Digital Platform Ecosystems: The Coming Context for AI

By Prof. Omar EL-SAWY

Professor of  Data Science & Operations, Senior Editor MISQuarterly – Marshall School of Business at the  University of Southern California

Discussant: Florian Hatt Sr. Manager Data Science Pricing – Expedia Group

Digital Platform Ecosystems appear to be emerging as the next form of the corporation. This talk will examine how platform business models are evolving and what the critical properties of digital platform ecosystems are. The talk will then outline some theoretical and methodological considerations  for conducting research in such a messy complex context. The talk will then challenge the audience in thinking through how the role of AI in creating value might evolve in the context of digital platform ecosystems

Prof. Omar El Sawy is the Kenneth King Stonier endowed Chair in Business Administration and Professor of Information Systems in the Data Sciences & Operations Department of the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California. His PhD is from Stanford Business School. His expertise is in digital business strategy in dynamic environments, digital platform ecosystems, and business models for digital platforms.

He served as Director of Research for Marshall’s Institute for Communications Technology Management from 2001-2007 with industry research sponsorships that neared $1 million annually. He is the author of over 100 papers and two books, and a seven-time winner of the Society for Information Management’s Annual Academic Paper Award – most recently in 2015. He has received best paper awards from AIS, INFORMS, and the Pacific Telecommunications Council. His papers have over 10,000 Google citations. In the last 5 years he has been a keynote speaker at conferences in Australia, Italy, and Finland, and an invited speaker at research seminars at North American and European universities. He has served on 43 PhD dissertation committees at USC and elsewhere.  He is currently Senior Editor of MIS Quarterly and on several editorial boards. He teaches in the MBA program and received the Marshall School’s Evan C. Thompson Award for Teaching and Learning Innovation in 2012. He has served as advisor to the United Nations Development Programme in Egypt, and as a Fulbright scholar in Finland. In 2008, he was inducted as the 45th Fellow of the Association of Information Systems for his research contributions. In 2016 he was appointed as the Kenneth King Stonier endowed Chair in Business Administration.