |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/145178 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT painefiona bigdataandfirmrisk |