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A ReviewofMIS Researchand
Development
Disciplinary
1. Introduction
The primaryobjective of the current study was todevelopan overviewofthe
structure
intellectual of MIS through directand systematicanalysisof a sampleof
mainstream MIS articlespublishedin the 1968-88 period.The studyaimed at
investigatingwhatconstitutes thefieldof MIS by examiningtopics,themes,and
research in
strategies the Thisestablishes
literature. abenchmark fortracking thestatus
ofMIS development andevolution, whilefocusing attention
on areasrequiringmore
research.
The importanceof thecurrent studyforthestillevolvingfieldofMIS lies mainly
JournalofManagement
Information I Spring1992,Vol. 8, No. 4, pp.45-62
Systems
© M.E. Shaipe,Inc.,1992
Copyright
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46 ALAVI AND CARLSON
2. Methodology
Eight journals were selected to be included in thestudy:Communications of
theACM, Data Base, Decision Sciences,HarvardBusinessReview,Journalof
Management Information Systems, Management Science,MIS Quarterly,
and Sloan
Management Review.
TheMIS articlespublishedinthesejournalsbetween1968and 1988werecollected
andanalyzed.Foran articletobe includedinthestudy,ithadtoaddressan aspectof
research,
management, design,implementation, use,or impactof MIS or
operation,
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MIS RESEARCH AND DISCIPLINARY DEVELOPMENT 47
3. Analysis
The journal articles included in the study wereclassifiedandcodedin three
ways:
1. By subjector topic,accordingto thekeywordclassificationschemeof Barki,
Rivard,andTalbot[2].
2. By type,accordingtoa framework forthestudy.
developedspecifically
3. By orientation in
towardresearchorpractice thefield.
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48 ALAVI AND CARLSON
[~ Article
TypTfr
"
i i
; Empirical
I Non-Empirical
k I
UHÉMd
LM|MHdi
* Opinionand
framework. Ç^Saîs'e. ' Fle!d ExPerlment
• Conceptual | Applications| ?e5molSet,
Modeli "^ ™ "" etc.
Systems, . FieldStudy
Experience«
• Secondary Data
Figure1 A Framework
forClassification
ofMIS ResearchStrategies
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MIS RESEARCH
ANDDISCIPLINARY
DEVELOPMENT49
4. Procedure
Two researchers were involved incoding thearticles andworkedindependently
accordingto thefollowing procedures. The entirecollectionof theJournalofMan-
agementInformation SystemsandMIS Quarterly forthetimeperiodcoveredby the
study was included. Forthesixremaining journals(Communications oftheACM,Data
Base, DecisionSciences, Harvard Business Review,Management Science,andSloan
Management Review),first,thetablesof contents wereexaminedby thecodersin
ordertoidentify theMIS-related titles.Thesearchwasbasedonthepresenceofcertain
key words,including:management, information, computer, data,and system.The
tablesof contentswerethenreviewedin a searchforrecognizedMIS authorsto
identifyMIS articlesthatmighthavebeenmissedbyexamination ofthearticletitles
alone.Thelistsofarticlesidentifiedbyeachindividual coderwerepooledtoestablish
a masterlist.The textofeacharticleinthelistwas thenreviewedinordertoexclude
articlesthatmighthavecontainedMIS-relatedkeywordsin thetitle,butessentially
havea non-MISfocus.
Once itwas decidedto includean articlein thestudy,a codingsheetwas used to
recorddataextracted fromthearticlesinordertoprovideuniformity, and
consistency,
completenessof data collection.To ensurethoroughness, a shortsummarywas
written1 and thearticlewas coded accordingto thetwoclassification schemes:the
classificationschemeforarticletypeshowninfigure1, andtheBarki-Rivard-Talbot
scheme.Each articlewas assignedto onlyone oftheclassifications shownin figure1;
however,dependingon thenumberof topicscovered thearticle,morethanone
in
Barkicode couldbe assignedtoan article.In all, 1,685Barkicodeswereassignedto
the908 articles,anaverageof 1.86codesperarticle.Thecodingsheetswerethenused
to inputthedata intoa dBase III Plus databaseto facilitate data manipulation and
analysis.On the average,each took
article abouttwenty minutesto code.
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50 ALAVI AND CARLSON
5. Results
A total of 908 articles were identifiedand coded usingtheaboveprocedures.
Thenumber ofarticlesbyjournalandbythree-year intervalis showninTable 1. As
faras non-MISjournalsareconcerned, 160articleswerepublishedinthepractitioner
orientedjournals(HarvardBusinessReviewandSloanManagement Review)and 111
articleswerepublishedin scholarlyjournals.As expected,thejournalsdedicatedto
MIS orcomputing anddataprocessing (i.e.,Communications oftheACM,Data Base,
JournalofManagement Information MIS
Systems, Quarterly,) providedclose to 70
percent ofthepublications.
