James Christopher Westland
Professor of Information and Decision Sciences
Department of Information and Decision Sciences
Pronouns: He/Him/His
Contact
Building & Room:
UH 2403
Address:
601 S. Morgan St., Chicago, IL 60607
Email:
CV Link:
Related Sites:
About
J. Christopher Westland is a Professor in the Department of Information & Decision Sciences at the University of Illinois Chicago. He holds a BA in Statistics and an MBA in Accounting from Indiana University and received his Ph.D. in Computers and Information Systems from the University of Michigan. He is listed on Stanford University's list of "World's Top 2%" scientists. He has worked professionally in the US as a certified public accountant and as a consultant in technology in the US, Europe, Latin America, and Asia. He is the author of numerous academic papers and of nine books: Bayesian A/B Decision Models, Audit Analytics, Structural Equation Modeling; Global Electronic Commerce; Global Innovation Management; Red Wired: China’s Internet Revolution; Structural Equation Modeling; Financial Dynamics; Valuing Technology. Since 2013, he has been the Editor-in-Chief of Electronic Commerce Research (Springer) and has served on editorial boards of other information technology journals, including Management Science, ISR, ECRA, IJEC, and others. He has served on the faculties at the University of Michigan, University of Southern California, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Tsinghua University, University of Science and Technology of China, Harbin Institute of Technology, and other academic institutions. In 2012, he received High-Level Foreign Expert status in China under the 1000-Talents Plan and was named Overseas Chair Professor at Beihang University; in 2024 he was awarded a Fulbright Grant to Colombia. He regularly advises on patent, valuation, and technology strategy.
Selected Grants
U.S. Department of State, Fulbright Specialist Roster, Appointed
Selected Publications
Books:
- Westland JC (2025) Bayesian A/B Decision Models. World Scientific. ISBN: 978-9819802050.
- Westland JC (2021) Audit Analytics: Data Science for the Accounting Profession (Use R! series). Springer; 2nd ed. 2024. Reviewed on Million Dollar Book podcast (December 20, 2023).
- Westland JC (2019) Structural Equation Modeling: From Paths to Networks. Springer, 2nd edition. Reviewed in Sarstedt M, Ringle CM (2020) Psychometrika: 1–4.
- Westland JC (2018) Global Innovation Management: A Strategic Approach, 2nd ed. Palgrave Macmillan, London.
Publications:
- Westland JC (2026) Winners and losers in the platform revolution. PLoS One 21(2): e0340459. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0340459
- Westland JC (2025) The Economic Impact of Remote Work Post-COVID-19: Value Creation and Destruction. Asia Pacific Journal of Information Systems.
- Westland JC (2025) Financial Returns of Customer Experience Enhancement Initiatives: An Event Study of 35 Major Corporations. Journal of Logistics, Informatics and Service Science.
- Westland JC (2025) Building Lovemarks with Social Media Marketing: A Methodological Comparison. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services.
- Westland JC (2025) Reflections on a year of significant achievements. Electronic Commerce Research.
- Westland JC (2024) Periodicity, Elliott Waves, and Fractals in the NFT Market. Scientific Reports, View PDF.
- Westland JC (2025) Review Valence Impact on Jello Shot Sales. Journal of Marketing Analytics.
- Westland JC, Mou J (2024) A Stochastic Model of the Economics of Internet Search. Journal of Electronic Business & Digital Economics, 3(3), View PDF.
- Westland JC, Guan C, Kim J, Liu W, Mou J (2024) Predicting the cryptocurrency market using social media metrics and search trends during COVID-19. Electronic Commerce Research, 24(2): 1307–1333, June.
- Westland JC, Huang W, Liu S, Lu H, Mou J, Pan Z, Takeda H, Yan J (2024) Data- and management-driven metaverse research. Data Science and Management, 7(2): 75–78, June.
- Westland JC (2023) PLS Papers. Electronic Commerce Research, 23(3): 1361–1366.
- Westland JC, Martínez-López FJ, Martinez LF (2023) Introduction: Special Issue on digital marketing and eCommerce. Electronic Commerce Research, 1–2.
- Westland JC (2023) Introduction to the special issue on strategic planning for e-commerce business environment. Electronic Commerce Research, 23(1): 1–1.
- Westland JC (2022) A comparative study of frequentist vs Bayesian A/B testing in the detection of E-commerce fraud. Journal of Electronic Business & Digital Economics, 1(1/2): 3–23.
- Westland JC, Kumar A, Kumar S, Lim WM, Sahoo S, Sivarajah U (2022) Blockchain for sustainable supply chain management: trends and ways forward. Electronic Commerce Research.
- Westland JC (2023) Determinants of liquidity in cryptocurrency markets. Digital Finance, 5: 261–293.
- Westland JC, See-to E (2022) Comorbidity graph for chronic disease: A topological approach for estimating treatment cost. Proceedings of PACIS 2022.
- Westland JC (2022) Information loss and bias in Likert survey responses. PLoS ONE, 17(7): e0271949.
- Westland JC, Hu Y, Zhao K (2020) Understanding characteristics of popular streamers on live streaming platforms: Evidence from Twitch.tv. Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 22(4). https://doi.org/10.17705/1jais.00689
- Westland JC (2021) Assessing privacy and security of information systems from audit data. Information Systems Frontiers, 24(5): 1417–1434, May 27.
- Westland JC (2021) Trade informativeness and liquidity in Bitcoin markets. PLoS ONE, 16(8): e0255515.
- Westland JC, Hidalgo C, Rahmati P, Tafti A (2021) When all products are digital: Complexity and intangible value in the ecosystem of digitizing firms. MIS Quarterly, 45(3): 1025–1058, View PDF.
- Westland JC (2020) Predicting credit card fraud with Sarbanes-Oxley assessments and Fama-French risk factors. Intelligent Systems in Accounting, Finance and Management. https://doi.org/10.1002/isaf.1472.
- Westland JC (2020) The information content of Sarbanes-Oxley in predicting security breaches. Computers & Security, 90: 101687.
- Westland JC, Mou J, Yin D (2019) Demand cycles and market segmentation in bicycle sharing. Information Processing & Management, 56(4): 1592–1604.
Professional Leadership
Editor-in-Chief, Electronic Commerce Research (2013–present), Impact factor: 4.7 (2024), CiteScore: 10.1, Acceptance: 14%; articles/yr: ~210; Annual downloads ~700K/yr
Notable Honors
2012–2015, High-Level Foreign Expert status in China, 1000-Talents Plan
Education
- PhD, Computers & Information Systems, University of Michigan, 1987
- MBA, Accounting, Indiana University, 1973
- BA, Mathematics (Physics & Chemistry minors), Indiana University, 1971
Languages: English, Mandarin Chinese
Licensures and Certifications
- Appointment to the Fulbright Specialist Roster by the U.S. Department of State
- Certified Public Accountant (Illinois License 065.035982)
- Beta Gamma Sigma (Business Honorary Society)
- Mensa International; American Mensa
Professional Memberships
Certified Public Accountant (Illinois License 065.035982)