Matthieu Guitton, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Ophthalmology & Otorhinolaryngology
Faculty of Medicine of Laval University, Canada
Editor-in-Chief, Computers in Human Behavior (SSCI-Q1)
Opening Address: "Post-Pandemic E-Business: Meeting New Research Challenges"
Time: 10/14 FRIDAY 9:00-10:20 AM (Canada Time: 9:00-10:20 PM)

ABSTRACT: The Covid pandemic has considerably increased the already important dependency of our daily activities to technology. Technology mediates every aspect of our daily life, and business is no exception. We are now witnessing a massive shift of traditional business activities to new models relying heavily on technology and cyberspace, aka electronic business (e-business). Although e-business existed prior to the pandemic, the post-pandemic reality is giving e-business prevalent importance. The changes in the post-pandemic e-business reality are both changes in scale and complexity, as post-pandemic e-business operates in a hybrid, globalized context and environment. Because of this shift from regular business to e-business, new needs for research are emerging. This presentation explores some of these needs – and challenges – and highlights some strategies that could be implemented to meet them.

BIOSKETCH: Matthieu J. Guitton, Ph.D., FRAI, is a Professor at the Faculty of Medicine and at the Graduate School of International Studies of Université Laval, Senior Researcher/Group Leader at the CERVO Brain Research Center (Quebec City, QC, Canada), and Bualuang ASEAN Professor Chair at Thammasat University (Bangkok, Thailand). He has been Secretary (Vice-Dean) of the Faculty of Medicine of Université Laval between 2016 and 2022. A graduate of the Université de Rouen and Université Paris VI, he holds a Ph.D. from the Université de Montpellier (France) and is a Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain. He is a former Koshland Scholar/Postdoctoral Fellow of Excellence at the Weizmann Institute of Science (Israel). He is the Editor-in-Chief of the “Computers in Human Behavior” family of journals, which includes “Computers in Human Behavior” (the world-leading journal in the field of cyberpsychology, with an Impact Factor of 8.975) and its Open Access companion, “Computers in Human Behavior Reports”. He also is the Psychology & Technology Section Editor of “Acta Psychologica” and serves on other editorial boards such as “Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences” or “Advances in Medicine.” He has published over a hundred papers, book chapters, or editorials on subjects as diverse as cyberpsychology (eHealth, digital inequalities, virtual communities, …), biomedical sciences, cultural studies, or international security. He has acted as a Reviewer for over 100 different journals and is a Reader for several publishing houses, including Nature Publishing Group. He has been invited by numerous universities worldwide, including in Europe (e.g., the University of Oxford, Russian Academy of Sciences, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences), North America (e.g., Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Texas A&M University at Galveston, Université de Montréal), the Caribbean (e.g., Université d’État d’Haïti), Middle-East (e.g., the University of Haifa), or Asia (e.g., Renmin University of China, Thammasat University).

Robert M. Davison, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Information Systems
City University of Hong Kong, SAR China
Editor-in-Chief, Information Systesms Journal (SSCI-Q1)
Keynote I: "An Editor’s Perspective of Information Systems Research"
Time: 10/14 FRIDAY 2:00-3:20 PM

ABSTRACT: In this keynote, I explore the Information Systems (IS) field from the perspective of the editor in chief of the Information Systems Journal, one of the AIS Basket of Eight premier journals. In doing so, my objective is to open up what may be a black box to many reearchers by explaining what editors do in a variety of different situations. I will include such topics as motivatoin (how do researchers motivate their research and what do I as an editor think about that motivation), contributions to theory and practice, rigour and relevance, fit with a particular journal, context where the research is undertaken, bias – whether exercised by researchers or reviewers. I expect that some of the ideas will be controversial and provocative – and so should inspire debate.

