My research interests focus on the managerial and organizational issues that affect large-scale, enterprise-wide information system/technology implementation, particularly in very large organizations. In a related stream, I am also very interested in innovation, emerging technologies, and leadership issues within higher education and other not-for-profit or governmental organizations.

Current Major Research Projects:

	Large-Scale Systems Implementation This is a large, multi-year study designed to better understand the failure of large-scale systems implementation projects within a government context.  The project utilizes over 15-20 thousand pages of longitudinal/historical documentation on the modernization efforts at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).  I have also collected data on several other projects to do some cross-case analysis. Currently I am working with Dr. Eliot Rich at the Univesity at Albany to write-up some of the findings from this research. We have a few papers in development currently. Two undergraduate students, Taylor Smith '03 and Diana Thomas '03 (pictured at left), won competitive Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships to participate in this research which was recognized in the Rensselaer news and almuni magazine.  Additionally, some of this research has been presented at conferences internationally and is soon to be or currently under review at top journals.
	Technology in Higher Education I have several interests related to the effective use of technology, and technology leadership in higher education. I have been very lucky to work as a Research Fellow for the EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research since 2003. As part of my work there I have participated or consulted on several studies involving various aspects of technology management in higher education. I have also written over a half-dozen research bulletins that provide higher education leaders with background on select topics, informed by research, and that identify key questions to consider. Topics covered include digital content delivery trends and technologies, IT performance management, IT valuation, strategic alignment, and IT leadership. One of my key interests is in the area of IT leadership. What makes CIOs effective? Where will the next generation of higher education CIOs come from? What does the pool of "aspiring" CIOs look like, and how do they differ from current CIOs? I participated in two studies of higher education CIOs in the past five years and we are preparing for a new study in the next two years. I have growing interest in the connections (and disconnections) between faculty and student perceptions of technology in the classroom. Does technology support or enhance the learning environment, and if so, how? What conditions are necessary? How do we evaluate emerging technologies to determine their effectiveness? How can we better manage the technology innovation process? I contributed to the qualitative data analysis for the ECAR student studies in both 2006 and 2007. I also recently completed analysis for a study by the MIT New Media Consortia on faculty and student perceptions of technology in the classroom. For my job at NACS I am heavily involved with monitoring trends, developments, and other work in this area. Underlying these questions is the critical question from my perspective -- how does innovation occur in higher education? What role does technology play in that process? How can institutions of higher education get better at introducing and adopting innovations to improve both learning and the administrative enterprise? What role do or will emerging technologies play? How do institutions invest in emerging technologies? How do higher education institutions manage the change process for introducing new technologies in both administrative and academic settings? How do educational institutions, both locally and nationally, share knowledge about innovations in the technology domain? How could we improve or better leverage that knowledge for industry-wide innovation? These, I believe, are some of the most critical questions facing higher education today as we look at the changing environments within and around our institutions and our industry.
	Other Research Interests My dissertation involved a study on factors affecting cross-functional integration between IT and marketing in large US retail banks. This is stil a topic I have interest in and I have spent a fair amount of time applying lessons from that research in the applied domain. At some point, time permitting, I am interested in pursing a more comprehensive review of the integration literature. In my opinion that literature is currently fractured and inconsistent across disciplines, and better synthesis might open new directions for research in this area. I began a study a couple year ago with a doctoral student on the core body of knowledge an MIS doctoral student should know. We collected syllabi from IS doctoral programs in the US and developed a compiled reading list with over 1500 references (available as an EndNote database upon request). We did some initial analysis on the data, but some further work could produce an interesting article.

I welcome inquiries and suggestions regarding these projects.

This page was last updated on June 17, 2007.