Australasian Conference on Information Systems 2022

4-7 December, 2022

Hosted by the University of Melbourne

Tracks

Track Co-Chairs

Description

The General Track welcomes high-quality IS papers focused on the conference theme The Changing Face of IS. We welcome, in particular, papers that explore the related two extremes of the impact of IS. On the one side, the deployment of increasingly sophisticated technologies leads to new security risks, compromises explainability and as a result influences trust, acceptance and with this the overall uptake of technologies. Moreover, digital inclusion and digital intelligence are entirely new challenges. On the other side, current and emerging digital technologies come with previously unknown affordances that facilitate new business models, global engagement and with it, new supply and demand patterns. Such new opportunities are used to create new revenue models and provide new forms of citizen involvement. The tension between these two directions leads to what researchers are now studying as ambidexterity or a paradox.

In addition to a focus on these two directions and their interplay, the General Track welcomes those papers that do not fit within one of the specific ACIS tracks. It therefore considers papers on a wide range of IS topics involving various theoretical positions, methodological approaches and domains of study. Further, this track provides an opportunity for the chairs of other tracks, and their students, to submit to ACIS, should their paper topics fall within the scope of their own tracks.

Track Co-Chairs

Description

To navigate towards our digital future in the age of accelerations, particularly in the context of web3 and metaverse, we must understand the roles played by emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, internet of things, mixed reality, blockchain, cryptocurrency and NFT. They are independently disrupting, reshaping, and transforming the evolving nature of our home, work, business, and society. This track explores the many factors that influence the design, development, adoption, use, and impact of emerging technology applications and adoptions. It also looks at the convergence of emerging technologies and how they potentially could address some of the greatest challenges we face in the 21st century.

We welcome theoretical, design science, case studies and field studies papers that enrich our understanding of some of the emerging technologies both individually and collectively. Topics of interest include but are not limited to:

  • The role of emerging technologies in a sustainable world, a circular economy or a post-COVID era
  • The application and adoption of emerging technologies to digitally transform home, work, business, industry, government, and society
  • The application and adoption of emerging technologies in creating new domains
  • Case study and best practice on designing, developing, adopting, using, and evaluating emerging technologies
  • Decision support models and tools for application and adoption of emerging technologies
  • Innovative design, commercialisation and application of a convergence of emerging technologies
  • The impact of emerging technologies to different communities
  • Research contributions discussing implementation success and failure stories

Submissions in this track have an opportunity for fast tracking publication into the Information Systems Frontiers journal special issue “Application and Adoption of Emerging Technologies: From AI to Metaverse”. See more details here: link.

Track Co-Chairs

Description

In today’s digital age, information and communication technologies have rapidly permeated in all aspects of life. Organisations across the globe are actively undertaking various digital transformation initiatives to improve business process efficiency and effectiveness through automation, information sharing, and data-driven decision making. However, digital transformation typically introduces significant changes not only to organisational business processes, but also to organisational structure and people aspects. Without sound strategy, governance, and leadership, organisations may not achieve their strategic goals and expected outcomes from digital transformation initiatives.

This track provides novel insights on the role of information systems and information technology in the leadership of future organisations, particularly at the level of strategy and governance of firms that exceed regular activities at the operational level. The track focuses on a variety of systems and technologies used in organisational settings that can contribute to the achievement of strategic goals, and to navigating a pathway to the future aided by digital technologies. This includes – but is not limited to – financial and human resources, performance monitoring, and planning systems. Further, the track is interested in studies on corresponding support systems such as decision support systems and collaborative information systems and their role to support the strategic agenda within an organisation. This can include improved strategic decision-making through additional data sources and advanced information processing as well as improved dialogue and communication between systems and users. The track also encourages studies that explore the shortcomings of current technologies in this application area and studies how related challenges can be addressed. Last but not least, the track welcomes studies that examine digital technology deployments in addressing sustainability-related challenges. Topics of interest include but are not limited to:

  • IT-enabled strategic leadership and strategic decision-making
  • Information systems strategy, governance, process, development, and adoption
  • Top management decision support through information systems
  • Enterprise systems: implementation, adoption, and success
  • Enterprise architecture role in digital transformation
  • Governing information and technology resources to achieve competitive advantage
  • The strategic impact of digital work and work mobility
  • The strategic impact of disruptive and emerging technologies and IT innovation
  • The strategic impact of data-driven and IT-enabled leadership and control approaches
  • IT value creation and business alignment
  • The impact of emerging technologies on strategic decision-making
  • Challenges in big data and data analytics for strategic decision-making
  • Innovations in IT governance and their effect on long-term planning
  • Digital Sustainability, and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG)

