Creation of the Research Chair in Aging, Technostress and Digital Vulnerability

HEC Montréal has launched the Research Chair in Aging, Technostress and Digital Vulnerability, which will be held by Stefan Tams, Professor in the Department of Information Technologies.

Made possible through the support of the HEC Montréal Foundation, the aim of this new Chair is to provide a better understanding of how digital technology use influences the daily lives of aging individuals. It is particularly interested in the consequences of technostress and in the various forms of digital vulnerability that can emerge in a context where work, services, social interactions and daily activities rely on technology.
Its research objectives focus on three axes:

1. Aging and Technology Use: Examines how aging shapes the adoption and use of technology, as well as performance—including the completion of tasks using information technology, innovation behavior and career outcomes such as early retirement—in order to identify the conditions under which older workers can thrive with digital tools rather than struggle with them.
2. Technostress: Investigates the stress process triggered by tech-related demands such as interruptions, workload and uncertainty, by distinguishing between its harmful (distress) and beneficial (eustress) dimensions in order to develop interventions that reduce the cost of technostress while harnessing its productive potential.
3. Digital Vulnerability: Studies why older adults are disproportionately susceptible to online harms such as misinformation and fake news, and develops design- and education-based strategies to help them safely navigate digital information environments.

About Stefan Tams

Stefan Tams has been a Professor in the Department of Information Technologies at HEC Montréal since 2011. He holds a PhD in Management (Specialization in Information Systems) from Clemson University and an MS in Information Systems Management from the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

His research focuses mainly on how aging shapes digital technology use, technostress and digital vulnerability among older adults. 

In addition to serving as Associate Editor for the Journal of the Association for Information Systems and Business & Information Systems Engineering, he has published papers in several leading scientific journals including MIS Quarterly, MIT Sloan Management Review, Journal of the Association for Information Systems, Journal of Strategic Information Systems and European Journal of Information Systems.

Professor Tam’s work has been funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada since 2011, and his research on the links between age and susceptibility to fake news recently received an Insight Development Grant. He has also been a visiting scholar at the Research Centre of the Institut universitaire de gériatrie de Montréal and at McGill University.