David AVISON

Distinguished Emeritus Professor
department: Information Systems, Decision Sciences and Statistics
Campus de Cergy
Biography
David Avison is Distinguished Emeritus Professor of Information Systems at ESSEC Business School, near Paris, France. He joined ESSEC in 2000 after being Professor at the School of Management at Southampton University for nine years. He has also held posts at Brunel and Aston Universities in England, and the University of Technology Sydney and University of New South Wales in Australia, and elsewhere. He was President of the Association of Information Systems (AIS) for 2008-9. He was founding editor of Information Systems Journal, rated as a ‘core’ international research journal in information systems. So far, twenty-five books are to his credit including the fourth edition of the well-used text Information Systems Development: Methodologies, Techniques and Tools (authored with Guy Fitzgerald) and most reently Information Systems Project Management (with Reza Torkzedah). He has published a large number of research papers in learned journals, edited texts and conference papers. He was Chair of the International Federation of Information Processing (IFIP) 8.2 group on the impact of IS/IT on organisations and society. He was past President of the UK Academy for Information Systems and also chair of the UK Heads and Professors of IS and is presently member of the IS Senior Scholars Forum. He was joint programme chair of the International Conference in Information Systems (ICIS) in Las Vegas, joint programme chair of IFIP TC8 conference at Santiago Chile and again in Milan, Italy, programme chair of the IFIPWG8.2 conference in Amsterdam, panels chair for the European Conference in Information Systems at Copenhagen and publicity chair for the entity-relationship conference in Paris and chair of several other UK and European conferences. He also acts as consultant, most recently with a leading manufacturer developing their IT/IS strategy. He researches in the area of information systems development and more generally on information systems in their natural organizational setting, in particular using action research, though he has also used a number of other qualitative research approaches. David received the LEO Award for lifetime exceptional achievement in San Francisco December 2018 having preciously been awarded IFIP Silver Core and Fellowship of the AIS..

Diplomas

  • 2003: Habilité à Diriger des Recherches (Université de Nantes France)
  • 1990: Ph.D. in Information Systems (Aston University United Kingdom)
  • 1974: MSc, Applications in Computing (CNAA) (Metropolitan University London United Kingdom)
  • 1969: BSc, Economics (University of Leicester United Kingdom)
Career
Full-time academic appointments
    • 2004 – Now : Distinguished Emeritus Professor (ESSEC Business School France)
    • 2000 – 2004 : Professor (ESSEC Business School France)
    • 1991 – 2000 : PROFESSOR and HEAD of DEPARTMENT (Southampton Business School United Kingdom)
Other appointments
    • 2003 – 2005 : Head of Department of Information Systems and Decision Sciences (ESSEC Business School France)
    • 1977 – 1991 : Senior Lecturer (Aston University United Kingdom)
Other Academic Appointments
    • 2000 – 2005 : Visiting Professor (University of Technology Sydney Australia)
    • 2000 – Now : Visiting Professor (Brunel University United Kingdom)
    • 2000 – 2005 : Visiting Professor (University of Southampton United Kingdom)

Awards

  • 2018 : LEO Award for lifetime exceptional achievement in information systems, Association for Information Systems (AIS) qt the International Conference of Information Systems (ICIS)
  • 2018 : Best Paper in 2017 in the journal Information and Management, for the article “Reflexivity: A third essential ‘R’ to enhance interpretive field studies”
  • 2011 : 2011 Emerald Literati Network Best Paper Award for his article entitled, “The Potential of Qualitative Research: Four Approaches Shedding Light on IS Practice,” Journal of Systems and Information Technology (co-written with J. Malaurent)
  • 2006 : Literati Club: Highly Commended Award
  • 2004 : EMCIS: Best Practical Paper Award
  • 2000 : Literati Club: Award for Excellence
  • 1998 : SILVER CORE International Federation of Information Processing (IFIP)

Journal articles

Books

Book chapters

Conference Proceedings

Presentations at an Academic or Professional conference

Book editor

Thesis co-director

  • 2012 – 2019 : Three essays on the material enactment of social movements through social media (ESSEC Business School France)
  • 2011 – 2016 : Exploring the creation and evolution of ICT for development initiatives in India: Issues of scaling through bricolage, business model design and inclusive innovation (ESSEC Business School France)
Research activities
  • Editorial Board Membership
    • 2017 – 2019: Editorial board membership – Journal of the Association for Information Systems
    • 2015 – 2019: Editorial board membership – Information and Management
    • 2014 – 2021: Editorial board membership – Information Technology and People
    • 2011 – 2021: Editorial board membership – Journal of Strategic Information Systems
    • 2009 – 2020: Editorial board membership – International Journal of Accounting and Information Management
    • 2007 – 2010: Editorial board membership – International Journal of Teaching and Case Studies
    • 2006 – 2006: Editorial board membership – SEFBIS Journal
    • 2006 – 2008: Editorial board membership – Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences – Revue Canadienne des Sciences de l’Administration
    • 2005 – 2010: Editorial board membership – International Journal of Technology and Human Interaction
    • 2002 – 2008: Editorial board membership – Systèmes d’Information et Management
    • 2001 – 2012: Editorial board membership – Information Technology and People
    • 2001 – 2007: Editorial board membership – Journal of Strategic Information Systems
    • 2001 – 2021: Founding Editor – Information Systems Journal
  • Function in an academic association
    • 2012 – 2013: President of the Association of Information Systems
    • 2002 – 2007: Vice-chair (by election): IFIP Technical Committee 8 (and French representative)
    • 2000 – 2002: Chair (by election): IFIP Working Group 8.2
    • 2000 – 2000: Chair (by election): Committee of UK IS Professors and Chairs
    • 1997 – 1999: President (by election): UK Academy of Information Systems
  • Chief Editor
    • 2012 – 2012: Chief editor – Information Systems Journal
  • Member of an academic association
    • 2005 – Now: Member (by nomination) IS Senior Scholars Forum
  • Senior or Associate Editor
    • 1990 – 2011: Associate editor – Information Systems Journal
Theses
  • 2011 : GAUR Aakanksha (ESSEC Business School), Thesis co-director, Exploring the creation and evolution of ICT for development initiatives in India: Issues of scaling through bricolage, business model design and inclusive innovation
  • 2007 : MALAURENT Julien (ESSEC Business School), Thesis director, From global template to local enactments: a longitudinal account of practice diffusion in Chinese subsidiaries of a French multinational corporation
  • 2012 : MOUSAVI BAYGI Seyed Reza (ESSEC Business School), Thesis co-director, Three essays on the material enactment of social movements through social media
  • 2008 : PUTILINA ép ZORINA Aljona (ESSEC Business School), Thesis director, Technology and infrastructure co-creation from the bottom-up: Institutional, sociomaterial, improvisational and symbolic accounts from the field – The case of grassroots internet infrastructure development in Belarus