Using Smartphone Location Data for Strategy Research
本文解释智能手机位置数据的构建、获取和推断方法，评估其对商业地点的覆盖，并提供与财务数据匹配的指南，适合管理研究者评估该数据源的价值。
Smartphones regularly track the precise locations of millions of people worldwide. These data are increasingly used in industry and academic settings to measure firm performance, workplace behavior, social interactions, and other metrics. We demystify this rich data source and explain how these data are constructed, how researchers can obtain access, and best practices when making inferences. Furthermore, we examine mobility data’s coverage of business locations against a popular business listing data source (Data Axle) and provide guidelines on matching mobility data to firm financials (Compustat). Finally, we provide sample data, code for illustration, and a website for data exploration ( https://www.mobilitydataresearch.com/ ) and highlight opportunities and limitations of using these data for management and strategy research. Funding: This work was funded by the University of Virginia Darden School of Business. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/stsc.2024.0317 .