Track Co-Chairs

Description

The pervasive adoption of digital technologies and infrastructures has fundamentally changed the nature of products, processes, and services. Advances in digital technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, virtual realities, and internet of things are bringing dramatic changes in society, economy, and organizations. Digital innovation and transformation cut across traditional industry and sector boundaries and involve inherently networked architectures, products, and services. The ongoing digitization of products and services is also leading to radically new disruptive and dynamic business models. Further, these accelerated digital transformation are inducing considerable challenges and risks at organizational and individual levels. In particular, rapid workforce automation, digitalization of organizational processes, increased surveillance, and AI-based decision making become key concerns for information systems scholars.

Looking at the intersection of information systems and innovation, this track will confer how digital technology transforms not only the way that value is created with new products, services, organizational, and social innovation but also the future of work design and practices. This track will also present how digitization influences the invention process itself, and how the innovation process becomes digitized. The focus of the track is on new approaches of digital innovation, business model transformation journey in shaping and navigating the digital future at workplaces.

We welcome high quality research papers in any major topic of digital innovations, business models, and future of work with no limitation of the research methodologies. In sum, we seek no less than new ways to transform our understanding of this research area. Topics of interest include but are not limited to:

  • Digital innovation and transformation in business, government, and IS/IT education
  • Innovation theory, models, and practices relevant to information systems
  • Innovative digital business models and digital entrepreneurship
  • Social innovation and ICT
  • Innovation as a process of exploring, generating, and excluding of futures
  • Digitisation and the future of work, workplaces, and occupations
  • Implications of novel technologies (e.g., AI) for the future of work, organisations and industries
  • Challenges of future of work
  • Digital strategy and performance measurement

Track Co-Chairs

Description

Organisations and society in general are faced by challenges around digital technology innovation, and the rapid, large scale change that it brings. While some organisations have achieved unprecedented levels of productivity and profit as a result of embracing digital transformation, many have not. Emerging cyber threats arising from the new competitive environment are the theft of intellectual property and disruption of business continuity. Risks to organisations are exacerbated by the unprecedented scale at which competitive information and knowledge is being collected and analysed by organisations and the increased vulnerabilities from the rapid integration of new and complex technologies into the digital environment such as the internet of things (IoT), and bring your own devices (BYOD).

Despite the importance of security and privacy, much prior work has focused on technical issues and solutions. Behavioural and organisational level research are in a nascent state. This is particularly compelling to address given the onslaught of security and privacy problems that occur with the current poor state of information security governance, and lack of understanding the fundamental human psychology of deviance, as well as weak international laws and regulations. At the same time, it is becoming increasingly apparent that the social and organisational implications of ubiquitous technology are not always positive. This “dark side” of Information Systems can undermine individual wellbeing through technology related stresses, addiction and technology misuse. 

The Information Security Management and Privacy track focuses on how organisations and society can protect themselves considering the disruption caused by digital technology. The track welcomes submissions of the following topics but are not limited to:

  • Adoption and use of information security technologies and practices
  • Employee insecure behaviours, including insider threats, computer abuse, and shadow security
  • Corporate strategies, governance, and management of compliance
  • Cross-cultural issues in security and privacy
  • Risk analysis, management, and assessment
  • Security and privacy concerning social media and other non-work contexts
  • Ethics and regulations for security and privacy
  • Mitigation and prevention strategies for malware, intrusion detection, forensics, security for mobile devices
  • Dark Side of Information systems including technology misuse, stress or addiction

Track Co-Chairs

Description

The goal of the Data Analytics, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Strategic Decision-making track is to advance our knowledge of the complexity of the disruptive technologies of data analytics and AI for better strategic decision-making. Aligned with the conference theme, the emphasis of the track is on how individual and organisational knowledge can be distilled from and incorporated into data analytics for making more effective decisions and guidance to “navigate our digital future”. We encourage submissions that offer significant theoretical and practical contributions on how organisations can utilise emerging and analytics technologies to create value and knowledge more effectively for both organisational and social good. 

