Bill Kettinger Receives Best Paper Award

For release:  January 23, 2015

Dr. Bill Kettinger, Chair of Excellence and Professor of MIS, recently received a Best Paper Award at the Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS). His article titled, “Late to the Game: Assessing IT Integration Risk after a Acquisition Target has been Identified,” was co-authored with Stefan Henningsson, a professor at the Copenhagen Business School. HICSS is a world-renowned conference sponsored by the IEEE Computing Society and annually attracts close to 1,000 researchers from around the globe. 

Dr. Kettinger’s article determined a framework for assessing IT integration risk in acquisitions. The article found IT integration is essential for the realization of the business synergies that motivate an acquisition, however, few companies include IT in the due diligence before an acquisition. As a consequence, IT managers must access risk quickly and accurately after an acquisition decision to develop a successful IT integration plan. Insights gained from multiple acquisitions at Trelleborg AB, a global industrial company, provided recommendations for Chief Information Officers in assessing and managing IT related risk in acquisitions after the acquisition target has been identified.