The nature of agency: designing agentic systems using a biomimetic lens Available to Purchase

Dr Tegwen Malik is the co-director of the Digital Futures for Sustainable Business and Society Research Group at the School of Management, Swansea University, Wales, UK. She is also a Senior Lecturer in business analytics, operations management and international standards as well as Theme lead for the Global and Social Challenges Group within the i-Lab Research Centre. Her research work covers an array of areas, namely: artificial intelligence, digitization, biomimicry, SCM and analytics. Tegwen has worked in industry developing prototypes driven by R&D informed by nature so as to translate millions of years of evolutionary wisdom into transformative solutions such as transparent armor and water harvesting. With a unique blend of expertise in sciences and management, she navigates the intersection of these fields to formulate strategic pathways for product innovation and design, particularly in advancing artificial intelligence applications and leveraging analytics for business optimization.

Dr Laurie Hughes is an Associate Professor within the School of Business and Law at Edith Cowan University in Western Australia and teaches on the Project Management, Business Analytics and MIS programs. Within academia, he has published over 65 ABDC articles receiving a Google citation count of over 20,000 across a range of technology adoption focused research topics within leading academic journals in subjects such as: Artificial Intelligence (AI), Project Management, the Metaverse, Blockchain, Industry 4.0 and Disaster Supply Chain management. Laurie has extensive senior project management and consultancy experience in a variety of industries: finance, manufacturing, operations, and UK government organizations. Laurie is interested in developing impactful research that focuses on societies so called “wicked problems” and to better understand the complexity of decision-making within AI enabled industry contexts.

Dr Yogesh K. Dwivedi is a Riyad Bank Chair Professor of Digital Business in the Department of Information Systems and Operations Management (ISOM) and the Acting Director of the Interdisciplinary Research Center for Finance and Digital Economy (IRC-FDE) at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM), Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Additionally, he holds an Honorary Professorship at the School of Management, Swansea University, UK, where he previously served as a Personal Chair and Professor of Digital Marketing and Innovation. During his 18-year tenure at Swansea University, he undertook several significant leadership roles, including Director of Postgraduate Research, Head of Department, Research Director, and University Dean of REF Environment. Dwivedi has successfully supervised over 25 PhD students and examined more than 100 doctoral theses globally. He earned his PhD from Brunel University of London, UK, and was awarded a Doctor Honoris Causa (Honorary Doctorate) from “Dunarea de Jos” University of Galati, Romania. His research interests lie at the intersection of Information Systems, Marketing and Operations Management, with a particular emphasis on the adoption and diffusion of emerging digital technologies and innovations. His current research focuses on areas such as generative artificial intelligence, digital government, digital and social media marketing and their impact on organizations and society, particularly within the context of emerging markets.

Dr Natalie De Mello is a Senior Lecturer in the Medical School, within the Faculty of Medicine Health and Life Science at Swansea University. She leads Enterprise, Partnerships and Innovation for the faculty, leads the Healthcare Technology Centre and is the Innovation and Enterprise lead for the Swansea Bay City Deal “NNIISH” project. She has over 10 years’ experience of R,D&I for healthcare innovations with industry and academia partnerships. An experienced researcher, chartered scientist (Royal Society of Biology) and project manager, in a wide variety of fields including wellbeing, medical devices and transdermal delivery. A molecular biologist by background Natalie has a keen interest in how emerging innovations and digitizations can support healthcare. More recently Natalie has been working on projects focusing on 5G and AI outcomes for health.

Dr Igor Barahona is an Assistant Professor in KFUPM Business School, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals. He completed his Doctorate program in Statistics and Operations Research at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia in 2013, after obtaining a master’s degree in Quality and Productivity Systems from ITESM, Campus Monterrey. Barahona’s research interests lie in the application of statistical methods to investigate various social phenomena, statistical sensometry of foods and beverages, and the analysis of large-scale textual databases (big data). He is the author of the book “The Level of Adoption of Analytical Tools” and has published articles in indexed journals.

Dr Il Jeon read Chemistry for Bachelors and Masters degrees at Oxford University, UK. After graduating in 2008, he worked as the youngest senior researcher at LG Display Co. Ltd., South Korea for five years, developing optical films, OLED and quantum displays. In 2016, he received a PhD degree in Chemistry with honors from the University of Tokyo, Japan. After working as a JSPS postdoctoral fellow, he worked as an Assistant Professor and a Lecturer (senior assistant professor) at the same university. When COVID-19 broke out, he moved to Pusan National University in South Korea where he got promoted to an Associate Professor. Later, he joined Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU) as an associate professor at the department of Nano Engineering and SKKU Advanced Institute of Nano Technology (SAINT). His research group is working on nanocarbon materials, namely, endohedral fullerene, carbon nanotubes and graphene, for eco-friendly optoelectronics and energy device applications. The team are also developing bioelectronics and artificial intelligence integrating materials science toward quantum computing applications.