BIOSKETCH: Robert Davison is a Professor of Information Systems at the City University of Hong Kong. His research focuses on the use and misuse of information systems, especially with respect to problem solving, guanxi formation and knowledge management, in Chinese organisations. He is particularly known for his scholarship in the domain of action research. Within the AIS, Robert chaired the research ethics committee for many years, and is currently convenor of the College of Senior Scholars. Robert chairs the IFIP WG 9.4 (The Implications of Information and Digital Technologies for Development) and is the Editor-in-Chief of the Information Systems Journal and the Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries. As a researcher and as an editor, he seeks to promote both an inclusive and an indigenous perspective to research.

Chris Rowley, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus, Bayes Business School
City, University of London, UK
Editor-in-Chief, Asia Pacific Business Review (SSCI-Q4)
Keynote II: "Post-Pandemic E-Business: The Importance of Uncertainty, Culture & Leadership"
Time: 10/14 FRIDAY 5:00-6:20 PM (London Time: 10:00-11:20 AM)

ABSTRACT: Business and management lessons from the Covid-19 crisis need to be learned and applied before organisational ‘refreezing’ post-pandemic. Covid’s impacts were both immediate and longer term. Reluctant organisations and people were collectively pushed towards the uncertainty of resisted online business, working and social practices in a ‘dash to digital’. Yet, there is a wide variety of uncertainty – and ‘avoidance’ of it or ‘comfortableness’ with it. We need to be able to experiment and adapt. The jolt of crisis, such as the pandemic, block familiar paths, encourage exploration of fresh ones and awaken us to possibilities. Also important is social norm shifting. Crisis prompt us to find new and better ways as we try out ideas, develop skills, invest in systems and draw strength from others doing likewise. For example, Lewin’s ‘ice cube’ change metaphor shows that in normal circumstances organisations are ‘frozen’ with culture, structure and practices fairly fixed, ‘unfreezing’ in their own time and way in response to threats. The pandemic led to collective common ‘unfreezing’ and thinking on responses. We need to capitalise on this, such as forging better, more meaningful, high productivity working, before ‘refreezing’ starts. Some will build on what has been learnt, while sadly others will scramble to get back to ‘comfort blanket’ of the pre-pandemic ‘ice cube’ shape. Although crisis, like the pandemic, present opportunities, this is only if we actually seize them, meaning being willing to learn and change. This requires effective leadership with a more global outlook and emotional intelligence, conceptual skills and critical thinking.

BIOSKETCH: Chris Rowley is Professor Emeritus of Human Resource Management at Bayes Business School, City, University of London and a visiting fellow at Kellogg College of University of Oxford. He holds a Ph.D. from Nuffield College, University of Oxford. Hw is a leading figure in the study of employment and human resource management and business and management in Asia. He was the founding Director of the Centre for Research on Asian Management at Bayes (formerly Cass) Business School. At Bayes, he won several international grants and awards for his research on management in Asia. He has held a number of external and visiting appointments at universities around the world and is currently Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Asia and Pacific Studies at Nottingham University; Adjunct Professor at the Asia Institute and Asian Studies Department, Griffith University, Australia; and Professorial Fellow, Institute of Hallyu Convergence Research, Korea University in Seoul. He is Editor of the leading academic cross-disciplinary journal on Asia, Asia Pacific Business Review and of the Journal of Chinese Human Resource Management and serves on many other journal editorial boards. He is Book Series Editor of Working in Asia (Routledge), Asian Studies (Elsevier) and Asian Business and Management Studies (World Scientific Press). He collaborates with a network of international colleagues and thought leaders, such as Dave Ulrich from the US, and has published widely, with over 600 journal articles, books and chapters and other contributions in practitioner journals, magazines and newsletters.

