Coping with Complexity in a Digital World
The submission period has been closed
Many of the topics of greatest interest to IS researchers involve complex interactions among information, individuals, groups, communities, organisations, markets and technologies.
Many IS scholars struggle to tackle such complex interactions due to the fundamental conflict between the dynamic, multilevel nature of the phenomena in interest and the variance-based and single-level focus of traditional theories and methods. Recent research using complexity science (both theory and the agent-based simulation method) has shown much promise for the complexity science as a powerful new approach for theory building and empirical testing in such complex socio-technical domains (e.g., Benbya & McKelvey 2006a & b; Johnson et al. 2014; Nan 2011; Nan & Lu 2014; Tanriverdi et al. 2010; Vessey & Ward 2013; Vidgen & Wang 2009).
However, systems thinking is still underdeveloped in theorising and publications about IS phenomena. In a turbulent world that changes at the speed of light there is room for debate and research on how IS, project management and behaviours can mesh together in order to make sense and govern our activities. Complexity theory offers an important lens through which information, information systems, environmental uncertainties, project management and organisational risks can be better understood.
We live in a “projectified” world, where change, revenue earning and many other activities take place through project-based processes (Geraldi et al., 2011). Business strategies, which imply organisational change, usually require the development of projects, e.g. IT projects. However, organisations fail in implementing their strategies even though they employ project, program and portfolio management techniques (Serra & Kunc, 2015). As recurring significant change impacts firms (mergers, evolution of Business Models and customer relationships, strategic reorientation, cost reduction programmes…), the capacity to understand IS-enabled organisational transformations is still lacking (Besson & Rowe, 2011).
Information systems development (ISD) is itself a complex activity. This complexity is magnified by the continuous changes in user requirements, by stakeholders collaboration in the design process of digital architectures, and by changing organisational needs in changing external competitive environments. Research findings show that, if this increasing complexity is not dealt with appropriately, information systems fail (Benbya & Mckelvey, 2006a).
The misalignment of information systems (IS) components, including its users, with the rest of an organisation remains a critical and chronic issue for the IS function and Chief Information Officers (Benbya & Mckelvey, 2006b; Preston et al. 2006; Walsh et al. 2014).
Bridging the French tradition exemplified by works of Edgar Morin (2007), Jean-Louis Le Moigne and Marie-José Avenier (2007, 2010), the British tradition in the lineage of Peter Checkland and the more American tradition of complexity science (Nang, 2011; Tanriverdi et al. 2010), the theme of the conference “Handling Complexity in a Digital World” will focus on these issues. Multiple tracks, underlining explicitly complexity or not, will address them to a lesser or greater extent. Papers which are not addressing complexity at all, or whose topics are not covered by other tracks can be submitted to the “General Topics” track, as long as they deal with IS-related topics.
Suggested tracks / topics and track chairs
1 Knowledge management, knowledge sharing and complexity
(Ahmed Bounfour, Aurélie Dudézert)
2. Electronic communication, E-commerce and complexity
(Imed Boughzala, Jessie Pallud)
3 Decision-making, group work, collaborative movements and complexity
(Cécile Godé, Christophe Elie-dit-Cosaque, Nathalie Mitev )
4. IS Project management, governance and complexity
(Johanna Habib, Redouane El Amrani, Guillaume Biot-Paquerot)
5. Institutionalisation and systems implementation
(Frederic Adam, Andrea Carugati and Lapo Mola )
6 Inter-organisational systems, supply chains and complexity
(Fergal Carton, François de Corbière, Daniel Thiel)
7. Strategy, organisational design and complexity
(Serge Amabile, Liette Lapointe)
8. Information systems automation, fragility and systemic effects
(Arnaud Gorgeon, Lynne Markus)
9. Business Process modeling
(Chantal Morley, Isabelle Comyn-Wattiau)
10. Artificial intelligence and augmented reality
(Walter Baets, Alain Berger, Claire Gauzente)
11. ISD, agile methods and DevOps
(Brian Fitzgerald, George Kuk, Valérie Fernandez)
12 Sustainability and IS
(Florence Rodhain, Stefan Seidel)
13 E-government and smart cities
(Henri Barki, Ryad Titah)
14 Outsourcing and offshoring
(Bouchaib Bahli, Suzanne Rivard, Shirish Srivastava)
15 Business model innovation
(Boris Fritscher, Yves Pigneur)
16 Crowdsourcing, open innovation & absorptive capacity
(Jean-Fabrice Lebraty, Carine Dominguez-Péry)
17 Epistemology, design science and research methods in IS
(Marie-José Avenier, Amandine Pascal, Eddie Soulier)
18 Social media & communication
(Nabila Boukef, Aurélie Girard, Stéphanie Missonier)
19 Big data, analytics IS and societal challenges
(Bernard Fallery, Samuel Fosso-Wamba)
20 Security and privacy
(Yves Barlette, Caroline Lancelot-Miltgen)
21 Information technology, product lifecycle management and innovation
(Mickael David, Valéry Merminod)
22 IS, globalisation and developing countries
(Véronique Guilloux, Emmanuel Houzé)
23 Mobile systems, mobility and behaviours
(Aurélie Leclerq, Jean-Eric Pelet )
24 IS for pedagogy, e-learning and MOOCs
(Emmanuelle Bernardin, Oihab Allal-Cherif )
25 Health information systems
(Guy Paré, Roxanna Ologeanu)
26 E-tourism
(Cécile Clergeau, Amir Hasnaoui)
27 IS, entrepreneurship and start-ups
(Jo-Anne Lim, Laurence Caron-Fasan)
28 IS and finance
(Wendy Currie, Myriam Raymond)
29 Cloud computing, new architectures and services
(Marc Bidan, Nathalie Dagorn)
30 Enterprise systems for SMEs
(François Deltour, André Mourrain)
31 General topics
(Nassim Belbaly, Alain Cucchi, Marc Favier)
