Programme

PhD

Term

V

Academic Year

2021-22

Course title

Organizational Impacts of Information Technologies

Area

Information Systems

Credits

1.00

Instructor(s)

Prof. Pankaj Setia

Course Description & Objectives

Course Background: Advanced information technologies are transforming the ways we organize, as they transform how organizations create value. The impacts of information technologies are seen across social and private organizations, as well as communities. Therefore, contemporary research focusses on assessing the organizational impacts of information technologies. Notably, as new strategic and competitive dynamics emerge, researchers are re-examining established models for creating and leveraging information technologies. Research in this domain examines a broad range of issues, spanning IT-enabled value creation, use of social media-based systems, digital platforms, IT governance, and IT architectures, amongst others. This seminar exposes students to a very broad range of topics, covering academic literature on these topics–discussing theories, conceptual issues, and empirical designs most pertinent for researching these different domains. Objectives: The key objective of the seminar is to provide a broad review of IS research related to the organizational impacts of information technologies (IT). The course helps develop a good understanding of contemporary models across various domains of IS research, examining how firms build and leverage IT innovations. Students will learn how to critically apply scientific theories and methodologies to address research questions in these domains. The readings and discussions are intended to help students identify new research issues and questions, critique existing theories, and build new theoretical and empirical models. Learning Outcomes: Become familiar with a broad range of information systems (IS) research, examining the organizational dynamics related to creating and leveraging information technologies. Learn and articulate theoretical foundations, findings, and conclusions of scientific works across various topic areas discussed in the course. Critically evaluate scientific works and findings, apply scientific principles, and evaluate research methods. Conduct original and creative new research in the topic areas, learning how to survey research, identify research gaps, develop important research questions, write hypotheses, and create effective research designs.

Pedagogy

Before each class, students are expected to read all the assigned readings and prepare for the class. In addition to reading the articles, each student will select one of the assigned readings and prepare a typed synopsis for the manuscript. This synopsis must provide the following information: The focus of the article    Summary of key results Author/s’ view of the article’s contribution What the student learned from this article What the student would have liked the author to do different The student will print the copies of synopses and bring to the class for fellow students and the instructor (digital mode of sharing may be used as an alternate). The student is expected to lead the discussion in the class on the article they summarize. Class participation will be assessed based on student’s participation during class discussions, both as a leader as well as a participant. In addition to class participation, a student is expected to write a research paper. This research paper may be empirical, a paper that reviews the existing theories and presents a research design for a study, or a conceptual paper that develops a new theory. Students are advised to refer to the format descriptions for these papers in leading journals, such as the MIS Quarterly. The topic of the paper has to be related to the readings for the course. As an aide to research paper development, student presentation of their research paper is an intermediate step during the course. In the presentation, the student will discuss the empirical or theoretical model they are developing, present the background context for the specific phenomenon being studied, provide a figure/equation for the research model they intend to build, define all the constructs in the research model, and provide arguments (citing relevant literature) for the relationships (hypotheses or propositions) depicted. You will get detailed comments on your presentation from the class and me. This feedback should be included in the final research paper submitted.