Conference Theme Track B: IS for Resilience

Intense business competition, geopolitical uncertainty, social unrest, societal inequity, natural disasters, and disease outbreaks can cause major disruptions to the operations of organizations, and to the lives of individuals and communities. What is remarkable is that all of these entities are increasingly dependent on information systems (IS) to adjust to and recover from such disruptions. For example, flood and wildfire victims have relied on social media to find information about shelter locations and organize disaster relief efforts. Universities and schools have attempted to minimize the disruption from COVID-19 by moving to online teaching platforms. Companies have used video conferencing and virtual teams to sustain productivity when access to office buildings is disrupted. Physicians are engaging in telemedicine to continue to serve their patients, and communities use social platforms to organize. Individuals themselves are engaging with a mind-boggling variety of online platforms to access health care related information and to take care of their mental health by staying in touch with loved ones. Clearly, while we have known that IS are imperative for business success in regular times, what is now forcefully evident is that IS are indispensable for the resilience of organizations, societies and individuals, during unexpected disruptions.

This track provides a forum for presenting and discussing original research highlighting the opportunities and challenges related to designing, deploying, and using IS to develop and enable resilience, not only during major disruptions, but also as an ongoing focus of organizing and living. We invite qualitative, quantitative/survey, analytical, computational, data-science, conceptual, design science-oriented, and multi-method submissions that leverage the multiple perspectives of IS toward the goal of resilience.

Track Chairs:
Christy M.K. Cheung, Hong Kong Baptist University, ccheung@hkbu.edu.hk
Ning Nan, The University of British Columbia, ning.nan@sauder.ubc.ca
Jui Ramaprasad, University of Maryland, jramapra@umd.edu
Monideepa Tarafdar, University of Massachusetts Amherst, mtarafdar@umass.edu