We are particularly interested in the incorporation of AI into strategic decisions and policies, as well as the use of analytic tools and techniques in fully supporting and successfully operationalising people’s knowledge in various domains of Information Systems.

This track invites paper submissions that address the challenges and opportunities associated with Data Analytics, AI and their implication/incorporation into business processes and decision-making practices at the individual and organisational levels.

The track accepts both theoretical and practical insights into the areas of interest. The track is open to papers employing various research methods; and accepts completed research papers, as well as research-in-progress papers. Areas of interest include, but are not limited to:

  • Data analytics across the various spectrum of academia and organisations
  • The integration of data analytics and AI for strategic decision-making leading to a sustainable future
  • Design, development, and use of AI to support innovative data-driven decisions and strategies
  • Analytical tools and techniques, such as text analytics and sentiment analysis
  • Visualisation of structured and unstructured data and knowledge
  • Big data velocity and real-time analysis of data in decision-making at the individual and organisational levels
  • Human factor considerations in developing various IS systems including methodological treatment

Track Co-Chairs

Description

The face of healthcare is changing at a fast pace, and digital technologies play an increasingly important role. Digital healthcare refers to the exploration and use of emerging digital technologies to provide cutting-edge, digitally integrated, seamless wellness and healthcare ranging from individual patient to community care services. Digital healthcare research may incorporate various studies in forms of digital health solutions, clinical support systems, point of care systems, self-care systems, digital assistants, community or public health systems, and associated care practices as well as studies that support and care organisational and business capabilities in the healthcare industry. Various digital healthcare systems have gained a strong momentum in recent years for industry, community, and individuals, due to the wider availability of mobile, wearable and IoT devices, for ubiquitous information-tracking, analytics, and exchange.

Despite the rapid growth of digital technologies, there are still challenges not only in addressing data security and privacy issues, but also in providing precise, timely, adequate, and complete information to gain an effective transformation. Furthermore, the global challenges imposed on the communities’ health by global viruses’ outbreaks call researchers to investigate a deeper understanding of the opportunities and challenges associated with transforming clinical and non-clinical practices. There is a need to create a forum to share ideas, discuss how best to address the emergent care demands, as well as predicting and catering for future healthcare needs as well as on-going information needs associated with digital heath care support.

On these views, we welcome submissions from academics, clinicians, students, developers, and industry/government partners in various forms of research in progress, completed research results, and technical reports on the current trends and challenges, contributing to creating a safe and connected health care through digital information dissemination and transformation. Topics of interest include but are not limited to:

  • Applications of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) in healthcare
  • Participatory health information systems
  • Applications of digital technologies to enhance healthcare resilience
  • Digital technologies in global and local epidemic responses
  • Patient-centred smart health systems and patient empowerment
  • Big data and analytics for smart heath, process automation and cognitive automation in healthcare
  • Wearable, RFID, GPRS, and cloud technologies and their role in various healthcare contexts
  • Case studies of real-world healthcare systems applications
  • Advancing systematic literature reviews
  • Advancing IS theories in health informatics and health information systems
  • Digital health contributions to achieving sustainable development goals

Track Co-Chairs

Description

This year’s conference theme is “The Changing Face of IS”. Technology change is constantly shifting the ways we go about work, life and achieving organisational goals. This change creates new opportunities and challenges for the theory and practice of research. For example, algorithmic methods have risen in popularity in tandem with the increased availability of big data.

We invite submissions that address these foundations and practices of IS research. We seek contributions that critically reflect on the motivations, assumptions, methods, and consequences of IS research. This may relate to IS research in general or specific emergent phenomena such as social media, big data and analytics, intelligent/autonomous agents, the Internet of Things, AI, robotics, open source systems, and the sharing economy. We also seek submissions that develop new methodological approaches or examine traditional approaches to IS research. This can relate to their adoption, use, evaluation, and implications for knowledge production, publication, and decision making. This track is open to conceptual and empirical papers from a diversity of genres that advance our knowledge of how we (can) study and theorize IS phenomena. Topics of interest include but are not limited to:

