Associate Professor Christoph Breidbach

Associate Professor

School of Business
Faculty of Business, Economics and Law

Overview

Dr Christoph Breidbach is Associate Professor of Business Information Systems at UQ Business School, where he also serves as Co-Lead of the UQ Service Innovation Alliance Research Hub and as Associate Director PRME Industry Engagement. He previously held positions at The Unversity of Melbourne, the University of California Merced, and was a visiting researcher at IBM’s Almaden Research Center.

Associate Professor Breidbach is internationally recognised for his sustained contributions to the Service Science field. Specifically, his program of research contributes to our understanding of how digital technologies transform professional, financial, or health services, and resulted in over 40 peer-reviewed publications in leading outlets to date, including the Journal of the Association for Information Systems [ABDC-A*], Information Systems Journal [ABDC-A*], The Journal of Strategic Information Systems [ABDC-A*], Organizational Research Methods [ABDC-A*], Journal of Service Research [ABDC-A*], MIS Quarterly Executive [ABDC-A], as well as in the ICIS, ECIS, PACIS and HICSS Proceedings.

The sustained esteem for his work is evident through a ‘Distinguished Member Award’ (2019) by the Association for Information Systems (AIS), the premier global association for BIS research and practice, appointment to the Advisory Council of the INFORMS Service Science section, or invitations to present keynotes and research seminars at conferences and universities in the USA, Germany, Sweden, Iran, UK, and New Zealand. In addition, Associate Professor Breidbach serves on the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Service Research, Journal of Service Theory and Practice, as well as the Journal of Business Research, led the AIS Special Interest Group Services as elected President from 2018-2021, and recently commenced a three-year tenure as Associate Editor at Information Systems Journal.

He successfully secured over $800k in external research funding as Chief Investigator from ARC Linkage, Innovation Connections, or industry grants.

Research Awards:

  • Paul Gray Award for the ‘Most Thought-Provoking Paper’ Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 2020
  • Distinguished Member Award, Association for Information Systems (AIS), 2019
  • Outstanding Paper Award, Journal of Service Theory and Practice, 2018
  • Outstanding Paper Award, Managing Service Quality, 2015
  • Best Paper of the Year, INFORMS Service Science, 2014
  • Best Paper Award, Naples Forum on Service, 2013
  • Lifetime Membership, Beta Gamma Sigma, 2013

Leadership and Service Awards:

  • SIGSVC Leadership Award, Association for Information Systems, 2022
  • Award for Outstanding Contribution as Track Chair, European Conference on Information Systems, 2021
  • Research Team Engagement Award, UQ Business School, 2019
  • Outstanding Reviewer Award, Journal of Service Theory and Practice, 2016
  • Outstanding Contributions in Reviewing Award, Journal of Business Research, 2015

Teaching Awards:

  • Award for Innovation in Assessment Design, UQ Business School, 2021
  • Teaching Excellence Award, The University of Melbourne, 2015

Research Interests

  • Service Science
    My empirical and conceptual research addresses questions related to digital service innovation and transformation, and I published widely on topics ranging from service experience, service innovation to engagement platforms. I engage and collaborate extensively with industry partners from professional services, retail, and technology/startups in Australia and abroad.
  • Digital Transformation
    I am especially interested in the digital transformation of service systems with a focus on Fintech; the impact of transformative digital technologies on the service society (i.e., data ethics), and the advancement of service research with computational methods.

Research Impacts

My work, and my leadership contributions to research, teaching and service are broadly positioned at the intersection of digital transformation and service research. What this means is that I investigate how emerging digital technologies like cryptocurrencies transform services in contexts such as finance. This is especially important for countries like Australia where 70 per cent of the GDP stems from services and 4 out of 5 Australians work in the service sector. As such, my ongoing research is directly aligned with UQ’s Strategic Plan 2022-2025, specifically our vision of ‘knowledge leadership for a better world’, and our objective to be aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including SDG 1.4 – ‘Access to Appropriate Technology and Financial Services’.

Qualifications

  • Doctor of Philosophy, The University of Auckland

Publications

View all Publications

Supervision

View all Supervision

Available Projects

  • Information technology is critical for many services, and service settings are critical contexts of use for information technology (IT). Therefore, the need to further investigate the role of IT in service has been identified as a key research priority for service science, the interdisciplinary study of value co-creation in service systems. By the same reasoning, understanding the implications of service also emerged as an increasingly important area of inquiry for information systems research. Previous studies at the intersection of information systems and service research acknowledged that IT has implications for service firms in strategy, development, and execution, for example, by increasing profitability, by being a source of innovation, or by enabling new customer-firm interactions.

