Maris Martinsons
- For the Latvian film director and producer, see Maris Martinsons.
Maris Martinsons is director of the Pacific Rim Institute for the Studies of Management and a professor of management currently associated with the City University of Hong Kong, the Stockholm School of Economics and the University of Toronto. He received his B.A.Sc. (Engineering Science) and MBA degrees from the University of Toronto, and a PhD in Industrial and Business Studies from the University of Warwick. He has served as editor for the following scholarly journals: IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, the Journal of Applied Management Studies, the Journal of Information Technology Management, the Journal of Management Systems, and the Communications of the ACM.
Martinsons is a leading authority on strategic management, organizational change, and knowledge management/information systems. His research and insights have been published widely in Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Russian and Spanish as well as English.
Martinsons also has extensive experience as a business consultant, mostly in association with Ernst & Young, DRI/McGraw-Hill and McKinsey & Co.. He has successfully completed more than 30 large-scale projects in Western, Chinese and cross-cultural settings, and has served as an external advisor to leading organisations and institutions around the world, including the governments of Hong Kong and Latvia.
Martinsons received the Distinguished Young Scholar Award from the International Association of Management in 1995. He has been a keynote speaker at meetings of scholarly societies, industry groups and professional associations, such as the Baltic Business Congress, the East Asian Executive Forum, the International Association of Management, the Pacific Rim Leadership Summit, the Peak Time international business case competition and the World Knowledge Forum.
Martinsons exemplifies a new generation of global scholars. He is a Latvian-Canadian who was educated in both North America and Europe, has been a visiting professor at leading universities on 6 continents, and is now based in the heart of the Asia-Pacific region. Maris played instrumental roles in establishing the world-wide Association of Information Systems, as a member of its original Organizing Committee, and internationalising the (U.S.) Academy of Management, primarily by bridging the East-West divide.
Martinsons is an influential researcher on the strategic management of competitive enterprises in uncertain business environments as well as the diagnosis, planning and implementation of transformational organizational change. The level of analysis in his studies has ranged from individuals (top management decision making) and small groups (knowledge management systems) to organisations (business performance management, links between business strategy and information technology/systems) and entire industries and economies (strategic intelligence in pre-handover Hong Kong, post-Soviet reform in Latvia, e-commerce in 21st century China). Martinsons also pioneered the research of both green business issues (sustainable development and environmental technologies) and information ethics in the context of Hong Kong and China. According to Google Scholar, Maris Martinsons has authored 3 of the 10 most cited articles on Chinese management.
Martinsons has also been a pioneer with action research and e-learning. Based on a philosophy that stresses the integration of theory and practice and the application of systematic frameworks/models and principles, the "Martinsons on Management" learning platform and a series of "Management by Martinsons" masterclasses have played significant roles in professionalising management in transitional economies such as mainland China and the Baltic States. The programs incorporate various intellectual and physical challenges that take participants beyond their comfort zones to develop both greater confidence and competence. He has also used IT extensively to develop multimedia teaching materials and online education environments that take the learning process far beyond the classroom.
Martinsons was the first triple winner of a university-level teaching excellence award in Hong Kong. In winning these awards in 1995, 2003 and 2012, he was cited for his thoughtful teaching philosophy, meticulous course planning, self-developed course materials, deep knowledge of business and management, creative presentations, series of IT innovations, and ability to foster a high degree of interaction in both the classroom and online.
Martinsons is also an accomplished athlete, having represented Canada, Latvia and Hong Kong in international sporting competitions.
His philanthropic activities focus on developing and improving international relationships, particularly between academic and business communities in Baltic Europe and East Asia. Professor Martinsons was a co-founder of TALKA, the Far Eastern Latvian Cultural Association, and has served on its board of directors since 1989. In recent years, he has cultivated social entrepreneurship among the younger generation in Hong Kong and southern China, helped to set up student exchange programs at both the university and secondary school levels, and collaborated with the Clinton Global Initiative to popularise the best practices and useful innovations in higher education.
Publications
Book
- Information technology and the challenge for Hong Kong / edited by Janice M. Burn and Maris G. Martinsons. Hong Kong : Hong Kong University Press, c1997. ISBN 962-209-420-1
Dissertation
- Strategic Intelligence in Hong Kong, How chief executives managed information/knowledge amidst the environmental uncertainty of pre-handover Hong Kong / University of Warwick
Scholarship
His paper "Comparing the Decision Styles of American, Chinese and Japanese business leaders" from the Academy of Management meeting in 2001 is a seminal study in international business and management. It ranks as one of the 200 most influential publications in the social sciences . The paper has over 1,000 hyperlinked citations and has been downloaded more than 7,000 times by members of the Social Science Research Network.
Another paper, co-authored with Neale O'Connor, applies insights from accounting research to address key issues in the fields of management and information systems. "Management of Information Systems: Insights from Management Accounting Research" also ranks among the all-time top 600 publications in the social sciences with more than 4,000 downloads by members of the Social Science Research Network.