  • Alternative philosophical foundations of IS research and their implications for methodology and the nature of knowledge.
  • Responses to a newly developed ontology of constructs and indicators (Weber, 2021).
  • Analyses of the symbioses of and tensions between different philosophical or methodological approaches in IS and their implications.
  • The contribution to IS research and philosophical and methodological implications of theoretical perspectives such as critical realism, sociomateriality, design science, new institutionalism.
  • A way of seeing is also a way of not seeing (Poggi, 1965) – what remains unanswered using current IS methods?
  • The possible tension between methodological prescription or rigour on the one hand, and creativity, imagination and insight on the other.
  • Evaluations of data and method biases and their impact on knowledge creation or decision-making
  • Ethical or moral dimensions of information and technology use on the lives of individuals and communities, such as the role and use of data and knowledge in a surveillance society.
  • Reflections on the role the of the discipline and its scholars on the ethical or moral dimensions of information and technology use in people’s lives and in society more broadly.
  • Investigations expanding and challenging products of theorizing use in different strands of IS research (Hassan et al. 2022).
  • New methods of observation, measurement, discovery, analysis, or elicitation of real world IS-related phenomena, or critical and constructive analyses of such practices within the discipline.
  • Use of abductive research approaches, such as Q-methodology, in IS research.
  • Critical examinations of the development of the IS literature

References

Hassan, N. R., Lowry, P. B., & Mathiassen, L. (2022). Useful Products in Information Systems Theorizing: A Discursive Formation Perspective. Journal of the Association of Information Systems, 23(2), 418–446.

Poggi, G. (1965). “A Main Theme of Contemporary Sociological Analysis: Its Achievements and Limitations,” The British Journal of Sociology (16:4), pp. 283-294.

Weber, R.A. (2021). “Constructs and Indicators: An Ontological Analysis,” MIS Quarterly, (45: 4) pp.1645-1678.

Track Co-Chairs

Description

Educators and education systems around the world are re-evaluating the knowledge and skills students need to succeed and lead in a rapidly changing and complex world. Looking forward the greatest challenge facing humanity can be summed up as adapting and sizing ourselves to fit within the capacity of one planet. Whilst the devastating health and economic impacts of COVID-19 pandemic continue to be far reaching globally, this has also accelerated the pace of change in the workplace including the higher education sector. Increasingly, our role as educators, centres around the ability to deliver transformational learning that provide graduates with the capabilities and skills needed to adapt, thrive, and lead in a dynamic and sustainable world.

To instigate change and innovation, IS educators must continue to embrace the many challenges in order not only to prepare the graduates for the new work opportunities of digital economy, but also to produce graduates that are knowledgeable, agile, and innovative contributors to the economy and more broadly society. IS education needs to embrace today’s complexity by constantly re-evaluating its curriculum and the impact of the latest technologies (e.g., personalised learning, smart education) to improve the student experience, social equity, and the future of international student mobility.

This track aims to explore new educational models, content, and innovative ways of utilising technology to stimulate the development of essential skills sought-after in the 21st century so that our IS graduates are job ready and highly employable. This track also aims to explore best practices to equip educators with adaptive and sustainable strategies for curriculum design and pedagogy across a wide variety of delivery modes – face-to-face, online, blended or hybrid.

This track welcomes high quality submissions employing diverse research methods ranging from papers aimed at improving curriculum, to papers addressing broader economic and societal topics in IS education, as well as best practice teaching cases. Topics of interest include but are not limited to:

  • Innovative, emergent curriculum principles, pedagogy, design, planning, implementation, practices, and evaluation including augmented and virtual reality and blockchain in the era of Web 3
  • Novel digital learning applications (learning analytics, artificial intelligence technologies, intelligent tutoring systems, conversational agents, gamification, visualisation, interactive technologies etc.) for smart education (teaching and learning).
  • Micro-credentialing, lifelong learning meeting ever-changing industry and societal needs
  • Mobile education, digital educational practices (online, hybrid).
  • Multi and inter-disciplinary approaches to IS education in the new cyber space.
  • Sustainability, social, cultural (including indigenous perspectives), gender equality, and global pedagogical opportunities and challenges for IS education.
  • Innovation and entrepreneurship in IS education.
  • Emergent approaches for sustainable and adaptive IS education.
  • Creative, experiential, transformational, active, hybrid IS learning
  • IS education responding to rapidly changing environments.
  • Case studies, business simulation (digital twins) methodologies and tools design, implementation, and evaluation.

