On the morning of May 20, 2019, at the invitation of the Department of Management Engineering of the School of Management and Economics, Professor Carol Hsu from the School of Economics and Management of Tongji University gave an academic report entitled “Conducting an interpretive case study” in Room 429 of the main building.The report was hosted by Professor Yan Zhijun from the Department of Management Engineering. The teachers of the Department of Management Engineering as well as some doctoral and master students attended the seminar.

　　In today's report, Professor Carol Hsu first introduced the case study method and discussed the differences between the empirical case study and the explanatory case study. Next, he shared his experiences in research topic innovation, case selection, and data collection during the interpretive case study, with particular emphasis on opportunities, communication skills, openness, patience, and the importance of mastering relevant literature in case selection. Finally, Professor Carol Hsu introduced the main results of her recent use of the interpretive case study method, which aimed to study the evolution of intelligent technology product design and the environment that triggered the change in the existing literature, and explored two aspects: (1) How do you combine digital technologies to build smart products and services over time? (2) What is the driving force or generation mechanism that drives smart product and service design?

　　After the report, Professor Carol Hsu answered the questions of teachers and students seriously, and shared her valuable experience in topic selection, essay writing and submission in the academic research. The students benefited a lot.

　　Attachment: Introduction to Professor Carol Hsu

　　Carol Hsu is a distinguished professor in the Management Science and Engineering Department at Tongji University. She holds a Ph.D. in information systems from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Her research interest focuses on two areas: digital innovation, and information security management. Her work has been published in MIS Quarterly, Information Systems Research, Journal of Management Information Systems, Communications of the ACM, and other outlets. She has been invited to present her findings to various international industry conferences (SIBOS, SWIFT Funds & Securities Automation Summits, etc.) She currently serves as Senior Editor at the Journal of Strategic Information Systems and Information Systems Journal, as an Associate Editor at Information & Management, and on the editorial board of the Journal of the AIS, and the IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management.