Mary Cecilia Lacity

Mary Cecilia Lacity (born May 27, 1963) is a Walton Professor of Information Systems and the Director of the Blockchain Center of Excellence at the University of Arkansas, Sam M. Walton College of Business.

Mary was previously the Curators’ Distinguished Professor of Information Systems and International Business Fellow at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. She also held the position of Visiting Scholar at the MIT Center for Information Systems Research. Additionally, she has held visiting positions at the London School of Economics, Washington University, and Oxford University. She is best known for her research in automation, outsourcing and blockchain.

Early life

Mary Lacity was born May 27, 1963 in Margate City, New Jersey. She got her undergraduate degree in Quantitative Business Analysis at Pennsylvania State University in 1985. Before Mary received her PhD, she was a consultant for Technology Partners International and a systems analyst for Exxon. In 1992, she received her Ph.D. in Information Systems from the University of Houston, C.T. Bauer College of Business.

Career

University of Missouri-St. Louis

Mary Lacity started at the University of Missouri-St. Louis in 1992, and was there for 26 years. Starting as an Assistant Professor of MIS, she moved to Associate Professor in 1998 and full professor in 2004. In 2012, she became the Curators’ Distinguished Professor of Information Systems, and International Business Fellow. She taught classes on Qualitative Research Methods and The Philosophy of Science and Qualitative Research Methods.

Sam M. Walton College of Business

After her time at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, Mary Lacity moved to Fayetteville, Arkansas for a position as the Director of the Blockchain Center of Excellence. The goals of the Blockchain Center of Excellence are to develop research partnerships, promote the dissemination of knowledge about blockchain, and push industry adoption of blockchain technology.

Other roles

Mary Lacity has served in many different roles in her career. She held the position of Visiting Scholar at the MIT Center for Information Systems Research. Additionally, she has held visiting positions at the London School of Economics, Washington University, and Oxford University. She is also a Certified Outsourcing Professional. She is a coeditor of the Palgrave Series: Work, Technology, and Globalization, senior editor of MIS Quarterly Executive and Journal of Information Technology Teaching Cases, and on the editorial boards for the Journal of Information Technology, the Journal of Strategic Information Systems, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, and Strategic Outsourcing: An International Journal.

Additionally, Mary is an industry advisor for Symphony Ventures and a member of the IAOP Outsourcing Hall of Fame. She received the 2000 World Outsourcing Achievement Award and 2008 Gateway to Innovation Award. Her publications have appeared in Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review, MIS Quarterly, IEEE Computer, and Communications of the ACM.

Books

• Information Systems Outsourcing: Myths, Metaphors and Realities (1993) ISBN 9780471956044
• Beyond The Information Systems Outsourcing Bandwagon: The Insourcing Response (1995) ISBN 9780471958222
• Inside Information Technology Outsourcing: A State-of-the-art Report (2000) ISBN 9781873955079
• Global Information Technology Outsourcing: In Search of Business Advantage (2001) ISBN 9780471899594
• Netsourcing: Renting Business Applications and Services Over a Network (2002) ISBN 0130923559
• Outsourcing: All You Need to Know (2004) ISBN 9780992343613
• Information Systems and Outsourcing (2008) ISBN 9781349302000
• Information Systems and Outsourcing: Studies in Theory and Practice (2008) ISBN 9780230594838
• Offshore Outsourcing of It Work (2008) ISBN 9780230521858
• The Practice of Outsourcing: From Information Systems to BPO and Offshoring (2009) ISBN 9780230205413
• Emerging ITO and BPO Markets: Rural Sourcing and Impact Sourcing (2012) ISBN 9780769549187
• The Rise of Legal Services Outsourcing: Risk and Opportunity (2014) ISBN 9781472906403
• South Africa’s BPO Service Advantage: Becoming Strategic in the Global Marketplace (2015) ISBN 9781137474056
• Nine Keys to World-Class Business Process Outsourcing (2015) ISBN 9781472918482
• Service Automation: Robots and the Future of Work (2016) ISBN 9780956414564
• Robotic Process Automation and Risk Mitigation: The Definitive Guide (2017) ISBN 9780995682030