Professor Crispin Coombs

Professor Crispin Coombs is an experienced and successful leader within the Business School environment, undertaking various senior management roles. His research expertise is located in the information systems domain and concerns the effective management of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and robotics to deliver business benefits. He is a member of the Business and Management Studies sub-panel for the assessment phase of the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021.

Crispin has published over 85 outputs including 36 refereed journal papers (including three at ABS 4*), 39 conference papers and 10 official reports and book chapters. He is a Senior Editor for the European Journal of Information Systems, one of the AIS Basket of Eight top Information Systems journals. He is also a Senior Editor at the journal Information Technology and People. Crispin is an Editorial Board member of the International Journal of Information Management and the International Journal of Project Management.

Professor Coombs was elected to the Board of the UK Academy of Information Systems (UKAIS) in 2015 and served as Vice-President of UKAIS between 2018-2020. Professor Coombs has served on 31 international conference committees. In 2017 Professor Coombs was appointed as a Visiting Professor at the University of São Paulo, Brazil.

He is committed to generating research income and has secured over £0.5million from funding bodies including STFC, CIPD, British Academy, EPSRC, ESRC, NIHR SDO Programme, Department of Health and Department of Business, Innovation and Skills.

Crispin is an experienced teacher and facilitator, teaching on undergraduate, postgraduate and MBA programmes. He has been a Fellow of the HEA since 2007 and is a member of the Association of Information Systems, and UK Academy of Information Systems. Professor Coombs holds external examining positions at the University of Leeds and University of Sheffield and is a regular external PhD examiner.

Crispin's research expertise is located in the information systems (IS) domain and concerns the effective management of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and robotics to deliver business benefits. His research is based on three complementary strands:

• the success and failure of information systems in organisations;
• IT-enabled benefits realisation management;
• empowerment and control through technology.

Recent, UKRI and British Academy funded research projects include:

• The realisation of business benefits from AI informed meat inspection.
• AI transforming aerospace manufacturing circular economy practices.
• AI-voice based assistants for disabled people's independent living.

Professor Coombs has delivered several international keynote speeches on his research, including EnANPAD 2018 'Benefits of Artificial Intelligence & Robotics: Hype or Reality?' (the second-largest Business Administration event in the world) and CONTECSI 2018 'Impacts of Intelligent Machines on Work and Employment' (the largest IS conference in Latin America).

Crispin has authored over 85 articles in academic and professional journals and conferences including Journal of Strategic Information Systems, European Journal of Information Systems; Information & Management; Information Technology & People, International Journal of Information Management, Journal of Global Information Management; Journal of Organizational Behavior; Journal of Vocational Behavior; Management Learning; International Journal of Human Resource Management; International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Academy of Management (AoM), UK Association of Information Systems (UKAIS), European Conference on Knowledge Management (ECKM), European Conference on Information Management and Evaluation (ECIME) and ten official reports and book chapters.

Professor Coombs was nominated for the prestigious Claudio Ciborra award for most innovative research paper at the European Conference on Information Systems in 2013. Professor Coombs is committed to the supervision and development of research students and has supervised eight students to successful completion. He is a regular external PhD examiner with recent appointments including Aston University, University of Agder, De Montfort University, University of Salford, University of Sydney and the University of Canberra.

