Governance, Strategy, and Value of IS

Track Description
Our society is advancing rapidly with successive technological breakthroughs. Developments like artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), blockchain, and digital platforms have opened up opportunities for innovation. At the same time, they have created challenges relating to the governance, propagation and strategic use of technology. Both public and private sectors seek new ways and strategies to navigate an increasingly complex environment involving new technologies. There is an increasing need for research to provide insights into how organizations should formulate strategies and govern in order to gain the most value out of information systems (IS) and communication technologies.

For example, industry 4.0 with machine learning enables firms to maximize operational efficiencies to the extreme and further augment strategic agility. Commercialization of AI offers a completely new range of business opportunities, rendering competitive landscapes even more turbulent and dynamic than before. The emerging IoT technology is moving from trials to full deployments to enable the smart management of infrastructures like bridges and roads as well as consumer products like fashion items and personal/home IoT devices. Cloud computing and the consumerization of digital technologies allow ordinary employees with little formal technology training to adopt and implement IS on their own, posing challenges to firms related to security and complicating both the governance of IT and assessment of value from corporate systems. Workarounds, where employees deviate from corporate expectations to use systems in specific ways, have emerged as a major challenge, yet they also constitute an opportunity to work in more effective and efficient ways. Finally, firms utilize digital technologies to eliminate structural bottlenecks that fundamentally limit supplies or demands enabling new ways of working that create more value for a variety of stakeholders.

Track Chairs
Wai Fong Boh, Nanyang Technological University
Carol Ou, Tilburg University
M.N. Ravishankar, Loughborough University