Biography

Mani Subramani is currently an Associate Professor in the Information and Decision Sciences Department at the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota. He graduated from Boston University prior to joining the faculty at the Carlson School in 1997. He has presented his research at many conferences and has published his work in several leading academic journals including Academy of Management Journal (AMJ), MIS Quarterly, Information Systems Research, the Journal of Management Information Systems, Communications of the ACM and Sloan Management Review. He has also authored a teaching case published by the Harvard Business School and a report for IS practitioners published by the Gartner Group. He has served as a Guest Editor for the MISQ Special Issue on Knowledge Management and Information Technologies. His work on the market value implications of e-commerce announcements of firms (with Eric Walden) won the Best Paper Award at the 20th Annual International Conference on Information Systems in December 2000. He received the ‘Reviewer of the Year’ award in 2002, an honor given annually to one reviewer making the most significant contribution through high quality, constructive peer reviews to the development of scholarly work at MIS Quarterly, a leading journal in the field.

Background: “Prior to returning to school for my doctoral studies I worked for seven years in the computer industry in India in positions in the software development and product management functions. This gave me a first-hand view of the investments and utilization of information technologies by firms in their quest for efficiency and competitive advantages. Understanding these issues and how companies can utilize IT to leverage the intangible assets such as expertise and interorganizational relationships in different industries are issues that I am interested in. As a professor investigating these dynamics, I draw from and apply principles from, organization theory, theories from social psychology and industrial organization.”

Research Interests: My research interests lie at the intersection of research in the Management of Information Systems and IT Strategy. I have been motivated by the intellectual challenge of combining the perspectives of organizational studies and the IS discipline. In particular, I have been influenced by the view of changes to the nature of work and organizing brought about by information systems as being techno-social phenomena. In my work, I have focused on the role of information technologies in creating the opportunity for firms to develop IT-enabled knowledge-based capabilities, which in turn can lead to performance outcomes. I believe that the deployment of information technologies to take advantage of intangible assets such as knowledge and intellectual capital represent the most significant routes to firm performance.

The questions motivating my research are centered around how firms achieve higher performance through information technologies. This is a critical issue that is motivated by problems firms currently face in benefiting from their IT investments.

Current Research Projects: My current projects fall into two major themes. The first theme focuses on the dominant contingencies influencing the exploitation of information technologies. The studies in this theme draw on the resource based view of the firm to examine factors enabling firms to exploit their IT investments and derive performance benefits. Studies pertaining to this theme focus on issues such as:

In this theme, I build on theories in social psychology on trust, pro-social behavior, cooperation and knowledge sharing to adapt and extend them to the context of social interactions in online networks. The overall goal in this theme is to extend our understanding of the complementary roles of IT assets and intangible assets in influencing firm performance and capitalizing on intangible assets. This work is particularly timely as we make the transition from the industrial age to an economy where the exploitation of intangible knowledge-based assets is an important basis of value creation. My research has been at the leading edge of developments in knowledge management using information technologies and in the role of IT in enabling firms to leverage intangible assets to create and claim value in asymmetric interorganizational relationships. My work has the potential to contribute significantly to the understanding of IT enabled knowledge-based capabilities in organizational and in interorganizational contexts. While the phenomena I examine are complex, I believe careful research using multiple theoretical perspectives and methodologies can contribute significantly to the development of insights and ultimately, have the potential to influence managerial practice.

General Impressions: I am excited to be a part of the tradition of excellence in research and outreach to the community at the University of Minnesota. It is a privilege to be part of an environment that recognizes the contributions made through research, through working with practitioners in the field and through innovations in teaching. The Carlson School has a bright future and I believe the IDSc department will continue to be a dominant player in our discipline.

For contact information, please visit the IDSc Faculty Information Page.