What Theory is and Why it is Important

Presenter:
Carol Saunders
Extraordinary Professor, University of Pretoria

Abstract
This seminar will provide an overview of what theory is and address its relevance in the digital age. The value of theorizing to build a theory will be discussed. Several approaches to theory building will be introduced.

Biography
Carol Saunders is an Extraordinary Professor at the University of Pretoria and Professor Emerita at the University of Central Florida. Carol has received the LEO award in the Information Systems (IS) discipline and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Organization Communication and Information Systems (OCIS) Division of the Academy of Management. She also is an Association for Information Systems (AIS) Fellow and a Schoeller Senior Fellow. She served on a number of editorial boards, including a three-year term as Editor-in-Chief of MIS Quarterly. She was the General Conference Chair of ICIS 1999, Program Co-chair of AMCIS 2015, and AIS Vice President of Publications from 2016-2019. She helped found the OCIS (now Communication, Digital Technology and Organization) division of the Academy of Management and served as its program chair and division chair. She was the Distinguished Fulbright Scholar at the Wirtschafts Universitaet – Wien (WU) in Austria and earlier held a Professional Fulbright with the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute. She has held research chairs in Germany, New Zealand, Singapore, and the Netherlands. Her research is published in top-ranked Management, IS, Computer Science and Communication journals.

Zoom link will be emailed to registered participants.