Profile

My research captures effects of digital media and modern technologies in the workplace, with an emphasis on long terms effects in the formal and social fabric of organisations. This has included studies looking at the emergence of Human/AI collaborations and configurations, role of technology as a carrier of strategic intent, the development of new capabilities to manage the opening up of decision making, and the role of technology in EDI and open collaboration. I have supervised seven PhDs to completion researching various aspects of digital working in organisations. I am also the proud co-founder of the AIS Special Interest Group on the Changing Nature of Work, and was Editor of the Special Issue of the Journal of Strategic Information Systems on "Strategic Perspectives of Digital Work and Organisational Transformation". Previously I received awards for best research publication by Association of Information Systems and best paper in the Journal of Strategic Information Systems.

I joined Lancaster University Management School in 2021 as Professor and Chair in Information Systems. Prior to this I was at Warwick Business School (2006-2021) where I was Director of the MSc Business Consulting and created "Business in Practice" as an award winning capstone programme taken by more than 500 MSc students based on an immersive business simulation. Before WBS I was a researcher and teacher and completed my PhD at the London School of Economics from 2001 to 2006. I am a Senior Fellow of the HEA. I was Visiting Professor at LUISS Guido Carli University in Rome, Italy and also at Bentley University in Boston, USA. I was also Associate of the Digital Workplace Group from 2004 until 2016.

I worked 6 years in industry before pursuing an academic career. I had high profile roles in the industry, as Director of New Technologies for the Conservative Party between 1999 and 2001 and leading the implementation of a large call centre for a bank in Portugal in 1999. Before that managed one of the largest ticketing operations globally at the World Expo 98 in Lisbon where he worked from 1996 until the exhibition in 1998.

PhD Supervision Interests

João is open to supervise Doctoral research students interested in topics related with digital transformation of organisations, digital working and organisational transformation, digital strategy and information systems security in organisations, changing ways of working and modern organising and strategising. He prefers qualitative methods and case based research methodologies but is open to a variety of methods depending on research focus and questions.