SAT – Cultural and Global Aspects of IS/IT

This SAT deals with the globalization of information systems and technologies. This includes the societal and cultural implications that affect any implementation including work habits, language differences, and general supporting infrastructures for these implementations. The SAT also looks at global IT trends and growth facilitated by drivers such as technological convergence, broadband communications, global collaboration technologies and IT outsourcing.

Peter Baloh - Vice Chair

Ljubljana University, Slovenia Peter Baloh is a research fellow at Information Management department of Faculty of Economics Ljubljana University, Slovenia, the only EQUIS accredited school in South-Eastern Europe. He is active in the areas of Information Systems, Technological Innovation, Project Management and Knowledge Management, which are considered through the lens of successful implementation in various organizational settings. He has authored over 40 articles, which were presented at international conferences, featured and/or published in practitioner and academic journals, such as MIT Sloan Management Review, IEEE Software, Knowledge and Process Management, Manager, and are forthcoming in Journal of Organizational and End User Computing, Research-Technology Management , among others. He serves on the editorial review board of International Journal of Knowledge Management and Journal of Organizational and End User Computing, and has served as a co-guest editor of the Journal of Organizational and End User Computing' double special issue on Knowledge Management Systems. Furthermore, he has co-chaired the 'KM track' at 6th ISOneWorld conference in April 2007 and is co-chairing 'KM Implementations and issues' track at 41st HICSS conference in January 2008. He has co-authored thirteen books and textbooks, the recent being: With practical examples through MS Office (2001, 2nd ed 2002), Solving business problems with help of information technology tools (2005, reprint 2006), With practical examples through MS Office 2007 (June 2007), and Using the Microsoft Office 2007 System in Business Practice (August, 2007). All of them use a novel business-problem-based experiential learning approach to educating business professionals in Slovene higher education institutions and industrial clients for using contemporary IT in a more successful manner. In addition, he has founded and has managed a niche consulting venture Ujemi znanje, advising companies in how to adopt new ways of working when achieving and securing their competitive advantages. Their areas of expertise include business process renovations, injecting knowledge management in existing business processes and reviving and setting-up innovation processes. After receiving BA in Business Administration and BSc in Information Management he worked for Deloitte and Touche (IS and operations auditing and consulting), and returned back to the Faculty of Economics Ljubljana to pursue postgraduate studies. In 2003, he received his MSc (distinction) in Information management. Recently, he has submitted his MPhil dissertation at Informatics Research Institute at University of Salford, leading British (6* RAE) research institution. Currently, he is finishing his doctoral study in the area of Knowledge Management Systems design with Prof Dr Kevin C Desouza of University of Washington, Seattle.

Katia Passerini - Committee Chair

New Jersey Institute of Technology Katia Passerini is an Assistant Professor and the Hurlburt Chair of Management Information Systems at the School of Management of the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) where she teaches courses in MIS, Knowledge Management and IT Strategy. She has published in refereed journals and proceedings (Communications of the ACM, CAIS, Society and Business Review, Journal of Knowledge Management, Computers and Education, Journal of Educational Hypermedia and Multimedia, IEEE Internet Computing) and professional journals (Project Management Network, Cutter IT Journal, Cutter Benchmark Review), particularly in the area of computer-mediated learning, IT productivity and knowledge management. Her professional experience includes multi-industry projects at Booz Allen Hamilton and the World Bank where she worked on information technology projects in Europe, North America and the South Pacific. Dr. Passerini earned both a MBA and a Ph.D. degree in Information and Decision Systems from the George Washington University, USA.

Nilay V. Oza - Publications Chair

Helsinki University of Technology (TKK), Finland

Dr. Nilay V. Oza is working as a senior researcher at the Software Business Laboratory, Helsinki University of Technology (TKK), Finland. His research interests include software business, value based SPI, global software outsourcing, business relationship management, trust, cross-cultural management, and empirical software engineering. Nilay also advises technology companies to grow internationally. Earlier, Nilay completed his PhD on Client-Vendor Relationship Management at University of Hertfordshire, UK.