New road ahead for doctoral graduates

Doctoral students invest five years in study and research after years spent earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees. The program is demanding, but fortunately it is also satisfying, and for two Department of Information Systems Ph.D. candidates, the end is in sight.

Doctoral students invest five years in study and research after years spent earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees. The program is demanding, but fortunately it is also satisfying, and for two Department of Information Systems Ph.D. candidates, the end is in sight. Reza Mousavi and Irfan Kanat, who started the program together in 2011, are finishing this spring. Mousavi arrived in Tempe from Iran, where he earned a B.S. in engineering from Sharif University and an MBA in operations management from the University of Teheran. Kanat graduated with a Bachelor of Business Administration from Anadolu University in Eskisehir, Turkey, and a Master of Science in Information Systems from Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey. Both chose the W. P. Carey School of Business because of the reputation of the faculty in the Department of Information Systems, and both say that their experience validates the decision.

A wide horizon

Mousavi started the program driven by an interest in NeuroIS, but once on campus, found many opportunities to explore. In an interview conducted during his first months at W. P. Carey, Mousavi said the diversity of research interests among the faculty members opens up many research possibilities. “If you are interested in a specific piece of IS, you can certainly find a faculty member working on it,” he said. “If you build your network in this department, you can be sure that you have some friends in each corner of the IS discipline.” Eventually he developed a stream of research focused on social media. He has worked with Professor Bin Gu, his doctoral committee chairmen, on several papers that explore the impact of social media on political polarization and how Twitter affects decision and voting behavior among policy-makers. The first year, he said, was “really scary.” Mousavi and his wife were in a new country, where they did not know the culture: “it was a challenging but really interesting experience.” At the same time, he was shouldering the heavy class load that characterizes the first two years of a doctoral program, in addition to working on research projects. “At first you don’t know where you are going with your work — there are a lot of unknowns.” He described those years as exploratory: “you are discovering your way into the program.” When he was in his second year, Gu joined the department and Mousavi’s research agenda began to take shape. He worked closely not only with Gu, but also with Professor Ajay Vinze and Assistant Professor Michael (Zhan) Shi. Now that he is ready to graduate he has a well-defined plan and a network of collaborators. The faculty that attracted him to ASU have turned out to be supportive mentors and colleagues: the beginning of a network that he will take with him as he leaves.

Depth and challenge

Kanat was well into his doctoral program at the Middle East Technical University in Ankara when he decided he needed more of a challenge. “Once I started the program, I understood why the W. P. Carey School’s IS programs are so successful,” he said in an interview not long after he started the program. “The IS department has its research focus integrated into its Ph.D. program. We are granted great freedom in topics we want to pursue, proper guidance and chances to pursue it. This, in my opinion, leads to the program’s success.” Four years later, Kanat is deep into his topic. Hi doctor committee chairs are Professors Ajay Vinze and Raghu Santanam; Professor Bin Gu was also on his committee. He’s studying consumer behavior in software markets: how we choose software, how we use it and how developers can make software more attractive. “We now have 10 apps to do any task — multiple options,” he said. “Given the options, I want to find out how the ordinary person chooses, and once the choice is made, what keeps him using it.” To answer those questions, for the last two years he’s been collecting data on games — 70 variables a day for 9,000 games. The process of discovering a research topic and then digging into it taught him skills that he will use for the rest of his career. The next step for Kanat is an assistant professor position at The Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. It’s a beautiful college town, he said, and it will be a good place for he and his wife to raise their daughter. His original plan to return to Turkey has been set aside, because of the turmoil in his home country. Asked what he will miss about the Department of Information Systems, he said “the family — everyone from staff to the advisors to the other faculty. I always felt like I belong here,” he said. “When I needed advice I knew where to go.”