Track Co-Chairs

Description

Information Systems Development (ISD) is a broad concern encompassing great diversity in approaches to analysing, designing, developing, and managing the ISD process. ISD is organised as projects and the management of such projects is a central concern of ISD. Over the recent years, ISD has increasingly changed its face to embrace Agile and hybrid modes of project and product/service delivery in order to deliver greater and sustainable impacts for relevant stakeholders in an accelerated way.

ISD projects of any kind are a complex mix of people, processes, organisational cultures and structures, and advanced and emerging technologies. Organisations employ a diverse set of approaches to address new types of systems enabled by digital technologies, including AI, data analytics, and the Internet of Things. Novel approaches to managing the development of IS artefacts are necessary to address the complexity of the systems being constructed as well as the volatile situations in which they are deployed throughout their life span. Moreover, the choice of development approach influences the structure and/or culture of organisations that leads to new phenomena such as (Biz)DevOps, Squads, and non-project-based continuous development and delivery. Research in these areas can potentially make significant contributions to the theory and practice of ISD. These contributions can help us make sense of past changes to the nature of ISD, or chart the way towards promising ways how ISD could potentially change its face in the future.

This track seeks quality research papers using rigorous research methods that concern current and emerging aspects of ISD, agile and adaptive systems development and the management of IS projects in any context. We welcome explanatory and design-oriented papers. Possible topics of interest include but are not restricted to the following:

  • Theoretical and philosophical aspects of ISD approaches and the management of ISD projects
  • Innovative and alternative approaches to issues in ISD and its management
  • Research methods, tools, and techniques for research of ISD and its management
  • Role of ISD in organisational and digital transformation
  • Digitally enabled agile ISD
  • Managing sustainable development of IS artefacts
  • Reconceptualising success and failure in ISD
  • Case studies of ISD and IS projects
  • Rethinking the management of ISD projects or of continuous delivery approaches
  • Agile, lean, and DevOps approaches to ISD and IS projects
  • Alternate agile approaches to ISD and IS projects
  • Distributed / global ISD
  • Programme of work and portfolio management in IS contexts

Track Co-Chairs

Track Description

Information and Communication Technologies facilitate greater participation in the exchange of information, enabling digital collaboration in various forms such as crowd work, distributed teams, remote work, and recently, the collaboration between AI-driven agents and human employees. Social media is a prominent type of ICT that enables such collaboration by allowing information, ideas, and thoughts, to be shared (or socialised) through virtual networks and communities. These networks can be organisational, inter-organisational, or just part of societal life. For people, using the social media is a primary way of establishing and maintaining social ties and a channel for receiving digital services. For businesses, it (and other digital collaboration platforms) serves to attract, retain, and co-create value with customers and is a rich source of information for predicting customer behaviour and market trends. On the other hand, there are concerns about the unintended consequences and dangers of these platforms and tools. For example, many have raised concerns over users’ digital wellbeing, addiction to smartphones, cyberbullying, fraud, fake information, and breach of privacy. In line with the conference theme “the changing face of IS”, we invite submission of cutting-edge conceptual, methodological, and empirical research that enhances our theoretical insight into and a practical understanding of a wide range of current and future tools and platforms for digital collaboration. Topics of interest include but are not limited to:

  • Knowledge/information sharing, digital collaboration dynamics, and virtual teams
  • Harnessing the full business potential of social capital and digital collaboration tools
  • Social ties (weak and strong ties) and facilitation of interactions
  • New theories about the effects of digital collaboration at one or multiple levels, including individual, departmental, organizational, and inter-organisational levels
  • The use of data science and analytics methods for research on the crowd and digital collaboration
  • Digital collaboration and citizen science
  • New designs of platforms and processes for digital collaboration including smart devices or apps that can be used to share (or socialise) information.
  • Trustworthiness and reliability of the information on digital collaboration tools
  • Management challenges of digital collaboration
  • Ethical concerns, privacy issues and challenges related to ownership of intellectual property
  • Exploration of negative effects of social media and digital collaboration tools (eg, cyberbullying, fraud, and fake news) and mitigation methods
  • Understanding and fighting the diffusion of fake news and misinformation
  • Use of social media, online communications, and digital collaboration tools in times of pandemic (e.g., COVID-19)
  • Implications of regulating social media content (e.g., Australia’s News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code)