Dr Cheng receives his award plaque at the International Conference on Information Systems.
We are delighted to share that Dr Aaron Cheng, Assistant Professor of Information Systems and Innovation, has been awarded the Association for Information Systems’ (AIS) Early Career Award.
The AIS Early Career Award is one of the Association for Information Systems’ highest honours that can be awarded to scholars within seven years of completing their PhD. It recognises researchers who have made globally visible contributions to the field and who are seen as role models through a combination of research, teaching, and service.
“I’m genuinely honoured to receive the award,” Dr Aaron Cheng said. “Early in my academic career, I spent a lot of time building ideas, data, methods, and collaborations, but often with little certainty about how the work would land. This award felt like a signal from the community that the direction I’ve been pursuing is not only rigorous, but also useful and valued.”
“What I find most meaningful is the ‘role model’ framing,” Dr Cheng continued. “I have always looked up to senior scholars in the field, and receiving an award that explicitly recognises mentorship, teaching, and service alongside research is both affirming and humbling. It reminded me that impact is not only what we publish, but also how we help others do their best work.”
Dr Cheng (5th from right) and Information Systems colleagues at ICIS 2025.
Each year, a small number of awardees are selected across AIS’s three global regions, the Americas, Europe/Africa, and Asia-Pacific. In 2025, Dr Cheng was the only recipient for the Europe/Africa region. His work represented the “economics of information systems” community, bringing economic thinking, causal evidence, and policy relevance to questions about how digital technologies reshape markets, organisations, and society.
Reflecting on the award’s impact, Dr Cheng said, “it gives greater visibility to my research agenda, using economic reasoning and causal empirical evidence to understand the consequences of digitisation and AI for markets, organisations, and people. It also strengthens my platform to build collaborations across disciplines and with policy and industry communities, which is increasingly important for work on AI and data regulations.”
“Importantly, it raises the bar for me. I see it as both encouragement and responsibility: to keep pushing for rigorous and relevant research; to review and serve thoughtfully; and to invest time in mentoring students and early-career colleagues.”
Candidates for the award are nominated by senior scholars and evaluated by an AIS awards committee against the award criteria. Dr Cheng was notified of the award ahead of the International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS) in Nashville, December 2025, and the formal AIS ceremony will take place online on 19 January 2026.
Tuesday 13 January 2026