About the Authors

V.K. Narayanan is currently the Stubbs professor of strategy and entrepreneurship at

Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (USA) and Associate Dean for Research

in the LeBow College of Business. He holds a Ph.D. in business from the Graduate School

of Business at the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Since 1988, he has been on

the editorial board of Organization Science. He has authored (or co-authored) more than

60 papers and four books. His articles have appeared in leading professional journals

such as Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Management

Information Systems Quarterly, R&D Management and Strategic Management

Journal.

Deborah J. Armstrong is an assistant professor of information systems at the University

of Arkansas (USA). She received her Ph.D. from the University of Kansas (2001) with

a concentration in information systems and supporting emphasis in organizational

communications. Dr. Armstrong’s research interests cover a variety of issues at the

intersection of IS personnel and mental models involving the human aspects of technology,

change, learning and cognition.

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Fran Ackermann is a professor of strategy and information systems. Her main research

areas include investigating how information systems can enhance the process

of modeling complex qualitative data (in areas such as strategy making, problem solving

and project failure). Through using a combination of cause mapping and information

systems she is interested in exploring how the processes of eliciting, structuring,

analyzing and enabling the group to directly interact with the resultant model can be

supported and enhanced. With Colin Eden she has developed both Decision Explorer and

Group Explorer, group decision support packages enabling groups to manage such

complexity. She has written widely in the fields of management science, strategic

management and information systems.

Mari W. Buche is an assistant professor of information systems at Michigan Technological

University (USA). She earned her Ph.D. in business administration/management

information systems from the University of Kansas. She investigates issues related to

the impact and management of technology change on employees within the business

environment. Her research interests include software engineering, change management,

information security, and work force issues in IS. Her current work focuses on the

changing work identity of information technology professionals.

Kathleen M. Carley is a professor of computation, organizations and society at the

Institute for Software Research International at Carnegie Mellon University (USA). She

received her Ph.D. from Harvard University. Her research combines cognitive science,

social networks and computer science. Her specific research areas are computational

social and organization theory, group, organizational and social adaptation and evolution,

dynamic network analysis, computational text analysis, and the impact of telecommunication

technologies and policy on communication, information diffusion, disease

contagion and response within and among groups particularly in disaster or crisis

situations. She has co-edited several books including: Computational Organization

Theory, Simulating Organizations, and Dynamic Network Analysis.

Gail P. Clarkson earned her Ph.D. at Leeds University Business School, The University

of Leeds (UK) where she is currently employed as a post-doctoral researcher, under the

auspices of the UK Advanced Institute of Management Research (AIM). A recent

entrant to the academic profession, following a successful career as a university

administrator, Dr. Clarkson has particular expertise in the application of causal mapping

techniques in organizational field settings. In collaboration with Gerard P. Hodgkinson,

she is currently investigating sensemaking and other socio-cognitive processes among

frontline workers, with a view to developing new insights that will ultimately enhance

employee effectiveness and well being.

James F. Courtney is a professor of management information systems at the University

of Central Florida in Orlando (USA). He received his Ph.D. in Business Administration

with a major in management science from the University of Texas at Austin. His papers

have appeared in several journals, including Management Science, MIS Quarterly,

Communications of the ACM, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics,

Decision Sciences, Decision Support Systems, the Journal of Management Information

Systems, Database, Interfaces, the Journal of Applied Systems Analysis, and the Journal

of Experiential Learning and Simulation. His present research interests are knowledgebased

decision support systems, knowledge management, inquiring (learning) organizations

and sustainable economic systems.

Jana Diesner is a research associate and linguistic programmer at the Center for

Computational Analysis of Social and Organizational Systems (CASOS) at the Institute

for Software Research International, School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon

University (USA). She received her master’s degree in communication science from the

Dresden University of Technology (Germany). Her research combines communication

science, linguistics, social networks, and computer science. Her specific research area

is computational text analysis. She investigates new approaches towards the effective

and efficient analysis of the network structure of large-scale collections of textual data

and methodological aspects of the technique.

Colin Eden is director of the University of Strathclyde Graduate School of Business and

Professor of Strategic Management and Management Science (UK). His major research

interests are the relationship between operational decision making practices and their

strategic consequences; the processes of strategy making in management teams; the use

of group decision support in the analysis and making of strategy; and managerial and

organizational cognition. He is the author of seven books and over 150 scholarly articles

in management science and strategic management.

