{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,24]],"date-time":"2026-07-24T06:35:46Z","timestamp":1784874946681,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":109,"publisher":"Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS)","issue":"3","content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Information Systems Research"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2023,9]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>A Theory of Information Compression: When Judgments Are Costly<\/jats:p><jats:p>How useful to tourists are thousands of reviews of different five-star hotels in a city on a travel website when the mean rating is 4.5, and all the five-star hotels score around the mean? How insightful are reviews of physicians on a physician review website to potential patients when the ratings cluster tightly around an average for all physicians? Are there costs to the physicians, the patients, and to society as a whole? When all the students at a university score \u201cA\u201d grades on most courses, are there consequences for the university, the students, and potential employers? This paper calls the \u201cclustering around a mean\u201d phenomenon \u201cinformation compression\u201d and the systems in which it occurs (e.g., universities, students, employers) \u201cjudgment networks.\u201d When there is extensive information compression in a system, measures such as ratings or grades have little value for decision makers. When all five-star hotels in a city score an average of 4.5 does it really matter which one a traveler chooses? The paper introduces a way of measuring information compression. It also suggests ways for organizations to overcome the negative consequences of information compression for themselves and their various stakeholders.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1287\/isre.2022.1163","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,10,18]],"date-time":"2022-10-18T12:24:03Z","timestamp":1666095843000},"page":"1089-1108","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":10,"title":["A Theory of Information Compression: When Judgments Are Costly"],"prefix":"10.1287","volume":"34","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/2.zoppoz.workers.dev:443\/https\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0664-8337","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Richard Thomas","family":"Watson","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602;"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/2.zoppoz.workers.dev:443\/https\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0354-9707","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Kirk","family":"Plangger","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"King\u2019s College London, London WC2B 4BG, United Kingdom;"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/2.zoppoz.workers.dev:443\/https\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3099-9164","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Leyland","family":"Pitt","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, British Columbia V6C 1W6, Canada"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/2.zoppoz.workers.dev:443\/https\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1750-2528","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Amrit","family":"Tiwana","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602;"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"109","reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/S0959-4388(00)00202-6"},{"issue":"1","key":"B2","first-page":"31","volume":"4","author":"Allen D","year":"2003","journal-title":"New Rev. 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