Category Archives: Uncategorized

Computational Design Science and AI Research in Information Systems

First published: December 4, 2025; Updated: March 21, 2026

In this post, I will discuss the current status of computational design science and AI research in the Information Systems community, focusing on the papers that I have recently handled as an editor in different IS journals (ISR, MISQ, DSS, I&M, etc.) and those on which I worked as an author. I will also share my thoughts on the future research agenda.

AI is the topic of our time. The reality is that many disciplines are trying to own the AI agenda in business schools (Caro et al. 2025). In my view, the IS community has a unique advantage to lead this AI agenda. To do that, we need to double down on our IS competitive advantage from a socio-technical perspective (Sarkar et al. 2019). While many neighboring disciplines (e.g., operations, marketing, strategy) can bring useful societal perspectives on the AI topic, I believe the IS research community has unique strengths in opening up the AI black box. I don’t think treating AI as one variable is enough. At the same time, if we solely focus on the technical aspects, the differentiation from computer science may not be clear. Therefore, our AI research in IS should focus on the consequential problems in business and society.

I had the great fortune to handle many IS papers that fall into this category. Since I started my AE role at ISR in 2024, I have accepted three papers (Xie et al. 2025; Gao et al. 2025; Wang et al. 2026).

  1. Xie et al. (2025) proposed a novel topic model approach to study the mental impact (e.g., suicidal thoughts) of short videos. After analyzing the limitations of existing neural topic models (across IS and CS), the authors designed a novel topic model that can leverage a medical knowledge base and evaluated it on two platforms.
  2. Gao et al. (2025) investigated whether LLM-based social bots can create socializing values on social media platforms. They analyzed comments generated by LLM bots and found that the bot comment characteristics impact user engagement.
  3. Wang et al. (2026) proposed a novel computational approach called a discrete and regularized deep learning (DRDL) method for multiview data-based dynamic financial risk prediction (DFRP). The proposed approach provides predictive insights into the dynamics of financial risk from entangled information from multiview data.

Besides these papers, there are more computational and AI papers in the pipeline.

Moving forward, I think our IS research community should lead the AI agenda in the business school and beyond. In the near future, I hope to see more research in the following areas:

  1. AI impact studies: As a general-purpose technology, AI is making changes across different industry sectors. I hope to see more AI impact studies, but in specific industry sectors such as online videos (Zhang et al. 2025a), journalism (Zhang et al. 2025b), online dating (Kwon et al. 2022), and more.
  2. Physical AI: Many AI papers are focusing on knowledge work in the digital space. With the advances of embodied AI, I hope the IS community can also study robots (Lee et al. 2025), drones, and rovers.
  3. Quantum AI: I predict that quantum computing will be the next computing paradigm. The IS community can conduct forward-looking research on the topics of quantum computing, quantum communication, and more (https://www3.fox.temple.edu/discover/events-conferences/from-qubits-to-business-value/).

References

Caro, Felipe, Jean-Edouard Colliard, Elena Katok, Axel Ockenfels, Nicolas Stier-Moses, Catherine Tucker, D. J. Wu (2025) Introduction to the Special Issue on the Human-Algorithm Connection. Management Science. https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.intro.v72.n1 

Gao, Yang, Maggie Mengqing Zhang, Mikhail Lysyakov (2025) Does Social Bot Help Socialize? Evidence from a Microblogging Platform. Information Systems Research. https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2024.1089

Kwon, Soonjae, Sunghyuk Park, Gene Moo Lee, Dongwon Lee (2022) Learning Faces to Predict Matching Probability in an Online Matching Platform. In Proceedings of International Conference on Information Systems. https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2022/digital_commerce/digital_commerce/9/ 

Lee, Myunghwan, Lee, Gene Moo, Shin, Donghyuk, Cho, Wooje, Han, Sang Pil (2025) Service Robots and Workforce Transformation: Evidence from Restaurant Operations. SSRN Working Paper. http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5288874

Sarker, Suprateek; Chatterjee, Sutirtha; Xiao, Xiao; and Elbanna, Amany. 2018. “The Sociotechnical Axis of Cohesion for the IS Discipline: Its Historical Legacy and its Continued Relevance,” MIS Quarterly, (43: 3) pp.695-719. https://doi.org/10.25300/MISQ/2019/13747

Xie, Jiaheng, Yidong Chai, Ruicheng Liang, Yang Liu, Daniel Dajun Zeng (2025) Short-Form Videos and Mental Health: A Knowledge-Guided Neural Topic Model. Information Systems Research. https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2024.1071

