Laurent Picard Distinguished Lecture: Michael Barrett
Rethinking Digital Innovation in Crisis
Presented by Michael Barrett
University of Cambridge
Professor of Information Systems & Innovation Studies
Date: Friday, December 16, 2022, 10:30 am - 12:00 pm
Location: Armstrong 260
About the Topic:
Digital technologies are increasingly being recognized as providing hope for large-scale societal change in making the world a better place. This utopian view has been magnified in the recent crisis with the widespread acceleration of digital innovation across many sectors and geographies. At the same time, during the crisis digital technologies have been shown to be disruptive and have exposed increasing systemic challenges and inequalities across the globe. In this talk, I propose a relational perspective on risk to examine the possibilities and limits of digital innovation. I draw on empirical research to explore the utopian visions related to the acceleration of telemedicine in a UK eye hospital during the COVID crisis. This is complemented with research work in Kenya which reveals the hopes and fears of the marginalized in Kenya concerning the use of mobile payment services to alleviate poverty and mitigate a crisis of financial exclusion.
Bio:
Michael Barrett is Professor of Information Systems & Innovation Studies at Cambridge Judge Business School (CJBS) and Distinguished Visiting Professor of Innovation at the Stockholm School of Economics. He has served as Director (Associate Dean) of Research, REF2021 Chair for Business and Management and Director (Associate Dean) of Programmes, and Head of the Organization Theory & Information Systems (OTIS) subject group at CJBS. His research focuses on digital innovation and transformation with a particular interest as to how emerging technologies such as AI, 3DP, telemedicine, and digital twins are enabling new models of healthcare. He is also studying mobile payment services for enabling money transfer, clean energy, and climate resilience. In 2016, Michael was recognized as a Distinguished Scholar by the OCIS (now Communication, Digital Technology, and Organization) division of the Academy of Management. He is founder and Academic Director of Cambridge Digital Innovation, Hughes Hall and CJBS at the University of Cambridge.
