World Class Faculty & Research / September 12, 2011

Smith Business Close-Up: Measuring Facebook’s App Economy

Thursday, Sept. 15, 2011, 7:30 p.m.; Sunday, Sept. 18, 2011, 7:30 a.m.

In this edition of Smith Business Close-Up with the Smith School, Il-Horn Hann, associate professor of information systems, talks about new research that measures the number of jobs created and the dollar value of Facebook’s app economy.It seems everyone is using Facebook – including a sizable number of businesses built around the platform. It’s an entirely new industry – dubbed the “App Economy,” and for the first time, professors at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business have been able to quantify the economic impact of jobs created by this new industry.

Hann co-directs the Smith School’s Center for Digital Innovation, Thought and Strategy, along with associate professor Siva Viswanathan. Center researchers explore how digital technologies make new markets and business models possible. Hann and Viswanathan spearheaded the Facebook research and are at work on several projects that seek to understanding the factors associated with the successes and failures of leveraging the power of information technology within organizations and markets.

Smith Business Close-Up is co-produced by the Robert H. Smith School of Business and Maryland Public Television. The television segment focuses on the latest thinking in business management, and features in-depth interviews with Smith School faculty and other members of the school’s community of business leaders.

Where to Watch
Smith Business Close-Up can be seen bi-weekly on Maryland Public Television's Your Business and Money. The program airs at 7:30 p.m. on Thursdays and is repeated the following Sunday at 7:30 a.m. on public television stations throughout Maryland and the Washington, D.C., metropolitan region, including:

  • WMPB-TV (Ch. 67), Baltimore
  • WMPT-TV (Ch. 22), DC metro/Annapolis
  • WCPB-TV (Ch. 28), Salisbury
  • WFPT-TV (Ch. 62), Frederick
  • WWPB-TV (Ch. 31), Hagerstown
  • WGPT-TV (Ch. 36), Oakland

Media Contact

Greg Muraski
Media Relations Manager
301-405-5283  
301-892-0973 Mobile
gmuraski@umd.edu 

About the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business

The Robert H. Smith School of Business is an internationally recognized leader in management education and research. One of 12 colleges and schools at the University of Maryland, College Park, the Smith School offers undergraduate, full-time and flex MBA, executive MBA, online MBA, business master’s, PhD and executive education programs, as well as outreach services to the corporate community. The school offers its degree, custom and certification programs in learning locations in North America and Asia.

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