advancing information systems theories, volume ii: products and digitalisation

Information systems research (IS) is an exciting multidisciplinary area that links the rapidly changing technology of information (or communications and information technology, ICT) to the business and social environment. Lately, the discourse surrounding information and systems has leaped into the consciousness of the public in unprecedented ways through the rise of social media, the Internet of Things (IoT), ’fake news’ and the weaponization of information, to name a few. Unfortunately, it has been felt that these developments are overtaking the ability of the IS field to address them, in part, because the field itself lacks its own native theories. It is well known that the IS field undertakes its research using theories from its ’reference disciplines’ such as management, social psychology, economics, communication and computer science, but what this book offers is a clarification and implementation of the discipline’s own foundational theory.

This book is the companion volume to Advancing Information Systems Theories: Volume I, and part of a three part series that aims to advance IS research. This volume addresses the products of information systems theories, examining design principles, information, practice principles for robotics, and other concepts integral to developing theory. The book will be of interest to academics studying information systems, Big Data, digital business, information technology, innovation management, and digital management.

Leslie Willcocks is Emeritus Professor at London School of Economics and Political Science and is an Associate Fellow of Green Templeton College, University of Oxford, UK. He has an international reputation for his work on automation and the future of work, ITO/BPO outsourcing, cloud computing, digital business, strategy, automation, IT and innovation, organisational change and global business management. He was previously Professor in Technology Work and Globalization at the Department of Management. He has published widely in books and journals and is a Series Editor of the Technology, Work and Globalization book series with Palgrave Macmillan.

Nik Rushdi Hassan is Professor of Management Information Systems (MIS) and Business Analytics at the Labovitz School of Business and Economics (LSBE), University of Minnesota Duluth, USA. He is currently senior editor at the Journal of Information Technology and DATA BASE for Advances in Information Systems, and Associate Editor of the Communications of the AIS. He has served as President of the Association of Information Systems (AIS) Special Interest Group on Philosophy in Information Systems (SIGPhil) and was one of the editors of two special issues of the European Journal of Information Systems on Philosophy and the Future of the IS Field and on Managing and Sustaining Digital Transformations. His research areas include the philosophical foundations of the IS field, theorizing and theory building, IS development, business analytics, social network analysis and complexity science, and has published in top journals in information systems.

Suzanne Rivard is a Professor of Information Technology at HEC Montreal and is the HEC Montreal Endowed Chair in Strategic Management of Information Technology. Dr. Rivard is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and a Fellow of the AIS (Association for Information Systems). She received her PhD from the Ivey School of Business, the University of Western Ontario, and she was awarded a doctorate honoris causa from Aix-Marseille Université and from Université de Lausanne. Her research interests are strategic management of information technology, outsourcing of information systems services, and software project management. Her work has been published in such journals as Communications of the ACM, DataBase, Journal of Information Technology, Journal of Management Information Systems, Journal of Strategic Information Systems, MIS Quarterly, Organization Science, and others.