How can companies encourage successful adoption of mobile internet, mobile apps, e-services, e-commerce, and other new technologies? How can organizations implement IT systems successfully – and why do they fail? What effect do website designs such as animated advertisements and how products are displayed have on human behavior?

These are some of the intriguing questions that Prof. James Thong has spent the past 20 years addressing. His research encompasses technology adoption, e-government, privacy concerns, and human-computer interaction. He started out by looking at IT implementation in small businesses and companies. As computing moved out of the office and into everyone’s daily lives through iPads and mobile phones, Prof. Thong also moved on to study behavioral and social issues arising from consumers’ use of these technologies.

His success in advancing his research fields is demonstrated by a long list of publications in the most renowned business journals on information systems, including MIS Quarterly, Information Systems Research, and Journal of Management Information Systems. He is also among the most highly cited academics in his discipline.

Born in Malaysia, Prof. Thong earned a bachelor in computer science and a master’s and PhD in information systems at National University of Singapore (NUS) in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Both were new areas at NUS at the time. Continuing to be intrigued by technology after finishing his doctorate, he joined HKUST Business School in 1997 to undertake further research and to prepare students for the job opportunities that were emerging as a result of IT advances.

For the past 12 years, Prof. Thong has served in senior departmental roles, first as deputy head and then as head of the department from 2011. During this time, the department aligned the information systems bachelor program with the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA) model curriculum – becoming the first program in Asia Pacific to establish such a pathway and giving students a head start in IT auditing careers. He helped drive forward postgraduate and undergraduate courses related to big data and business analytics, and has seen undergraduate numbers triple to 180 since the dot.com crash. In addition, he served as co-director of the elite Dual Degree Program in Technology and Management for six years.

Further afield, Prof. Thong’s research has made him an eminent international figure while his dedication to professional service on editorial boards of the top journals and international conference committees, plus mentoring of PhD students through doctoral consortiums, led to the Association for Information Systems (AIS) Fellow Award in 2016. He has also provided academic leadership at HKUST Business School, as reflected in the department’s current ranking at No.20 worldwide and No.2 among institutions outside the US, based on publications in four leading journals in information systems and operations management.