• 2020: Panel Member Sub-panel 17: Business and Management Studies Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021
• 2020: Senior Editor, 'European Journal of Information Systems' ABDC A*; ABS 3* AIS Basket of Eight Premier IS journals
• 2020: Information Systems Stream Organising Chair, Operational Research Society Conference OR62, Warwick
• 2020: Programme Committee member, UK Academy for Information Systems Conference, Oxford
• 2020: Associate Editor, IS in the Workplace and the Future of Work, International Conference on Information Systems, Hyderabad, India
• 2019: Distinguished Editorial Board Member, 'International Journal of Information Management' ABDC A; ABS 2*
• 2019: Associate Editor, Information Systems Research Methods, Theorizing and Philosophy of Science, International Conference on Information Systems, Munich, Germany
• 2019: Associate Editor, Rethinking IS Strategy and Governance in the Digital Age Track, European Conference on Information Systems, Stockholm-Uppsala, Sweden
• 2019: Programme Committee member, UK Academy for Information Systems Conference, Oxford
• 2019: Doctoral Consortium Facilitator, UK Academy for Information Systems Conference, Oxford
• 2018: Organising Chair, New Technologies, Organisations and Work workshop, European Conference on Information Systems, Portsmouth
• 2018 – 2020: Vice President UK Academy for Information Systems (2018 – 2020 present)
• 2018 – present: Member of Operational Research Society Awards Panel for Stafford Beer Medal, (best paper award), 'European Journal of Information Systems'
• 2018: Chair of Information Systems stream for the Operational Research Society (OR60) Conference
• 2017 – 2019: Member of Operational Research Society Awards Panel for Griffiths Medal, (best paper award), 'Health Systems Journal'
• 2017 – present: Visiting Professor, University of São Paulo, Brazil
• 2017: Invited contributor to ESRC and US NSF collaborative workshop on Changing Work, 'Changing Lives in the New Technological World', October
• 2017: Chair of Information Systems stream for the Operational Research Society (OR59) Conference
• 2016 – present: Senior Editor, Information Technology and People, ABDC A; ABS 3*
• 2016 – present: Editorial Board Member, International Journal of Project Management ABDC A; ABS 2*
• 2016: Invited contributor to IBM Data Science workshop at IBM World of Watson conference, October
• 2016: Invited contributor to ESRC and DSTL workshop on 'Automation of Future Roles', November
• 2015 – present: Conference committee for UK Academy for Information Systems
• 2015: Elected to Board UK Academy for Information Systems
• 2012 – 2017: Guest judge, SAP UK and Ireland Quality Awards
• 2013 – 2015: External advisor, LIBA Consulting and Advisory Services Limited

• Dwivedi, YK, Hughes, DL, Coombs, C, Constantiou, I, Duan, Y, Edwards, JS, Gupta, B, Lal, B, Misra, S, Prashant, P, Raman, R, Rana, NP, Sharma, SK, Upadhyay, N (2020) Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on information management research and practice: Transforming education, work and life, International Journal of Information Management, 55, 102211, ISSN: 0268-4012. DOI: 10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2020.102211.
• Coombs, C (2020) Will COVID-19 be the tipping point for the intelligent automation of work? A review of the debate and implications for research, International Journal of Information Management, 55, 102182, ISSN: 0268-4012. DOI: 10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2020.102182.
• Coombs, C, Hislop, D, Taneva, S, Barnard, S (2020) The Strategic Impacts of Intelligent Automation for Knowledge and Service Work: An Interdisciplinary Review, Journal of Strategic Information Systems, ISSN: 0963-8687. DOI: 10.1016/j.jsis.2020.101600.
• Coombs, C, Hislop, D, Taneva, S, Barnard, S (2020) The changing nature of knowledge and service work in the age of intelligent machines. In Yates, S and Rice, RE (ed) The Oxford Handbook of Digital Technology and Society, Oxford University Press, pp.342-368, ISBN: 9780190932596. DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190932596.013.11.
• Hislop, D, Coombs, C, Taneva, S, Barnard, S (2017) Impact of artificial intelligence, robotics and automation on work.
• Abubakre, M, Ravishankar, MN, Coombs, C (2017) Revisiting the trajectory of IT implementation in organisations: An IT Culture Perspective, Information Technology and People, 30(3), pp.562-579, DOI: 10.1108/ITP-09-2015-0217.
• Abubakre, M, Ravishankar, MN, Coombs, C (2015) The role of formal controls in facilitating IS diffusion, Information & Management, 52(6), 599-609. DOI: 10.1016/j.im.2015.04.005.