Mike Tarn

Mike Tarn
Associate Dean of International Programs in Asia
Professor of Business Information Systems
Location:
2326 Schneider Hall, Mail Stop 5457
Mailing address:
Office of the Dean
Haworth College of Business
Western 麻豆传媒应用 University
1903 W 麻豆传媒应用 Ave
Kalamazoo MI 49008-5457 USA
Mike Tarn
Education:
  • Ph.D., Information Systems, Virginia Commonwealth University
  • M.S., Information Systems, Virginia Commonwealth University
  • B.S., Navigation, National Taiwan Ocean University
Bio:

Dr. J. Michael Tarn is a professor of business information systems and associate dean for international programs in Asia at Western 麻豆传媒应用 University's Haworth College of Business. From 2009 to 2022, Tarn served as chair of the Department of Business Information Systems.  

Tarn鈥檚 areas of expertise include information security management, computer networking and data communications, enterprise systems, internet research, IT globalization and critical systems management. Specializing in multidisciplinary research, Tarn has published more than 125 research articles in peer-reviewed journals, book chapters and refereed conference proceedings. He coauthored the first scholarly book in enterprise systems education and was editor-in-chief of two peer-reviewed international journals.

As a strategic thinker, Tarn is a pioneer of interdisciplinary programs and centers across the business college and University. With his international network, he has been a key facilitator of global engagement for WMU. Since 2009, he has assisted in establishing international partnerships with more than 20 universities in Asia. In 2012, he helped the college establish a dual-degree bachelor鈥檚 of business administration program with Dong-A University in South Korea, which became the first international dual-degree undergraduate program at WMU. In 2014, a similar program with National Chung Cheng University in Taiwan was established. In 2019, he facilitated the launch of WMU鈥檚 MBA program in Taiwan.

Notably, he initiated a partnership with Guizhou University of Finance and Economics in China in 2013, which laid the foundation for the establishment of a dual-degree B.B.A. program in 2015 and then a joint college, Western 麻豆传媒应用 Institute (WMI), in 2017.  As of Fall 2022, WMI has grown into a unique cross-national college with more than a thousand students. Tarn has been serving as associate dean of WMI since 2017.

In 2017, Tarn was awarded the Bernard Meldrum Professorship of Business Information Systems at the Haworth College of Business. He has been recognized and appointed as an honorary professor by the School of Business at Macau University of Science and Technology since 2017.