Content
Prof. Gregory Vial (HEC Montréal)
- Date: Thursday, January 11th, 2024
- Time: 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm
- Location: Ludwigstr. 28 RG/II; Room 211b
- Title: "Are we there yet? Understanding digital phenomena: Lots done, (lots) more to do"
- Abstract: Over the past fifteen years or so, researchers have dedicated significant effort to describe, conceptualize, and understand digital phenomena. At the same time, the dawn of generative artificial intelligence (AI) can make it appear as though every time we get closer to gaining a more comprehensive understanding of those phenomena, the goalposts move further away like a moving target. Reflecting on my (limited) experience as an author, a reviewer, a reader, and a teacher of digital phenomena, I propose a brief overview of major achievements from research on the topic over the past twelve years before delving into outstanding challenges that continue to preoccupy everyday practitioners and which, in my opinion, provide interesting areas of interest for researchers. Specifically, I argue that digital phenomena bring forth an imperative to revisit our knowledge on the design, the management, and the use of technology, albeit without forgoing the insightful contributions made by previous works. Rather, I propose that we leverage and extend those contributions to prevent “reinventing the wheel” and falling into fads, two possibilities that carry the risk of diluting the accumulation of scientific knowledge that has been a hallmark of IS research. Using the case of generative AI as an illustration of these potential pitfalls, I also reflect on what it implies to be a scholar – in IS as well as in other management disciplines – studying digital phenomena at a time where the acceleration of speed, scale and scope make it particularly challenging to settle on and dedicate significant time to study these phenomena that can appear too transient to be recommendable choices.
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