About CRITO

The Center for Research on Information Technology and Organizations (CRITO) at UC Irvine is one of the world's leading think tanks on the impact of information technology on organizations and society, and on the management of information technology.

CRITO has a rich tradition of studying the impacts of information technology (IT) on organizations and society that stretches back more than two decades. It is home to well over a dozen internationally recognized experts in the fields of management, computer science, and social science, often bringing the advantages of multidisciplinary perspectives to the problems at hand.

Researchers focus on the management of IT, the IT-enabled enterprise, technology-intensive user environments, and the increasingly global nature of IT use and production. They have been consultants to international corporations and government agencies, have published over a dozen books and have won numerous major awards for excellence in their fields. CRITO conducts both academic and applied research.

The Center's core group of investigators at UCI is comprised of faculty from several different disciplines including The Paul Merage School of Business, The Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences, and the School of Social Sciences. CRITO works closely with the California Institute of Information Technology and Telecommunications (Calit2).

CRITO is supported by the Office of Vice Chancellor for Research of the University of California, Irvine, and by competitive research grants from The U.S. National Science Foundation, The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, UC Mexus, UC Pacific Rim Research Program, and Intel.

What is the meaning of "CRITO?"

CRITO is an acronym that stands for the Center for Research on Information Technology and Organizations. However, CRITO was selected for another reason as well. Crito is one of the dialogues in Plato in which Socrates describes the importance of holding to reason in the face of unreasonable public clamor, no matter the result. CRITO members have distinguished themselves by holding firm to reasoned empirical assessments of IT effects on organizations and society even when their findings are contrary to popular opinion.