The CIS Research Colloquium Series Presents

Impact of Explanations on Trust in and Intention to Adopt Online Recommendation Agents

Weiquan Wang and Izak Benbasatt
University of British Columbia

The scarcest resource in business today is not information or knowledge, but human attention.  In this session, Tom Davenport will describe the key elements of attention management in business.  He will address such issues as the measurement of attention, the lessons we can learn from “attention industries,” and the role of technology in managing attention.  In addition to knowledge management, some of the contexts into which attention management can be newly applied include electronic commerce, globalization, and leadership.  Several management frameworks will be provided that can be applies to your own organization – if you pay attention!

            Tom Davenport is Director of the Accenture Institute for Strategic Change and a Distinguished Scholar in Residence at Babson College, both in the greater Boston area.  He is a widely published author and acclaimed speaker on the topics of information and knowledge management, reengineering, enterprise systems, and electronic business and markets.  He earned his Ph.D. from Harvard University in organizational behavior and has taught at the Harvard Business School, the University of Chicago, Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business, and the University of Texas at Austin.  He has also directed research centers at Ernst & Young, McKinsey & Company, and CSC Index. 

                Tom’s latest book, co-authored with John Beck, is The Attention Economy (Harvard Business School Press), which describes how individuals and organizations can manage “the new currency of business.”  Prior to this, Tom wrote, co-authored or edited eight other books, including the first books on business process reengineering, knowledge management, and enterprise systems.  He has written over 100 articles for such publications as the Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review, California Management Review, Financial Times, and many other publications.  Tom also writes a monthly column created expressly for him by CIO Magazine called “Davenport on . . . ,” and another for Darwin magazine on information technology and organizational change.  He was recently named one of 10 “Masters of the New Economy” by CIO Magazine, and one of 25 “E-Business Gurus” by Darwin magazine.  

Friday, 14 December 2001