J. Christopher Westland, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Information and Decision Sciences
University of Illinois, Chicago, USA
Editor-in-Chief, Electronic Commerce Research (SSCI-Q3)
Keynote III: "Information Loss and Bias in Likert Survey Responses"
Time: 10/15 SATURDAY 9:10-10:30 AM (Chicago Time: Friday 20:10-21:30 PM)

ABSTRACT: Likert response surveys are widely applied in marketing, public opinion polls, epidemiological and economic disciplines. Theoretically, Likert mapping from real-world beliefs could lose significant amounts of information, as they are discrete categorical metrics. Similarly, the subjective nature of Likert-scale data capture, through questionnaires, holds the potential to inject researcher biases into the statistical analysis. Arguments and counterexamples are provided to show how this loss and bias can potentially be substantial under extreme polarization or strong beliefs held by the surveyed population, and where the survey instruments are poorly controlled. These theoretical possibilities were tested using a large survey with 14 Likert scaled questions presented to 125,387 respondents in 442 distinct behavioral-demographic groups. Despite the potential for bias and information loss, the empirical analysis found strong support for an assumption of minimal information loss under Normal beliefs in Likert scaled surveys. Evidence from this study found that the Normal assumption is a very good fit to the majority of actual responses, the only variance from Normal being slightly platykurtic which is likely due to censoring of beliefs after the lower and upper extremes of the Likert mapping. The discussion and conclusions argue that further revisions to survey protocols can assure that information loss and bias in Likert-scaled data are minimal.

BIOSKETCH: Chris Westland is a Professor in the Department of Information & Decision Sciences at the University of Illinois – Chicago and an Overseas Chair Professor at Beihang University, China. He received a Ph.D. in Computers and Information Systems from the University of Michigan. He is a certified public accountant in the U.S. and a consultant in technology law in the US, Europe, Latin America and Asia. He has advised on patent, valuation and technology strategy for numerous technology firms. He published numerous academic papers and nine books: Audit Analytics (Springer 2020), Structural Equation Modeling (Springer 2015 and 2nd ed. 2019); Global Electronic Commerce (MIT Press 2000); Global Innovation Management (Palgrave Macmillan 2nd ed 2017); Red Wired: China’s Internet Revolution (Marshall Cavendish, 2010); Financial Dynamics (Wiley 2003); Valuing Technology (Wiley 2002) and Statistical Auditing with R (forthcoming 2018). He was on the faculties at the University of Michigan, University of Southern California, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Tsinghua University, University of Science and Technology of China, Harbin Institute of Technology, and other academic institutions. Currently, he is the Editor-in-Chief of Electronic Commerce Research (Springer) and have served on editorial boards of several other information technology journals including Management Science, ISR, ECRA, IJEC, and others.

Alain Yee Loong Chong, Ph.D.
Professor and Dean, Graduate School and Global Engagement
University of Nottingham–Ningbo, China
Co-Editor-in-Chief, Industrial Management & Data Systems (SCI-Q2)
Keynote IV: "Opportunities and challenges in the Age of Artificial Intelligence"
Time: 10/15 SATURDAY 3:30- 4:50 PM

ABSTRACT: Artificial intelligence (A.I) is beginning to transform many aspects of business and society with more powerful computers and the availability of big data. Today, we are interacting with A.I. applications such as chatbots who answer our queries, virtual personal assistants such as Cortana, or getting movie or book recommendations from Netflix and Amazon. In this talk, I will present some applications of A.I. in businesses and society and share some of my recent research work in A.I. I will also discuss AI-related ethical challenges, potential coping strategies, and future research agenda.

BIOSKETCH: Alain Yee Loong Chong is a professor in information systems and dean of the Graduate School at the University of Nottingham–Ningbo, China. He obtained his PhD from University of Nottingham and was a postdoctoral research fellow at Hong Kong Polytechnic University. His current research interests include social media analytics, digital transformations, and mobile computing. His work has appeared in Journal of the Association for Information Systems, Information Systems Journal, European Journal of Operations Research, Information & Management, Decision Support Systems, Transportations Research Part B: Methodological, Annals of Operations Research, and International Journal of Operations and Production Management, among other journals. He currently serves as the co-editor of Industrial Management & Data Systems, associate editor of Information & Management and Journal of Computer Information Systems. He was previously the Senior Editor of Decision Support Systems. Alain was named the most cited scholar based in China by Elsevier from 2015 to 2021 and was listed in Stanford University's top two per cent most-cited scientists.