Paper Number
ECIS2026-2825
Paper Type
CRP
Abstract
Digital futures have become an important topic in IS research, highlighting the need to understand how digital technologies can shape different possible futures. Yet most work in this area is still conceptual, and we know little about how future managers imagine the role of digital technologies or whether their representations support or challenge dominant imaginaries about technological progress. This paper explores how first-year management students at a Swiss business school imagine digital technologies in their everyday lives in 2050. Drawing on digital futures research and the concept of sociotechnical imaginaries, we analyze 103 “letters from the future” using qualitative coding. Our findings show that future managers exhibit diverse representations of technological futures, and do not necessarily adhere to the dominant sociotechnical imaginary that portrays technological innovation as a source of progress. Their representations are diverse in terms of the impacts on their everyday lives and how they feel about them.
Recommended Citation
Durosier, Hans HD; Amer, Estefania; and Missonier, Stephanie, "Digital Futures Of The Next Generation Of Managers: An Empirical Study" (2026). ECIS 2026 Proceedings. 15.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/ecis2026/conf_theme/conf_theme/15
Digital Futures Of The Next Generation Of Managers: An Empirical Study
Digital futures have become an important topic in IS research, highlighting the need to understand how digital technologies can shape different possible futures. Yet most work in this area is still conceptual, and we know little about how future managers imagine the role of digital technologies or whether their representations support or challenge dominant imaginaries about technological progress. This paper explores how first-year management students at a Swiss business school imagine digital technologies in their everyday lives in 2050. Drawing on digital futures research and the concept of sociotechnical imaginaries, we analyze 103 “letters from the future” using qualitative coding. Our findings show that future managers exhibit diverse representations of technological futures, and do not necessarily adhere to the dominant sociotechnical imaginary that portrays technological innovation as a source of progress. Their representations are diverse in terms of the impacts on their everyday lives and how they feel about them.