Wang, Zhao, Wanliu Che, Cuiqing Jiang, Huimin Zhao (2026) Leveraging Multiview Data Through Discrete and Regularized Deep Learning for Dynamic Financial Risk Prediction. Information Systems Research. https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2024.1417

Zhang, Xiaoke, Zhou, Mi, Lee, Gene Moo (2025a) AI Voice in Online Video Platforms: A Multimodal Perspective on Content Creation and Consumption. SSRN Working Paper. http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4676705 

Zhang, Xiaoke, Lee, Myunghwan, Zhou, Mi, Lee, Gene Moo (2025b) Large Language Models in the Institutional Press: Investigating the Effects on News Production and Consumption. SSRN Working Paper. http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5357471

COMM 634 Empirical Research Methods in IS

March 19, 2025

COMM 634 is a graduate-level course on empirical research methods in Information Systems (IS) and related fields. We explore multiple empirical research methods including machine learning, econometrics, field/lab experiments, and simulation. Topically, we review the recent AI research in IS and related fields, covering three pillars of computational design science, the economics of IS, and organizational IS.

I would like to thank the guest speakers who shared their expertise and experience with us!

  1. Course introduction | Three Pillars of AI Research in IS
  2. Computational Design Science, Speaker: Donghyuk Shin (KAIST)
  3. Economics of AI and IS, Speaker: J. Frank Li (UBC)
  4. AI and IS Strategies, Speaker: Myunghwan Lee (CUHK)
  5. Economics of AI and IS, Speaker: Yoonseok Son (Notre Dame)
  6. Field Experiment, Speaker: Dongwon Lee (HKUST)
  7. Lab Experiment, Speaker: Joy Wu (UBC)
  8. Simulation, Speaker: Timo Sturm (TU Darmstadt)
  9. Sustainability, Speaker: Jiyong Park (Georgia)
  10. Generative AI

Papers on AI, Automation, and Robotics

First published: Jan 18, 2022; Last update: May 17, 2024

In this post, I am gathering AI, automation, and robotics-related papers in information systems and related disciplines. This is by no means an exhaustive list. I will keep updating this list.

  1. Babina, Tania, Anastassia Fedyk, Alex He, James Hodson (2024) Artificial intelligence, firm growth, and product innovation, Journal of Financial Economics 151.
  2. Eloundou T, Manning S, Mishkin P, Rock D. (2023) GPTs are GPTs: An early look at the labor market impact potential of large language models. arXiv preprint arXiv:2303.10130.
  3. Acemoglu, Daron and Pascual Restrepo (2022) Tasks, Automation, and the Rise in U.S. Wage Inequality, Econometrica, 90(5): 1973-2016,
  4. Park, Jiyong, Jongho Kim (2022) A Data-Driven Exploration of the Race between Human Labor and Machines in the 21st Century, Communications of ACM 65(5):79-87.
  5. Koch, Michael, Manuylov Ilya, Marcel Smolka (2021) Robots and Firms, The Economic Journal 131(638):2553-2584.
  6. Ge, Ruyi, Zhiqiang (Eric) Zheng, Xuan Tian, Li Liao (2021) Human–Robot Interaction: When Investors Adjust the Usage of Robo-Advisors in Peer-to-Peer Lending. Information Systems Research 32(3):774-785.
  7. Jain, Hemant, Balaji Padmanabhan, Paul A. Pavlou, T. S. Raghu (2021) Editorial for the Special Section on Humans, Algorithms, and Augmented Intelligence: The Future of Work, Organizations, and Society. Information Systems Research 32(3):675-687.
  8. Berente, Nicholas, Gu, Bin, Recker, Jan, Santhanam, Radhika. (2021) Special Issue Editor’s Comments: Managing Artificial Intelligence. MIS Quarterly (45: 3) pp. 1433-1450.
  9. Dixon, Jay, Bryan Hong, Lynn Wu (2021) The Robot Revolution: Managerial and Employment Consequences for Firms. Management Science 67(9):5586-5605.
  10. Schanke, Scott, Gordon Burtch, Gautam Ray (2021) Estimating the Impact of “Humanizing” Customer Service Chatbots. Information Systems Research 32(3):736-751.
  11. Park, H., Jiang, S., Lee, O. D., Chang, Y. (2021) Exploring the Attractiveness of Service Robots in the Hospitality Industry: Analysis of Online Reviews. Information Systems Frontier
  12. Graetz, G., Michaels, G. 2018. Robots at work. Review of Economics and Statistics (100:5), pp. 753-768.
  13. Luo, Xueming, Siliang Tong, Zheng Fang, Zhe Qu (2019) Frontiers: Machines vs. Humans: The Impact of Artificial Intelligence Chatbot Disclosure on Customer Purchases. Marketing Science 38(6):937-947.