  • I am interested in working with prospective PhD students in areas including, but not limited to, ICOs, memecoins, social media narratives (e.g., Elon Musk tweeting about Dogecoin), the political narrative surrounding Bitcoin, Central Bank Issued Digital Currencies (CBDCs), cryptoethics, or sustainability issues surrounding crypto mining.

  • Fintech describes the intersection of financial services with technology, and represents an emerging area of interest for information systems and service research today. Fintech therefore represents a prime example, and ideal context, to investigate current research challenges associated with digital transformation at the intersection of information and service.

View all Available Projects

Publications

Book Chapter

  • Breidbach, Christoph F., Reefke, Hendrik and Widmer, Tobias (2020). Service supply chain configurations: from agile to efficient value networks. The Routledge handbook of service research insights and ideas. (pp. 241-256) edited by Eileen Bridges and Kendra Fowler. New York, NY, United States: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781351245234-13

  • Breidbach, Christoph F., Davern, Michael, Shanks, Graeme and Asadi-Someh, Ida (2019). On the ethical implications of big data in service systems. Handbook of service science. (pp. 661-674) edited by Paul P. Maglio, Cheryl A. Kieliszewski, James C. Spohrer, Kelly Lyons, Lia Patrício and Yuriko Sawatani. Cham, Switzerland: Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-98512-1_29

  • Breidbach, Christoph F. (2017). Connectivity: a socio-technical construct to examine ICT-enabled service. Social inclusion and usability of ICT-enabled services. (pp. 31-48) edited by Jyoti Choudrie, Sherah Kurnia and Panayiota Tsatsou. New York, NY, USA: Taylor and Francis. doi: 10.4324/9781315677316-3

  • Breidbach, Christoph F. and Brodie, Roderick, J. (2016). Nature and purpose of engagement platforms. Customer engagement: contemporary issues in customer engagement. (pp. 124-136) edited by Roderick J. Brodie, Linda D. Hollebeek and Jodie Conduit. London, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781315725185

  • Srinivasan, Ananth, Breidbach, Christoph F. and Kolb, Darl G. (2015). Service Science. Wiley Encyclopedia of Management. (pp. 1-3) edited by Cary L. Cooper. Chichester, United Kingdom: John Wiley & Sons. doi: 10.1002/9781118785317.weom070223

  • Maglio, Paul P. and Breidbach, Christoph F. (2014). Service science: Toward systematic service system innovation. Bridging Data and Decisions. (pp. 161-170) edited by Alexandra Newman and Janny Leung. Hanover, Md, United States: INFORMS. doi: 10.1287/educ.2014.0123

Journal Article

Conference Publication

  • Pena, Maria V. T., Breidbach, Christoph F. and Turpin, Andrew (2019). Crafting agent-based models to analyze service platforms. 40th International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Munich, Germany, 15-18 December 2019. New York, NY, United States: Association for Information Systems.

  • Tana, Silviana, Breidbach, Christoph F. and Turpin, Andrew (2019). I Want A Lamborghini: An Ethnography of Cryptocurrency Communities. 27th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Stockholm, Sweden, 8-14 June 2019. Atlanta, GA United States: Association for Information Systems.

  • Kostakos, Panos, Pandya, Abhinay, Oussalah, Mourad, Hosio, Simo, Sattari, Arash, Kostakos, Vassilis, Van Berkel, Niels, Breidbach, Christoph and Kyriakouli, Olga (2018). Correlating refugee border crossings with internet search data. 19th IEEE International Conference on Information Reuse and Integration for Data Science, IRI 2018, Salt Lake City, UT, United States, 7 - 9 July 2018. Piscataway, NJ, United States: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.. doi: 10.1109/IRI.2018.00048

  • Ramadani, Luthfi, Kurnia, Sherah and Breidbach, Christoph F. (2018). In search for holistic ICT4D research: a systematic literature review. 51st Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, Manoa, HI, United States, 2-6 January 2018. Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. doi: 10.24251/hicss.2018.304

  • Pena, Maria V. T, Breidbach, Christoph F. and Turpin, Andrew (2018). Self-organizing service ecosystems: exploring a new concept for service science. Australasian Conference on Information Systems (ACIS), Sydney, NSW, Australia, 3-5 December 2018. Sydney, NSW Australia: ACIS.

  • Brust, Leona, Antons, David, Breidbach, Christoph F. and Salge, Torsten Oliver (2017). Service-dominant logic and information systems research: a review and analysis using topic modeling. 38th International Conference on Information Systems: Transforming Society with Digital Innovation, ICIS 2017, Seoul, Republic of Korea, 10-13 December 2017. Atlanta, GA United States: Association for Information Systems.

  • Ramadani, Luthfi, Kurnia, Sherah and Breidbach, Christoph F. (2017). Advancing ICT4D Research through service-dominant logic. Australasian Conference on Information Systems (ACIS), Hobart, Tasmania, 4-6 December 2017. Sydney, NSW Australia: ACIS.

