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A Touch of Class by Cody Morris. A bi-weekly look at the McCombs School experience. |
November 7, 2001
"Geek" to Guru
Alina Chircu
Assistant Professor of Management Science
and Information Systems
While many children devoted their Saturday mornings to watching cartoons, Professor Alina Chircu spent her free time improving her skills in a different kind of programming. As a child she attended numerous academic programming contests. Looking back, she says this is where it all began. Over 20 years and three degrees later, Professor Chircu continues to develop her research and understanding for e-business, intermediation in electronic commerce, and information technology adoption through research and lectures at the McCombs School of Business. Little did she know her grade school contests would transform to a lifelong career of academic research in a field that has revolutionized the world.
Chircu, Assistant Professor of Management Science and Information Systems, is in her first year at UT and sixth in the United States. Prior to coming to the U.S., where she earned her PhD from the Carlson School of Management at The University of Minnesota, she attended and worked at the National Technical University in Athens, Greece. Here, the native Romanian honed her skills in systems analysis and design working with third generation (3G) mobile telecommunication networks. Her research on the cost and benefits of several architectural solutions helped refine the common technology platform, UMTS, that now supports 3G wireless systems throughout European Union countries.
Interested in gaining a broader perspective on how new Internet and wireless technologies were revolutionizing business, Chircu headed north to pursue a PhD in the Minnesota cold weather. She continued to consult, research and teach while in school in Minnesota. One of the companies she continually consulted with was Carlson Wagonlit Travel, a global leader in travel management. Carlson Wagonlit Travel charged Chircu with advising on their e-commerce initiatives, collecting relevant data and analyzing the value of e-commerce travel reservations versus traditional travel agent services.
One of her ongoing projects today stemmed from previous research with Carlson Wagonlit in regards to e-commerce corporate travel reservation systems. The increasing popularity of these systems among corporate travel departments intrigued Chircu to take her research to the next level. She started to investigate the prevailing view that electronic reservation systems should be better than traditional agents at finding the lowest fare available. But she later found that the advantages of using online reservations, which offer more control through their visual lists of prices and schedules, are apparent only when users are indeed willing to accept lower fares. No significant differences could be found when users wanted to use a specific airline rather than simply accepting the lowest price available. Therefore, she concluded that while electronic travel reservation systems are saving companies money in some settings, their value should not be overestimated.
E-commerce travel reservation systems are merely one of Chircu’s ongoing research projects. She is also currently looking at how online companies compete with older “brick and mortar” companies. One of her earlier predictions – now proven true - was that “brick and mortar” companies can successfully compete with online players if they acquire e-commerce capabilities. Her third research focus is broader ranging, examining the adoption of e-commerce systems by large and small, old and new corporations. For example, she is investigating how trust affects the adoption of such systems, and how companies can encourage continuous use of these systems once they are implemented.
The once self-proclaimed geek will bring her new experiences in systems management to the Texas MBA chalkboard for the first time in the McCombs School program this spring. The professor has taught previous MBA courses in e-commerce and decision support systems for e-business at Minnesota. Her passion for academic research is only complimented by her enthusiasm for sharing her findings with an eager business audience. Chircu will present her models and research as part of the Managing Systems: IT Leadership and Business Process Management course in the core MBA Information Management program.
In her little free time, Professor Chircu enjoys drawing and hiking. She was able to visit Utah recently where she said she viewed and climbed real mountains for the first time in four years. Joining her on the trip was her husband, Flavius, of five years who is currently trying to relocate to Austin.
You will have to ask yourself if she bought the ticket to Utah using an electronic reservation system or a traditional travel agent.
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