Archive for the 'conferences' Category

Nothing like an engaging conference

Published on August 14, 2009 in conferences. 1 Comment Tags: , , , .

A week from today I will be headed to Helsinki School of Economics for the Center for Knowledge and Innovation Research workshop. From their website, this is the focus of the conference:

The workshop focuses on LEADERSHIP AND GOVERNANCE INNOVATION. The ongoing profound transformation of the world economy calls for new ways to lead and govern collective action in companies, actor networks and broadly in society. The old governance models and structures do not sufficiently guide and support us in our aims for sustainable life, well-being and long-term wealth creation in the transforming economy.

Prior to this conference, I’ll be attending the NITIM doctoral consortium, giving and receiving feedback from other doctoral students on our dissertation topics. I am excited to meet some great people, and hear some great ideas.

Chad Anderson: Materiality and Affordances

Published on March 20, 2009 in commentary, conferences and research. Closed Tags: , , , , , , .

Today Chad Anderson reported on the ground work for his dissertation. He cited several Organizational scholars who have called for more theorizing in how materiality relates to the IT artifact.

He then related the theory of affordances which originated from Gibson’s 1979 work in Ecological Psychology. Gibson died shortly after proposing the theory, and many others have gone on to explicate it. Chad relates affordances to IT research as the relationship between “features of an information system and the abilities of an individual within the context of an environment.” It will be interesting to see where this goes… and I am sure Chad can correct me if I mis-discribing something!

This colloquium session was a bit more theoretical than most, but very interesting.

Alan Lee, Formative & Summative Validity

Published on February 14, 2009 in commentary, conferences and research. Closed Tags: , , , , , , , , , .

alan_leeIn a very provocative research seminar at GSU yesterday, Alan Lee explained how information systems researchers typically test how well the data fits their model (establish formative validity, modus ponens), but rarely test how well the theory works, or predicts (establish summative validity, modus tollens).

Here is a few other items I noted:

  • He asked: Instead of doing a grounded theory investigation of the literature, why not do a hermeneutic interpretation? He cited scholars who have said that the logic of the hermeneutic circle is hypothetical deductive reasoning, which is the logic of modus tollens (summative).
  • He sees a truce between the different research camps (qualitative, quantitative, etc.) not an open armed embracing, all-on-the-same-team feeling. I can see that.
  • In his paper, there are useful tables which outline how each research method area uses formative and summative validity… formative validity is found in the hermeneutic circle, replication across cases and the principle of dialogical reasoning.
  • There was a discussion about how methodological papers can become a check-list for researchers, which stifles creativity in methods.

His paper should be published in MISQ.

Netweaving, a few insights

Published on January 29, 2009 in commentary and conferences. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

art_and_heart_of_netweavingThe Atlanta Management Society put on a lunch seminar at the Emory Business School on Netweaving today. The inventor of the concept, Bob Littell, explained that if networking is about “What’s in it for me”, Netweaving is about “What can I do for you”. Thus it relies on reciprocity. Another key is introducing people to each other. He has encouraged Georgia State MBA students to read the Atlanta Business Chronicle and setup meetings between two news makers.

Two insights:

  • When in a networking situation, skip long spells of small-talk, initiate meaningful dialogue by asking questions such as, “What is the best business book you have read in the last few years, or what are the challenges and issues your industry is currently facing?” Small talk does not develop meaningful relationships.
  • Instead of just sending an email to a new contact saying “good to meet you” – send them a useful resource with your summary of the key takeaways.

If you are interested — there is the Netweaver skills assessment, and the Netweaver’s creed (pdf).

Learning Styles and Problem-based learning

Published on January 2, 2009 in conferences and research. Closed Tags: , , .

I recently presented some research at the IAIM conference in Paris. The central research question was:iaim-logo1

Can satisfaction with problem-based learning be explained by students’ learning styles?

A few people at the conference were interested in a few instruments I mentioned:

The paper is available in the proceedings.