A Glorious and Not-So-Short History of the Information Systems Field

Hirschheim, Rudy; Klein, Heinz K.

doi:10.17705/1jais.00294

Cited by 190 publications

(174 citation statements)

References 166 publications

(190 reference statements)

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“…In addition to specifics regarding the composition and evolution of the North American IS theoretical core, our findings also reveal several noteworthy insights regarding the nature of theoretical pluralism in IS research studies and the rapidly growing and fragmenting theoretical ecosystem that the North American IS community has used-topics which have of late been the focus of many researchers' intense speculation (Agarwal & Lucas, 2005;Benbasat & Zmud, 2003;Ginzberg, 2012;Grover, 2012;Hirschheim, 2007;Hirschheim & Klein, 2012;Todd, 2012;Walsham, 2012;Wastell, 2010). In the aggregate, our results point to a substantial degree of theoretical pluralism in North American IS research studies between 1990 and 2013, with researchers needing to rely on an average of approximately two unique theories per study to adequately address their phenomena of interest.…”

Section: Summary and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 64%

“…Paper 26 scholarship are still ongoing (and may never cease due to the field's evolving nature), research in this realm largely agrees that a key component of the IS research community's identity is its intellectual core, which particularly includes the primary theories that IS research studies use and advance (Hassan, 2011;Hirschheim & Klein, 2012;Neufeld, et al, 2007;Somers, 2010). Not only do the theories that a scientific field uses signal its boundaries (Benbasat & Zmud, 2003), but they also help to define the field's levels of cohesiveness and rigidity (Hassan, 2011), facilitate its impact on society (Walsham, 2012), determine the field's relevancy to practice (Ginzberg, 2012), and delimit the field's knowledge and academic domains (Somers, 2010).…”

Section: Connections Between Theory and Identitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, since researchers have alternately argued that consistency in the theoretical core and heterogeneity in the theoretical core are both a necessity and an impediment to IS research (Hassan, 2011;Hirschheim & Klein, 2012;Neufeld, et al, 2007;Somers, 2010), one needs to gain objective insights regarding the composition of the theoretical core of IS research in general and in narrower, more granular windows of time. Not only can addressing these issues provide insights that can contribute greatly to the study of the IS community's identity and history, but the results can also serve as objective and defensible scientific input for arguments regarding the community's intellectual core.…”

Section: Connections Between Theory and Identitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Several studies, for example, have relied on experiential evidence (Agarwal & Lucas, 2005;Benbasat & Zmud, 2003), while others have employed citation analyses (Moody, Iacob, & Amrit, 2010), manual literature reviews (Hirschheim & Klein, 2012), or manual analyses of titles and abstracts (Neufeld, et al, 2007) to characterize various aspects of theory usage in IS research. Research has applied computational text-mining techniques but only in a limited fashion; for example, to analyze paper abstracts to identify intellectual communities in the IS field (Larsen, Monarchi, Hovorka, & Bailey, 2008).…”

Section: Connections Between Theory and Identitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One of the most interesting and distinguishing traits of information systems (IS) research is its reliance on a vast patchwork of theories drawn from virtually all realms of scientific and managerial inquiry (Benbasat & Zmud, 2003;Hassan, 2011;Hirschheim & Klein, 2012). This situation is perhaps not surprising, especially when one considers the immense variety of economic, behavioral, technological, and organizational phenomena that have come to be arrayed under the expansive and ever-growing banner of IS research.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Theory in North American Information Systems Research: A Culturomic Analysis

Soper¹,

Turel²

2016

CAIS

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Abstract:Since its inception, North American information systems (IS) research has relied on a broad and varied collection of theories. The core of this theoretical landscape is an important determinant of the IS research community's identity, and, as such, researchers have discussed it extensively in recent years. Nevertheless, we know few concrete facts about the composition, consistency, or evolution of this theoretical core over time. Using a set of 318 theories in conjunction with n-gram analyses, we address these issues empirically by computationally analyzing the complete text of every research paper published in three leading North American IS journals over a 24-year period. In examining these 2,215 papers and more than 3.54 billion n-gram records, we identify the theories that constitute the overall core of North American IS research and provide insights into the evolution of that core. We further identify and quantify the nature of theoretical pluralism in North American IS research and examine the evolution of the theoretical density of IS research studies over time. Finally, our results shed light on the patterns of theory co-occurrence in North American IS research studies and demonstrate how such information can facilitate increasingly imperative efforts aimed at theory consolidation and generalization.

