I am interested in understanding the role technology plays in organizing work and producing innovations that were traditionally conceived within the boundaries of established firms and businesses. My research lies at the intersection of open-innovation and healthcare technology. In my doctoral dissertation, I examined knowledge creation in one open-source community of an Electronic Medical Record named OSCAR. Contrary to other open-source projects, this software is embedded in a community of doctors rather than a community of programmers. I found that the predefined roles of doctors and programmers do not extend into the online community where both groups participate in producing and shaping the software.
I am involved in other research projects that seek to develop a better understanding of the relationships among members in online communities and social medial especially when these relationships are primarily or even exclusively sustained through online interaction. Examining the emergence of leadership in technical forums, I found that leaders are not just among the most central but also post a large number of positive, concise posts with simple language familiar to other participants. Studying the formation of social movement groups on Twitter, I am focusing on how microblogging affords actors who are not previously institutionally recognized to come together collectively to frame a focal issue at the time of a crisis. The study conceptualizes how grassroots actors' framing in a crisis does not merely diffuse but rather builds upon, reacts to and opposes established actors' framing.
Education and Career
PhD, Business/MIS, McGill University, 2014
MS, Computer Science, McGill University, 2008
BA, Computer Engineering, Damascus University, 2006
Mayo Clinic, Research Collaborator, 2016 to 2021
Stevens Institute of Technology, Visiting Assistant Professor, 2014 to 2
Best Theory Paper: Open Communities and Formal Organizations: A Symbiosis View, International Conference on Information Systems, 2020
Best Publication of 2019: Data-Driven Computationally-Intensive Theory Development, International Conference on Information Systems, 2020
Best Information Systems Research Paper of 2019: Data-Driven Computationally-Intensive Theory Development, Information Systems Research, 2020
Best Associate Editor, International Conference on Information Systems, 2019
Best Theory Paper: Tension Resolution and Sustaining Knowledge Flows in Online Communities, International Conference on Information Systems, 2019
Best Division Paper Award: Who Contributes Knowledge? Embeddedness and Marginality in Online Communities, Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, 2018
Best Published 2015 Paper Award: The Emergence of Online Community Leadership, Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, 2016
Second Runner-Up Best Dissertation Award, International Conference on Information Systems, 2015
Best Conference Paper Award: Grassroots versus Established Actors' Framing of a Crisis: Tweeting the Oil Spill, Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, 2014
Excellence in Teaching Award, Desautels Faculty of Management, 2013
University of Georgia, Diversity Advisory Council, 2017 – present, University
Research, Expertise and Publications
- Computational Linguistics
- Social Network Analysis
- Mixed-Methods Design
- HealthCare IT
- Open-Source Organizing
- Social Media
- Online Communities
Journal Articles
- Hani Safadi, Steven Johnson and Samer Faraj Who Contributes Knowledge? Core-Periphery Tension in Online Innovation Communities. Organization Science 2020
- Tanner Skousen, Hani Safadi, Colleen Young, Elena Karahanna, Sami Safadi, and Fouad Chebib. "Successful Moderation in Online Patient Communities: Inductive Case Study." Journal of medical Internet research 22, no. 3 (2020): e15983.
- Nicholas Berente, Stefan Seidel, Hani Safadi. Data-Driven Computationally-Intensive Theory Development. Information Systems Research , 2019.
- Emmanuelle Vaast, Hani Safadi, Bogdan Negoita and Liette Lapointe. 2018. Social Media Affordances for Connective Action - An Examination of Microblogging Use During the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill.Mis Quarterly, 41(4).
- Steven Johnson, Hani Safadi and Samer Faraj. 2015. The Emergence of Online Community Leadership. Information Systems Research,26(1):165-187.
- Hani Safadi, David Chan, Martin Dawes, Mark Roper and Samer Faraj. 2015. Open-source health information technology: A case study of electronic medical records. Health Policy And Technology,4(1):14-28.
Book Chapters
One Picture to Study One Thousand Words: Visualization for Qualitative Research in the Age of Digitalization,
Cambridge University Press Handbook of Qualitative Research in the Age of Digitalisation
Associate Editor, MIS Quarterly, 2021 - present
Review Board, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, 2016 - present