Dr Yenni Tim

Dr. Yenni Tim works on challenges at the intersection of digital capacity, resilience, and societal progress, currently as a Senior Lecturer in the School of Information Systems and Technology Management, UNSW Business School.

Her research program develops understanding on the effective design, deployment, and use of digital technologies to anticipate, absorb, and adapt to major technological, organisational, and societal shocks, as well as to advance resilient and sustainable development. The in-depth field work and action design research projects Yenni has completed to date address challenges related to the effective leveraging of digital technologies for pandemic and disaster response, digital disadvantages, environmental sustainability, digital shocks, and social exclusions.

Yenni is a recipient of the Association for Information Systems (AIS) Early Career Award, the Association's highest distinction for young scholars. She serves as an Associate Editor for the Information Systems Journal (2020 - present) and the European Journal of Information Systems (incoming, 2023), as well as a Managing Editor for the Journal of the Association for Information Systems (2019 - present). Yenni also regularly contributes reviews to journals (e.g., ISR, JSIS, EJIS, ISJ, I&O, I&M) for research relevant to digital (including cyber) resilience, digital social innovation, technology affordances, and/or use qualitative or design research methodologies. 

As an extension of her focus on practice-driven research, Yenni developed a tripartite ‘Sandbox’ engagement framework in 2018 and founded the UNSW Sandbox Program (unsw.to/sandbox) in November 2019 to empower three-way partnerships among industry practitioners, academics, and university students. Within 3 years, the Sandbox Program has grown into a platform that affords tripartite collaboration at scale and generates outcomes across education, research, and social impact. 

In terms of educational outcomes, the Sandbox Program has provided over 6,200 undergraduate and postgraduate students across the Information Systems, Actuarial Studies, Commerce, and Marketing programs at UNSW the opportunity to be exposed to contemporary industry challenges and know-how. Students work directly with academic experts and over 140 industry practitioners from 22 organisations, such as WWF Australia, Ernst & Young, the Australian Red Cross, KPMG, Microsoft, and Roche Australia, to co-create solutions for over 60 business and societal challenges. The impact of the Sandbox Program has been recognised by three national awards and two university innovation awards in the 3 years since its inception.