Research Seminar Series: Professor Stan Karanasios

Speaker: Professor Stan Karanasios
Title: Working with Digital Representations
Date: Thursday, 21 May 2026
Time: 12:00pm – 2:00pm
Venue: Building 21, PAP Moran, G058, Seminar Room 

Silviana Tana is the host of this visit 

Abstract:

Under a digital-first ontology, we increasingly experience reality in two versions: the physical world and its digital counterpart. Yet the two often fit imperfectly, especially in equivocal contexts where multiple, conflicting interpretations are possible.

In this presentation, I draw on a study of Video Assistant Referee (VAR) in football as an instructive case. Introduced to resolve equivocality, VAR’s digital representations have instead produced significant errors. Drawing on Representation Theory, I analyze 73 admitted decision errors across five major leagues over five years to examine how technology can amplify equivocality rather than eliminate it.

I make several theoretical contributions. First, I extend Representation Theory to account for how individuals work with digital representations while also engaging with physical reality, where representation work is an interpretive and social accomplishment and where decision-makers must make representations actionable by interpreting them, reconciling divergent interpretations, and navigating the norms governing how evidence is evaluated. Second, I show how digital technology introduces asymmetric enacted realities: divergent, imbalanced interpretations of the same episode across actors and levels, as specific digital cues and temporalities are privileged over others. I show how misalignments across physical and digital forms propagate errors. Third, I distinguish a realm of potentially predictable outcomes, where digital oversight supports sensemaking, from a realm of potentially unpredictable outcomes, where it may amplify uncertainty. I discuss implications for research and practice.

Speaker bio:

Dr Stan Karanasios is an Professor in Information Systems at the UQ Business School, University of Queensland. He has a visiting Professor role at the University of Southampton. Prior to joining the University of Queensland he worked at RMIT University in Melbourne and the University of Leeds in the UK.

Stan's interests focus on how digital technology impacts organisations and society. Over the last ten years he has undertaken a program of research on the interaction between new digital technologies and organisations. Recently he completed a project for the International Telecommunications Union on digital transformation in Ghana and for Emergency Management Victoria on how social media platforms change the information landscape in the emergency sector. His research draws and expands on activity theory, an area in where he is recognised as an international expert. He holds a visiting position at the University of Leeds and regularly teaches on a summer school on activity theory in Europe.

He is a Senior Editor for Information Systems Journal, an Associate Editor for the European Journal of Information Systems, Section Editor for the Australian Journal on Information Systems, and on the Editorial Board for Mind, Culture & Activity and the International Journal of Information Management.

He has published in leading information systems journals such as the Journal of the Association of Information Systems, MIS Quarterly, Information Systems Journal, European Journal of Information Systems, Journal of Strategic Information Systems and Journal of Information Technology. He also regularly publishes in leading information systems conferences such as the International Conference on Information Systems, Americas Conference on Information Systems and Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. In addition to academic publications, he has written reports for government and organisations, his research also appears in The Conversation and other news and media outlets.