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Section: Summary and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 64%

Section: Connections Between Theory and Identitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Connections Between Theory and Identitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Connections Between Theory and Identitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Theory in North American Information Systems Research: A Culturomic Analysis

Soper¹,

Turel²

2016

CAIS

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Decision analytics mobilized with digital coaching

Carlsson¹

2018

Intell Sys Acc Fin Mgmt

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Summary The context to be addressed is the digitalization of industry and industrial processes. Digitalization brings enhanced customer relationships and value‐chain integration, which are effective instruments to meet increasing competition and slimmer margins for productivity and profitability. Digitalization also brings more pronounced requirements for effective planning, problem solving and decision making in an increasingly complex and fast‐changing environment. Decision analytics will meet the challenges from the growing global competition that major industrial corporations face and will help solve the problems of big data/fast data that digitalization is generating as a by‐product. A mantra is appearing in business magazines – that powerful, intelligent systems will be effective tools for the digitalization of industrial processes – but much less attention appears to be paid to the fact that users need advanced knowledge and skills to benefit from the intelligent systems. First, an effective transfer of knowledge from developers, experts and researchers to users (including management) will be needed; second, the daily use and operations of the systems need to be supported, as automated, intelligent industrial systems are complex to operate. We look at this transfer as knowledge mobilization and will work out how the mobilization can be supported with coaching; this coaching needs to be digital, as human coaches are both scarce and too expensive to employ in large numbers.

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Plans and “off‐plan activities”: Exploring the roles of data and situated action in health planning in Burkina Faso

Rasmussen

2018

E J Info Sys Dev Countries

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Implementation of health management information systems (HMIS) has gone hand in hand with a growing global demand for high-quality data. While this has sustained HMIS implementation, it has also promoted a data-centric assumption that better data leads to better action on health. An example is health managers envisaged using HMIS data to make action plans for health service delivery. The paper draws on an in-depth study of practices of health data use in Burkina Faso to explore this relationship further. In this context, deviation from the agreed plan is not seen as problematic. Local action plans are often overruled because of requirements of higher levels, unexpected developments in diseases, or sudden provision of fresh funding. Health managers organize work under these uncertain circumstances through situated action. The concept of "off-plan activities" is used to handle unforeseen events. Mobile phones are used extensively to make and remake plans. It is argued that the findings invite us to consider a less datacentric approach to the role of HMIS data in health service delivery, where HMIS data are seen less as a tool to discipline local practices than as one element of the dynamic practices undertaken by individuals in the organization of daily work. KEYWORDSdata use, HMIS, planning, situated action, uncertainty 1 | INTRODUCTION District health managers in Burkina Faso are in charge of the day-to-day functioning of health districts, which involves making plans for the delivery of health services. However, their work comprises a whole range of functions. They work in the field, in clinics, and hospitals, where they carry out supervision, training, and vaccination campaigns, and where they can exchange information directly with health workers. They work in meeting rooms, where they present and discuss progress reports and strategies. Furthermore, they work in offices, where they engage in meetings, finalize reports, and sign off a wealth of papers, ranging from medical prescriptions via annual action plans to displacement permits. These offices are usually welcoming spaces with comfortable chairs and air-conditioning. Their walls are seldom bare, perhaps displaying key district health statistics, clinical guidelines, photos of an official visit to the district, or certificates that the health district manager has been awarded. One item, always on display, is a large institutional calendar with a standard display of each month of the year in columns and spiced up with photos and headlines about larger donor-driven projects. One day, I was studying the landscape of these office walls in more detail than usual, as the district manager I interviewed had to take a long phone call. It struck me that these calendars were almost always empty. I started to make note of this when I visited other offices and noticed that, although there were calendars everywhere, they had hardly any notes on them, if any at all. Why would you put a calendar on your wall if you were not going to use it? Maybe, they were simply used to t...

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A Glorious and Not-So-Short History of the Information Systems Field

Cited by 190 publications

References 166 publications

Theory in North American Information Systems Research: A Culturomic Analysis

Theory in North American Information Systems Research: A Culturomic Analysis

Decision analytics mobilized with digital coaching

Plans and “off‐plan activities”: Exploring the roles of data and situated action in health planning in Burkina Faso

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