Gerard P. Hodgkinson (Ph.D., University of Sheffield) is a professor of organizational

behaviour and strategic management at Leeds University Business School, The University

of Leeds (UK). His principal research interests center on the analysis of psychological

factors in individual and organizational decision making, effectiveness and wellbeing

(especially the nature and significance of actors’ mental models and the development

and validation of methodological techniques for the investigation of managerial and

organizational cognition). His work on these and other topics has appeared in a number

of major journals and other prestigious outlets including Human Relations, Organizational

Research Methods, Organization Studies and Strategic Management Journal.

Luca Iandoli received his degree in electronics engineering. Currently he is a researcher

with the Department of Business and Managerial Engineering, University of Naples

Federico II (Italy). In 1998 he received a graduation award from Fiat Research Center; in

1999 he worked at the Department of Computer Science of University of Naples within

the European research project Compete. His current research interests include application

of soft computing techniques to business and management, human resource

management and decision making support systems. His papers have been published in

Small Business Economics, Journal of Global Information Technology and Management,

Journal of Information Science and Technology, and Fuzzy Economic Review.

Jiali Liao received a B.E. (Industrial Management Engineering) from Xi’an Jiaotong

University and Master of Management from Xi’an Jiaotong University (1999). She is

currently a doctoral student at the department of decision sciences, Drexel University

(USA). Her research interests include financial engineering and risk management.

Tor J. Larsen earned a Ph.D. in management information systems from the University

of Minnesota. Since then he has worked as associate professor at the Norwegian School

of Management (Norway), Department of Leadership and Organizational Management.

From 2001-2002, he was visiting professor at the John Cook School of Business, Saint

Louis University. In addition to reviewing for many central conferences and journals, he

has acted as associate editor for the Journal of Global Information Management,

Computing Personnel, and MIS Quarterly. Dr. Larsen’s publications are found in

publications such as Information & Management and the Journal of MIS. His present

research interests include innovation, diffusion, innovation outcome specification,

management information systems, and systems development.

Douglas L. Micklich is an instructional assistant professor of management at Illinois

State University in Normal, Illinois (USA). He holds an M.B.A. from Illinois State

University and undergraduate degrees in management information systems and organizational

behavior from The University of Tulsa. Doug’s research interests include the

role of information systems in strategy formulation and implementation, corporate and

competitive strategy, concept/causal mapping in strategy, and leadership in strategy

development and implementation. He is published in The Journal of Private Enterprise

and has articles in the proceedings of professional organizations such as The Association

of Private Enterprise Education, The Association for Business Simulation and

Experiential Learning and The Small Business Director’s Association.

Kay Nelson is an associate professor of MIS and director of The Center for Information

Technologies in Management at the Fisher College of Business, The Ohio State

University (USA). She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin in information

systems. Dr. Nelson has published articles about IT strategy issues, software engineering,

and IT/Business partnership in publications such as MIS Quarterly, European

Journal of Information Systems and Decision Support Systems. Her research awards

include the ICIS best paper award and the WITS best paper award. Dr. Nelson is a

National Science Foundation Career Scholar.

Fred Niederman serves as the Shaughnessy Endowed Professor of MIS at Saint Louis

University (USA). His doctoral degree is from the University of Minnesota. His primary

research areas pertain to using information technology to support teams and groups,

global information technology, and information technology personnel. He has published

more than 20 refereed journal articles include several in top MIS journals including

MIS Quarterly, Communications of the ACM, and Decision Sciences; has presented

papers at several major conferences; serves as associate editor of the Journal of Global

Information Systems.

Robert F. Otondo is an assistant professor of management information systems at The

University of Memphis (USA). He received his Ph.D. in computer information systems

from the School of Accountancy and Information Management at Arizona State University.

Dr. Otondo’s research interests include organizational learning, knowledge man382

agement, and system dynamics, and their associations with emerging technologies such

as Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID). His research has been published or accepted

by Decision Support Systems, Personnel Psychology, Best Paper Proceedings of the

Academy of Management Conference, Cycle Time Research, the Society for Industrial

and Organizational Psychology Conference, and academic books.

