Steve Salbu, Stephen P. Zelnak Jr. Chair and Dean, kicks off the 5th IT Teaching Workshop:
“What is the role of IT research and education in the world’s premier business schools?”

Information technology ("IT") continues to evolve at breathtaking speed.  Advances in IT have profound effects on how firms generate value and how entire industries are structured.  Understanding the opportunities and threats create by advances in IT is critical for modern-day managers, and this understanding will grow in importance as more and more business is conducted in "virtual" domains in the future.

The Information Technology Management area focuses on the development, use, and impact of information technology at three broad levels: 1) individual firms, 2) industries and markets, and 3) society.

Individual Firms: The last two decades have witnessed a tenfold increase in IT investments by firms.  Given such large investments, managing IT is one of the most critical issues facing business.  The IT Management area studies the role and impact of information systems in firms and other organizations and the design, development, and use of such systems, both within the firm and across firm boundaries. 

Industries and Markets: Advances in IT continue to transform industries and markets.  Travel and tourism, music, and printed media represent just a few industries that have been fundamentally changed by new and creative uses of IT.  The IT Management area studies the role of IT in creating and furthering these types of industry transformations. 

Society: The introduction and adoption of new information technologies such as social networking sites, blogs, and virtual worlds have changed how members of society interact with each other.  The IT Management area studies the economic, sociological, and psychological implications of these shifts and what they mean for business and society.

Research Interests: The Information Technology Management faculty have a broad range of research and teaching interests, including:

• Strategic and innovative uses of information technology
• Enterprise and supply chain systems
• Business value of information technology
• Information technology outsourcing and offshoring
• Project management
• Software development
• Economic and behavioral implications of electronic commerce
• Technologies enabling electronic commerce
• Distributed network and database design
• Data warehousing and visualization
• Virtualization of business and societal processes
• Emerging technologies