 

Reflections on conference organizations in 2021

Published: Jan 9, 2022

In 2021, I had great opportunities to serve as an organizer for three events: Program Co-Chair for INFORMS Workshop on Data Science 2021, Workshop Co-Chair for KrAIS Research Workshop 2021, and Minitrack Co-Chair for HICSS 2022 TAEM Minitrack. This post is to reflect my experiences in organizing these events. In sum, I am grateful that I had the opportunity to contribute to my academic communities!

1. INFORMS Workshop on Data Science 2021 (Virtual via Zoom) [DS 2021 Program]

This INFORMS workshop is for data science-oriented IS research. Many of the papers are technical in nature, using various computational and machine learning approaches, to solve a variety of business and societal challenges. The previous workshops were collocated with CIST in the INFORMS Annual Meeting locations. Due to the pandemic, the 2021 workshop was held virtually. There are both positive and negative sides to being virtual. Just focussing on the positive side, because there is no travel cost, many participants from all around the world could participate in the event, although there could be some time zone issues. Thankfully, we could invite many prestigious editors to our panel discussion (many thanks to the editors Andrew Burton-Jones, Alok Gupta, Subodha Kumar, Olivia Sheng, D. J. Wu as well as the moderator Ahmed Abbasi). We also had the great honor to have Jon Kleinberg as the keynote speaker. Last but not least, we had great presentations about many cutting-edge papers on recommender systems, algorithm design, deep learning, personalization, pricing, network analytics, and healthcare. Thanks to all the conference co-chairs (Gautam Pant, Wenjun Zhou, Shawn Mankad), program co-chairs (Yong Ge, Jingjing Zhang), and other organizing committee members. It was great teamwork!

2. KrAIS Research Workshop 2021 (Hybrid in Austin, TX & Zoom) [KrAIS 2021 Program]

This post-ICIS workshop is to promote the scholarship and provide networking opportunities for the AIS members with Korean heritage. ICIS 2021 was held in Austin, TX, and I was looking forward to visiting my second home through this opportunity. We managed to secure a great conference venue (OASIS on Lake Travis). However, due to the COVID-19 variant omicron, many international participants (including myself!) had to cancel their travel plans at the very last moment, hence the organizers had to manage many last-minute changes. Managing a hybrid conference brought interesting challenges: the audio-video delivery between the venue and Zoom, the transition between on-site and online, and registration processes. We had a great panel discussion on the issue of EDI (many thanks to panelists Victoria Yoon, Byungjoon Yoo, Min-Seok Pang, and the moderator Dokyun Lee). Also, I appreciate the support from the KrAIS Co-Presidents (Habin Lee, Byungjoon Yoo) and KrAIS Committee members (Wooje Cho, Kyung Young Lee, Youngsok Bang). Many thanks to my fellow workshop co-chairs (Hyeyoung Hah, JaeHong Park)!

3. HICSS 2022 Technology and Analytics in Emerging Markets (TAEM) Mini-track (Virtual via Zoom) [HICSS 2022 TAEM Mini-track]

Starting from HICSS 2021, Sang-Pil Han, Sungho Park, Wonseok Oh, and I are organizing a mini-track at the HICSS conference. The objective of this mini-track is to nurture a vibrant community between academics and industry on the topic of technology and analytics in emerging markets. Of course, in beautiful Hawaii islands. Unfortunately, we had to do virtual conferences for two consecutive years (we are missing Hawaii!). Fortunately, we had many great paper submissions this year (thanks to the authors who submitted their great work). We had a Zoom session to discuss the accepted papers. We all agreed to meet in person again in Hawaii next year!

4. Summary

When I was a participant in conferences, I didn’t realize all the complexities behind the scene. Now I started to appreciate the significant amount of time and effort put by conference organizers to make such events a reality. Thanks to all the organizers of the numerous conferences and workshops that I attended in my academic life! In 2022, I will be serving as a track co-chair (with Ali Shuyaev and Jing Wang) for ICIS 2022 Data Analytics for Business and Societal Challenges, a track co-chair (with Seung Hyun Kim and Dan J. Kim) for PACIS 2022 Cybersecurity, Privacy, and Ethical Issues, and a conference co-chair (with Jingjing Zhang and Yong Ge) for INFORMS Workshop on Data Science 2022. The reward of good work is more work, but I am happy to keep contributing to our academic communities 🙂