Join us for the first "Qualitative Approaches to Understanding & Studying Algorithms" at AOM in Boston. No advance sign up required!
Scheduled: Friday, Aug 4, 2023 3:00PM - 5:30PM
Venue: Boston Park Plaza in Cambridge Room
Format: Panel + Q&A + Roundtable Discussions. In-person.
Organizers:
Deborah Anderson (Alberta)
Omid Omidvar (Warwick)
Panelists:
Anne L. Washington (NYU)
Angela Aristidou (UCL & Stanford)
Luciana D'Adderio (Edinburgh)
Vern Glaser (Alberta)
Overview:
Algorithms are becoming increasingly central to how organizations operate. They can represent the environment (Alaimo and Kalinikos, 2021; Omidvar et al. 2022), predict customer behaviour (Faraj et al. 2018), and advance/impede social agenda (Lindebaum et al. In-press). Despite their importance in organizations, studying algorithms presents challenges to researchers who aspire to advance knowledge in this field. First, algorithms embed tacit and complex knowledge carried by their designers which is often hard to access by outsiders to whom algorithms seem opaque (Lebovits et al. 2022). Second, algorithms interact with humans and other algorithms (Sheikh and Vaast, 2022; Glaser et al. 2021) in complex and unpredictable ways making it hard to analyze their functioning. Finally, since algorithms are often central to what organizations do, they are heavily protected by businesses and hard to access for researchers. In this PDW, we bring together leading scholars across disciplines to explore how algorithms in
organizations can/should be studied and discuss promising avenues for future research. The PDW consists of panel presentations, followed by Q&A and roundtable discussions.
Hope to see you there!
Deborah Anderson & Omid Omidvar
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Deborah Anderson
Post Doctorate Research Fellow
Alberta School of Business
Edmonton AB
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