Informatics

Research in information systems

Our research on designing digitalisation focuses on the omnipresent digital transformation of society and human activities. How do we contribute to this transformation as designers and developers?

The Department of Informatics at Lund University School of Economics and Management strives to be recognised as a leading information systems research centre in Europe. Research in Information Systems (Informatics) in Lund is multi-disciplinary in its approach and has a strong international focus in terms of research issues and general involvement. We make a difference through understanding, explaining and improving our world by expanding our intellectual footprint in the field of Information Systems (IS) when conducting research on design, implementation and effects of IS.

Tackling societal challenges

All research at the department meet high academic standards and provide a research foundation for high-quality education. Meaningful and useful research contributions, such that makes a difference, are produced from IS research-initiatives. Research results from the Department of Informatics has been applied in health services and crisis management, banking and on the edge technology knowledge production.

The research at the Department of Informatics is interdisciplinary through collaboration within and beyond the School. Together we tackle important and pressing societal challenges, such as preventing, managing and remedy crisis, child mortality and infectious diseases.

All artefacts, i.e. research results, have a specific purpose that solves a problem that has not yet been solved, or in a better way than before. From that perspective each research result can be considered a pioneering discovery. Moreover, research affiliations, research consortiums and users of research results are examples of fruitful interdisciplinary partnerships tackling important questions facing society.

Preparing students to resolve global challenges

Information systems is a bridge between technology and human activities. IS are everywhere and are used by many every day in all modern society. ISs help businesses to digitalise important internal parts and functions, as well as the digital transformation of the public sector with mobile and E-health systems.

The moral, ethics and knowledge contribution of such research is part in forming the scene we share with our students in terms of the good lecture and teaching. We want to prepare students to resolve global challenges through relevant, research-based and business-integrated education.

Doctoral students make an important contribution to the intellectual life of the School. We believe in them and in the next generation of academic scholars. They form an important prerequisite for useful knowledge contribution which improves the human conditions and supports the pursuit for a better world.

Research in the Information Systems (IS) discipline at Lund University School of Economics and Management concerns the study of design, implementation, use, and impact of IS/IT artefacts. This also includes the design and development of IS/IT artefacts. The range of artefacts is broad, and involves methods such as algorithms, development methods, as well as instantiations, such as specific IS, IT products, and IS enabled business processes.

Design Science research

A large portion of the research conducted at the Department of Informatics is Design Science research.

Recent projects have focused on the development of:

Design guidelines for organisational implementation of Knowledge Management Systems
An approach for designing Management Support Systems
An approach for designing and developing mobile IS
IS integration in mergers and acquisitions
Design guidelines for the use of asynchronous communication in e-learning
A socio-technical IS design science research (STISD) approach and its use. This approach complements the view of IS design science research as a ‘hard’ engineering practice, currently dominating in the USA.

A digital, rule-based service for coordination of child vaccination. Project: VacSam
Local health surveillance in Malawi with an electronic IMCI (e-IMCI) mobile application. The application can be used to improve the assessment, diagnosis and treatment of seriously ill children with infectious diseases and to circumvent the absence of healthcare infrastructures. Project: Supporting LIFE.
Emergency healthcare management in Europe with a Decision Support System (DSS) used for learning and preparing for emergency incidents and analysing threats, to post evaluation. Project: S-HELP.

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Behavioural Science Research

Researchers at the Department of Informatics are carrying out Behavioural and Social Science research where the main aim is to describe and explain IS phenomena. Part of the Behavioural Science research has addressed IS implementation processes. Some examples:

The implementation of Enterprise Resource Planning systems like SAP/R3
Effects of IS use. This can for example be managers’ perceptions of the impact of an Executive Information System on organisational intelligence, decision making, and structure – an issue related to how firms can compete on analytics
IS governance and management, one example is the study of the decision process in outsourcing of IS
IS development, such as studies on software process improvement (SPI).

Other on-going projects

The Smart City idea exploring the opportunities for urban systems and citizens’ quality of life. Project: FuturElight.
Research on welfare technology – organising, introducing and using welfare technology in health care. Project: eTeam.

More about the projects

S-HELP

The Decision Support System S-HELP brings major benefits to emergency healthcare management in Europe, from learning and preparing for emergency incidents and analysing threats, to post evaluation, reporting and logistics management. It provides a unique mechanism to assist stakeholders and end users to work together for co-ordinated, effective, evidence-based decisions at all stages of emergency management (EM). It therefore plays an essential role in the response to emergency situations that in many cases have negative impact on human health.

Contact: Odd Steen and Nicklas Holmberg