dr. Edona Elshan

Assistant Professor, School of Business and Economics, Knowledge, Information and Innovation

Personal information

Edona Elshan is Assistant Professor at the Department of Knowledge, Information and Innovation (KIN Center for Digital Innovation) at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. She holds a PhD in Management from the University of St. Gallen (2023).

Her research sits at the intersection of information systems and digital innovation, with a focus on low-code development, human–AI collaboration, and business–IT alignment. She examines how organizations can leverage AI and low-code technologies — including emerging practices like vibe coding — to accelerate digital innovation, improve collaboration, and modernize IT. Her work spans cognitive automation, IT modernization, and the integration of low-code platforms into existing IT landscapes, bridging the gap between business strategy and IT implementation.

Research

Edona’s research focuses on how organizations navigate digital transformation and technological change, with particular attention to emerging forms of software development and human-AI collaboration. She investigates how organizations can effectively adopt and govern new technologies such as low-code and no-code platforms, generative AI, and AI-assisted software development, while balancing innovation, control, and organizational alignment.

Her work examines how digital technologies reshape collaboration, decision-making, and enterprise coordination, especially in contexts where non-expert users, citizen developers, and AI systems increasingly contribute to software creation and organizational innovation.

Industry: Technology, Public Administration, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Infrastructure.

Sector: Public sector, technology, professional services, industrial organizations.

Application Domain: Digital innovation, enterprise architecture, human-AI collaboration, governance, organizational transformation.

Edona’s research specifically looks at how organizations manage tensions between flexibility and control, innovation and governance, and bottom-up experimentation and enterprise-wide coordination. She studies topics such as citizen development, low-code platform governance, architectural drift, trust calibration in human-AI collaboration, and the organizational implications of generative AI and vibe coding. Her work is grounded in close engagement with practice and draws on qualitative and experimental research methods.

Teaching

Edona teaches bachelor’s, master’s, and executive-level courses in the areas of digital innovation, e-business, business intelligence and analytics, and the future of work. Her teaching focuses on helping students understand how emerging technologies such as AI, low-code platforms, and digital infrastructures shape organizations, work practices, and strategy.

She combines academic rigor with strong practical relevance and actively connects teaching to real-world cases, industry collaboration, and hands-on learning. Her courses often engage students with contemporary topics such as platform ecosystems, influencer economies, citizen development, IT outsourcing, business-IT alignment, security in low-code development, and human-AI collaboration.

Edona also actively spans the boundary between academia and practice through guest lectures, industry engagement, workshops, and collaborative educational initiatives. Her teaching is characterized by applied case work, critical reflection, and a strong interest in preparing students to navigate the organizational realities of digital transformation.

Ancillary activities