According to Google Scholar, the most cited peer-reviewed journal articles by Maris Martinsons are:
- Martinsons, M., Davison, R., Tse, D. (1999). The balanced scorecard: A foundation for the strategic management of information systems, Decision Support Systems, 25(1), pp. 71–88. Cited more than 440 times.
- Martinsons, M.G., Westwood, R.I. (1997). Management information systems in the Chinese business culture: An explanatory theory, Information and Management, 32(5), pp. 215–228. Cited more than 300 times in Chinese and 210 times in English.
- Davison, R.M., Martinsons, M.G., Kock, N. (2004). Principles of canonical action research, Information Systems Journal, 14(1), pp. 65–86. Cited more than 360 times.
- Martinsons, M.G., Chong, P.K.C. (1999). The influence of human factors and specialist involvement on information systems success, Human Relations, 52(1), pp. 123–151. Cited more than 150 times.
- Martinsons, M.G. (1993) Outsourcing information systems: A strategic partnership with risks, Long Range Planning, 26 (3), pp. 18–25. Cited more than 110 times.
- Martinsons, M.G. (2002). Electronic commerce in China, Information & Management, 39(5), pp. 71–79. Cited more than 90 times in English and 150 times in Chinese.
- Martinsons, M.G. (2004). ERP in China, Communications of the ACM, 47(7), pp. 65–68. Cited more than 100 times.
- Martinsons, M.G., Davison, R.M. (2007). Strategic decision making and support systems: Contrasting American, Japanese and Chinese Management, Decision Support Systems, 43(1), pp. 284–300. Cited more than 75 times.
- Burrows, G.R., Drummond, D.L., Martinsons, M.G. (2005). Knowledge management in China, Communications of the ACM, 48(4), pp 44–48. Cited more than 50 times in English and 150 times in Chinese.
- Martinsons, M.G., Hempel, P.S. (1995). Chinese management systems: historical and cross-cultural perspectives, Journal of Management Systems, 7(1), pp. 1–11. Cited more than 40 times in English and 100 times in Chinese.
- Martinsons, M.G. (1995). Radical process innovation using information technology: The theory, the practice and the future of reengineering, International Journal of Information Management, 15 (4), pp. 253–269. Cited more than 60 times.
- Martinsons, M.G., Martinsons, A.G.B. (1996). Conquering cultural constraints to cultivate Chinese management creativity and innovation, Journal of Management Development 15(9), pp. 18–35. Cited more than 60 times.
- Martinsons, M.G. (2008). Relationship-based e-commerce: Theory and evidence from China, Information Systems Journal, 18(4), pp. 331–356. Cited more than 50 times in English and 100 times in Chinese.
- Martinsons, M.G. (1994). Benchmarking human resource information systems in Canada and Hong Kong, Information & Management, 26 (6), pp. 305–316. Cited more than 50 times.
- Davison, R.M., Martinsons, M.G. (2002). Empowerment or enslavement? A case of organisational change in Hong Kong, Information Technology & People, 15(1), pp. 42–59. Cited more than 50 times.
- Martinsons, M.G., Hempel, P.S. (1998). Chinese business process re-engineering, International Journal of Information Management, 18(6), pp. 393–407. Cited more than 40 times in English and 50 times in Chinese.
- Martinsons, M.G., Cheung, C. (2001). The impact of emerging practices on IS specialists: Perceptions, attitudes and role changes in Hong Kong, Information & Management, 38(2), pp. 167–183. Cited more than 30 times.
- Martinsons, M.G., Martinsons, V. (2002). Rethinking the value of IT, again. Communications of the ACM, 45(7), pp. 25–26. Cited more than 30 times.
- Martinsons, M.G., Tseng, C.S. (1995). Successful joint ventures in the heart of the dragon, Long Range Planning, 28(5), pp. 45–58.
- Martinsons, M.G., Schindler, F.R. (1995). Organizational visions for technology assimilation: The strategic roads to knowledge-based systems success, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, 42 (1), pp. 9–18. Cited more than 30 times.
- Martinsons, M.G., Valdemars, K. (1992). Post-Soviet reform in Latvia: Early progress and future prospects, Journal of Economic Studies, 19(6), pp. 35–53. Cited more than 25 times.
- Martinsons M.G., So, S.K.K., Tin C., Wong D. (1997). Hong Kong and China: emerging markets for environmental products and technologies, Long Range Planning, 30(5), pp. 277–290. Cited more than 25 times.
- Martinsons, M.G. (1997). Human resource management applications of knowledge-based systems, International Journal of Information Management, 17(1), pp. 35–53. Cited more than 25 times.
External links
- profile, awards and honors
- Google Scholar profile
- professional expertise profile
- City University scholarship profile
- SSRN author profile