David Avison and Thomas Kude awarded by the Association for Information Systems

David Avison, Distinguished Emeritus Professor at the Department of Information Systems, Decision Sciences and Statistics (IDS) at ESSEC Business School, has received the Association for Information Systems (AIS) LEO Award for lifetime achievements. Thomas Kude, Associate Professor at ESSEC’s IDS department, has received the AIS Early Career Award. The awards were presented last December at the 2018 International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS) in San Francisco.

Established in 1999, the LEO Award, which is named for the world's first business application of computing (The Lyons Electronic Office), recognizes the lifetime achievements of truly outstanding individuals in the field of information systems. All recipients of the LEO Award are scholars or practitioners who have made a global impact on the field of information systems. The AIS Early Career Award was established in 2014 and was granted for the first time in 2015. This award recognizes individuals in the early stages of their careers who have already made outstanding research, teaching, and/or service contributions to the field of information systems.

The awards for David Avison and Thomas Kude again attest the success of ESSEC’s information systems (IS) group. The IS group is composed of 9 members of the Faculty. The team's research, teaching and development activities explore the different facets of digitization and information systems management: modeling, development, implementation and use of IS, IS strategy, IS governance, and IS for decision support. In the most recent AIS research ranking, ESSEC ranks 3rd in Europe/Africa/Middle East in terms of publications in the field’s three preeminent journals—MIS Quarterly, Information Systems Research, and Journal of Management Information Systems—in the period from 2014 to 2018.

Members of ESSEC’s IS group hold or have held important editing roles for renowned journals and conferences. The IDS department has a leading role in ESSEC’s digital initiatives, which include the launch of the first online executive master on digital transformation and the department’s three chairs—the Accenture Strategic Business Analytics Chair, the Chair Digital Disruption by BNP Paribas, and the Chair Information Strategy and Governance.

Three questions to Thomas Kude

Thomas Kude joined ESSEC in 2016. He received his PhD from the University of Mannheim.

 > - What does winning this award mean to you?

Thomas Kude: It is fantastic to receive such positive feedback that my work is recognized by the community. When seeing the list of the other recipients of the 2018 AIS Early Career Award and the cohorts in past years, I am indeed humbled and honored to be part of this group. It is even more special to be awarded in the same year that my highly esteemed ESSEC colleague David Avison receives the LEO award. Mostly David’s award, but also mine, give quite some spotlight for ESSEC in the community. Importantly, I cannot stress enough that this would not have been possible without my superb co-authors and mentors whose ambition, effort, and support I am very grateful for. 

> - Could you tell us more about your research and how you have won this award? How has ESSEC helped you to achieve this? 

Thomas Kude: My current research is on digital platforms and agile software development. For example, together with my co-authors, I have studied the governance of platform ecosystems or how pair programming, a software development technique, affects team performance. I suppose our recent publications in high-reputation journals along with positive outcomes in teaching and guiding students were among the reasons why I was selected for this award. The environment at ESSEC and in our department is extremely inspiring, and I have clearly benefited from the outstanding support we receive at ESSEC—I am very grateful for this. 

> - What are your projects at ESSEC for the future?

Thomas Kude: The award motivates me to continue to study important and exciting research questions and I am eager to share my knowledge on digital business in the classroom and with organizations and the public. I think research and teaching at the intersection of management and technology are more important than ever. For example, in a current research project, we are trying to understand how software development teams can be more successful by achieving both, discipline and autonomy, and how specific work practices contribute to such disciplined autonomy. Our Information Systems group at ESSEC is successful and growing and I am confident that we can continue to build a strong group and do excellent research and teaching. I am excited to be part of and contribute to this.