Rate My Professor Timothy Cronan

Timothy Paul Cronan served as Professor and M.D. Matthews Chair in Information Systems in the Department of Information Systems at the Sam M. Walton College of Business, University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. He holds a Ph.D. in information systems and quantitative analysis from Louisiana Tech University, an M.S. in economics from South Dakota State University, and a B.S. in computer science from the University of Southwestern Louisiana. Throughout his 45-year career at the university, which concluded with his retirement in 2024, Cronan assumed pivotal leadership roles such as Director of the Master of Information Systems program, Director of Walton Enterprise Systems, Director of the Blockchain Center of Excellence, Vice Chair of the Department of Information Systems, and co-director of the Wally Cordes Teaching and Faculty Support Center, which he co-founded.

Cronan developed and taught courses in IT ethics, project management, business analytics, databases, and IT management. He played a key role in crafting the university's academic integrity policy, serving as co-chair and leading various related committees including the All University Academic Integrity Board. As an associate editor for MIS Quarterly, he contributed to the field through editorial work and membership in organizations like the Association for Information Systems, Decision Sciences Institute, and Association for Computing Machinery. His research on IT ethical behavior, software piracy intentions, academic integrity, and end-user computing has produced hundreds of peer-reviewed articles, papers, and presentations in top journals including MIS Quarterly, Decision Sciences, Journal of Business Ethics, Ethics & Behavior, and Communications of the ACM. Select publications are "Factors that Influence the Intention to Pirate Software and Media" (Journal of Business Ethics, 2008), "On the Test-Retest Reliability of Perceived Usefulness and Perceived Ease of Use Scales" (MIS Quarterly, 1993), "What Influences IT Ethical Behavior Intentions—Planned Behavior, Moderated by Influences of Attitude, Attitude Strength, Relativism, and Gender" (Information & Management, 2005), and "Digital Piracy: Factors that Influence Attitude Toward Behavior" (Journal of Business Ethics, 2006). Cronan received the International Center for Academic Integrity Lifetime Achievement Award in 2022, the Decision Sciences Institute Lifetime Distinguished Educator Award in 2019, and the 1995 Computer Educator of the Year award from the International Association for Computer Information Systems. In recognition of his impact, the Paul Cronan Technology Teaching Excellence Award was established.