Marshall Scott Poole (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin) is a professor of information and

operations management and of communication at Texas A&M University (USA). He has

conducted research and published extensively on the topics of group and organizational

communication, computer-mediated communication systems, information systems impacts

on organizations, conflict management, and organizational innovation. He has coauthored

or edited eight books including A Manual for Group Facilitation, Communication

and Group Decision-Making, Research on the Management of Innovation, and

Organizational Change and Innovation Processes: Theory and Methods for Research.

Tom L. Roberts is an assistant professor in the Accounting and Information Systems

Department in the School of Business at the University of Kansas (USA). His current

research interests include project management, collaborative technology, and the

behavioral aspects of the information technology profession. His publications have

appeared in variety of IS journals.

Steven D. Sheetz is an associate professor of accounting and information systems at the

Pamplin College of Business at Virginia Tech (USA). He received his Ph.D. in information

systems from the University of Colorado. His research interests include the cognitive

complexity of developing information systems, learning and use of object-oriented

development techniques, medical information systems, and the application of group

support systems technology. He has published articles in Decision Support Systems,

International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, Journal of Management Information

Systems, Journal of Systems and Software, Decision Support Systems, and Object-

Oriented Systems.

Rajendra P. Srivastava is the Ernst & Young professor of accounting and Director of the

Ernst & Young Center for Auditing Research and Advanced Technology at the School

of Business, University of Kansas (USA). He holds a Ph.D. in accounting from the

University of Oklahoma, Norman and a Ph.D. in physics from Oregon State University,

Corvallis. Professor Srivastava’s publications have appeared in The Accounting

Review, Journal of Accounting Research, Auditing: A Journal of Practice and Theory,

Journal of Management Information Systems and many other accounting and AI

journals. He is currently associate editor of Journal of Emerging Technologies in

Accounting, and has been a member of the editorial and review board of several journals.

David P. Tegarden received his Ph.D. from the University of Colorado at Boulder. He is

an associate professor of information systems and a research fellow in the Center for

Human-Computer Interaction at Virginia Tech (USA). His current research areas include

object-oriented software engineering, collaborative cognitive and concept mapping,

continuous assurance, and information visualization. He has published in the Communications

of the AIS, Decision Support Systems, International Journal of Accounting

Information Systems, International Journal of Human Computer Studies, Journal of

Information Systems, Journal of Management Information Systems, Journal of Systems

and Software, Object-Oriented Systems, Omega, and Software Quality Journal.

Linda F. Tegarden received her Ph.D. from University of Colorado at Boulder and is an

associate professor of management at Virginia Tech (USA). Her areas include strategy,

entrepreneurship and innovation management. In addition to causal mapping research

in the strategic management area, she also studies performance implications of innovation

and technological change on both incumbents and startups and strategic planning

processes in high technology environments. Her articles are published in Strategic

Management Journal, Journal of Management Studies, Journal of High Technology

Management, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Journal of Managerial Issues

and Journal of Business Research.

Huy V. Vo is an assistant professor of management information systems at Ho Chi Minh

City University of Technology (Vietnam). He received his Ph.D. in business administration

(management information systems) from Texas A&M University. He has published

articles focusing on organizational problem formulation, IS curriculum development for

developing countries, and decision support systems in journals like International

Journal of Information Technology and Decision Making and Electronic Journal of

Information Systems on Developing Countries. His present research interests are

system dynamics organizational problem formulation, multiple perspective approach to

IS development, and IS issues (ERP implementation, e-commerce acceptance, etc.) in

developing countries.

Giuseppe Zollo is a professor of business and management at the Faculty of Engineering

of the University of Naples Federico II (Italy). During the years 1985-86 he was visiting

research associate at the Department of Economics of Northeastern University. He

published many articles in the area of technological innovation, small innovative

enterprises, information technology management, competencies management, software

industry, fuzzy sets, and evaluation systems. His papers have been published in

International Contributions to Labour Studies, Journal of Systems and Software,

International Journal of Technology Management, International Journal of Manufacturing

Technology and Management, Omega, Small Business, Information Resources

Management Journal, Fuzzy Economic Review, and R&D Management.