  • Breidbach, Christoph F. and Ranjan, Sasitharan (2017). How do Fintech Service Platforms Facilitate Value Co-Creation? An Analysis of Twitter Data. 38th International Conference on Information Systems: Transforming Society with Digital Innovation, ICIS 2017, Seoul, Korea, 10 - 13 December 2017. Association for Information Systems.

  • Asadi Someh, I., Breidbach, C. F., Davern, M. and Shanks, G. (2016). Ethical implications of big data analytics. 24th European Conference on Information Systems, ECIS 2016, Istanbul, Turkey, 12 - 15 June 2016. Atlanta, GA United States: Association for Information Systems.

  • Breidbach, Christoph F. and Maglio, Paul P. (2015). A Service Science Perspective on the Role of ICT in Service Innovation. 23rd European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Muenster, Germany, 26-29 May 2015. Atlanta, GA United States: Association for Information Systems.

  • Breidbach, Christoph F., Chandler, Jennifer D. and Maglio, Paul P. (2015). The duality of second screens: A phenomenological study of multi-platform engagement and service experiences. 48th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, Kauai, HI, United States, 5-8 January 2015. Piscataway, NJ, United States: IEEE. doi: 10.1109/hicss.2015.174

  • Nothman, Joel, Ahmad, Atif, Breidbach, Christoph, Malet, David and Baldwin, Timothy (2015). Understanding engagement with insurgents through retweet rhetoric. Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL).

  • Breidbach, Christoph, Buchanan-Oliver, Margo, Kolb, Darl G. and Srinivasan, Ananth (2013). Connectivity in distributed service systems: The providers' perspective. 10th International Conference on Service Systems and Service Management, Hong Kong, China, 17-19 July 2013. Piscataway, NJ, United States: IEEE. doi: 10.1109/icsssm.2013.6602502

  • Breidbach, Christoph F. and Maglio, Paul P. (2013). Does Big Data Provide Big Opportunities for Service Research?. 13th QUIS Symposium on Service Excellence, Karlstad, SWE, 10-13 June 2013.

Other Outputs

  • Andreassen, Tor W., Archibald, Gordon, Beekhuyzen, Jenine, Bongiovanni, Ivano, Brea, Edgar, Breidbach, Christoph, Burchill, Keith, Burgers, Henri, Cao, Selina, Coote, Len, Coram, Brendan, Cunningham, Claire, Feast, George, Field, Mitch, Ford, Jerad, Fouche, Leon, Gain, Alexandria, Gooding, Glen, Goyeneche Ramirez, David, Green, Teegan, Gschwind, Daniel, Hall, Thomas, Hartley, Nicole, Heinz, Daniel, Hine, Damian, Indulska, Marta, Kapernick, Brett, Kastelle, Tim, Ko, Ryan ... Zhang, Wenlu (2023). Digital Service Transformation: Pathways to human and economic wellbeing White Paper. Brisbane, QLD Australia: The University of Queensland Business School - Service Innovation Alliance. doi: 10.14264/aed4918

Grants (Administered at UQ)

PhD and MPhil Supervision

Current Supervision

Completed Supervision

Possible Research Projects

Note for students: The possible research projects listed on this page may not be comprehensive or up to date. Always feel free to contact the staff for more information, and also with your own research ideas.

  • Information technology is critical for many services, and service settings are critical contexts of use for information technology (IT). Therefore, the need to further investigate the role of IT in service has been identified as a key research priority for service science, the interdisciplinary study of value co-creation in service systems. By the same reasoning, understanding the implications of service also emerged as an increasingly important area of inquiry for information systems research. Previous studies at the intersection of information systems and service research acknowledged that IT has implications for service firms in strategy, development, and execution, for example, by increasing profitability, by being a source of innovation, or by enabling new customer-firm interactions.

  • I am interested in working with prospective PhD students in areas including, but not limited to, ICOs, memecoins, social media narratives (e.g., Elon Musk tweeting about Dogecoin), the political narrative surrounding Bitcoin, Central Bank Issued Digital Currencies (CBDCs), cryptoethics, or sustainability issues surrounding crypto mining.

  • Fintech describes the intersection of financial services with technology, and represents an emerging area of interest for information systems and service research today. Fintech therefore represents a prime example, and ideal context, to investigate current research challenges associated with digital transformation at the intersection of information and service.

  • I am interested in supervising high-achieving PhD students. You should have a background in information systems, marketing, management or any other social science, and be interested in interdisciplinary research related to service innovation and digital transformation. Please reach out if you have a good idea that might fit well with my research interests and expertise. Do include a research proposal, CV and all academic transcripts.