Topic: Organizing visions offer an exciting perspective to study how emerging technologies are understood, adopted, and institutionalized. Drawing on insights from various blockchain and digital identity wallet projects, the talk will explore how shared narratives and discursive frames can help mobilize resources, align stakeholders, and legitimize technological innovations, especially when emerging technologies are still poorly understood. We’ll also discuss how visions for co-enactment can bind emerging technologies together - for better and for worse.

Alexander Rieger  is an Assistant Professor of Information Systems in the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas. His research focuses on innovation with emerging technologies in highly structured contexts. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Journal of the AIS, Information Systems Journal, Information & Organization, MISQ Executive, Nature Human Behavior, Nature Machine Intelligence, and International Journal of Information Management. He has years of experience working in industry and consulting for the European Commission as well as various public and private sector organizations in Germany and Luxembourg. He holds a master’s degree and a PhD in Information Systems. 

Tamara Roth is an Assistant Professor of Information Systems in the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas. Her research explores how emerging technologies can be leveraged to promote social good and achieve positive organizational change. She combines theories and methods from neurobiology, psychology, social sciences, and management. Tamara’s work has appeared or is forthcoming in MIT Sloan Management Review, Journal of the AIS, Journal of Information Technology, Information Systems Journal, MISQ Executive, Government Information Quarterly, International Journal of Information Management, Nature Human Behavior, and Nature Machine Intelligence. She has an interdisciplinary education with master’s degrees in biology and education and PhD degrees in Educational Psychology and Information Systems.