5.L Publication
Topics
Articlesclassifiedin different
topicareasof theBarki-Rivard-Talbot classification
scheme(one-letter categoriesA-I) bythree-year aredisplayedinTable2. In
interval
thepasttwodecades,themostextensively researched topicsin oursamplewereIS
management followed by informationsystems,and IS development and operations.
The specificresearchissuesofinterestineachofthesethreetopicareasareshownin
Table 3.
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ANDDISCIPLINARY
MIS RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT51
DataBase 2 17 6 16 23 32 36 132
Decision Science 1 1 8 5 7 8 12 42
HarvardBusi- 19 11 11 6 19 19 10 95
ness Review
Journalof Man- 0 0 0 0 0 41 56 97
agement Informa-
tionSystems*
MIS Quarter!/* 0 0 0 50 64 64 94 272
Management Sci- 9 6 8 11 12 13 10 69
enee
Sloan Manage- 3 12 9 6 6 14 15 65
ment Review
Barki- TopicAreas 1968- 1971- 1974- 1977- 1980- 1983- 1986- Total
Rivard- 70 73 76 79 82 85 88
Talbot
Codes
I IS Management 20 21 22 63 74 133 Ï26 459
H Information
Sys- 26 29 18 39 57 65 119 353
terns
F IS Development 3 6 11 57 44 72 73 266
& Operations
A ReferenceDisci- 7 19 19 20 32 35 69 201
plines
G IS Usage 6 1 3 11 12 26 53 112
I IS Education& 2 11 4 9 20 18 23 87
Research
D Organizational 3 4 2 9 20 24 29 91
Environment
C Technological 1 4 3 6 5 26 28 73
Environment
B ExternalEnviron- 3 4 7 9 312 5 43
ment
Total 1685
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52 ALAVI AND CARLSON
5.2. ArticleTypes
Thenumber ofarticlesbyarticletypeandthree-year timeintervalis displayedinfigure
2. For each of the three-year intervalsbetween1968 and 1985, the numberof
nonempirical articleswas greater thanthenumberofempiricalarticles.Overall,the
empirical articlesconstituted
48.8 percentof thetotalpublishedbetween1968 and
1988. The frequencies ofthetypesofnonempirical articles(conceptual, illustrative,
and appliedconcepts)are displayedin Table 4. Withtheexceptionof a peak in the
period1971-73, thenumberof conceptualarticles(MIS frameworks, conceptual
models,and theories)has been consistently lowerthanthenumberof illustrative
articles.A totalof twenty-two applied conceptsarticleswere identified. In the
empirical showninTable5,themostpopularresearch
articles, methodologies between
1968and 1988were:fieldstudies(usedin 146articlesor33.4 percent ofthesample)
followedbylaboratory experiments (usedin 66 or 15.1 percentofthesample).Case
studies3accountedfor9.1 percentoftheempiricalarticles(a totalof40 articles)and
only4.1 percentof theempiricalarticles(18 articles)used fieldexperimentation in
theperiod1968-88. Descriptionsof typesof products,technologies, etc.,and of
specificsystems, products, etc.,accountedfor98 (22.4 percent)of the
installations,
empiricalarticleswritten duringthistimeperiod.
Thenumber ofarticlesbytypeandbyresearchtopic(Barki-Rivard-Talbot catego-
riesA-I) are displayedin figure3. Interestingly, bothempiricaland nonempirical
articleshave primarily focusedon thesame topics:IS management (categoryE),
information systems(categoryH), development and operations(categoryF), and
reference disciplines(categoryA). The smallestnumbersof empiricalarticlesap-
peared in categoryB (externalenvironment) and categoryI (IS educationand
research),with 15 and 17 articles,
respectively.The smallestnumber ofnonempirical
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MIS RESEARCH AND DISCIPLINARY DEVELOPMENT 53
160-Yi 1 1 1 1 1 [Ï46
140
J
" j^2 finpirical
120 ^"
^^■ng
120
Jj Non-Empirical
'_2^S^^^E?Ï H
100~ ^^^^^B^^^^^E
Frequency~ 81
^^^^B^^^^fl
80j 57- "^^f^^^^H^^^^H"
----- - - - ^-^- - ^-
60_2 "TS^^^B; ^^^^^■^^^^^^H^^^^^^F
Year
Figure2 NumberofArticlesbyTypeandYear
Table4 NumberofNonempirical
ArticlesbyTypeandThree-
Year TimePeriod
Applied 0002587 22
concepts
Total 471
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54 ALAVI AND CARLSON
Table 5 EmpiricalArticlesbyType(1968-88)
ResearchStrategy NumberofArticles
Field Study 146
Lab Experiment 66
Case Studies 40
Survey 32
Reid Experiment 18
Other Empirical Type
Description 98
Ex-post Description 18
Development oftool 12
Secondary Data 7
Total 437
300-A I I I I I I I
[
' 260
- _- - ___________
______
_^^4 ___- ______ ______
______ fl Empirical
250- ~~^H
^m 212
I -*L_H ¿SI
200- S^H ^M
! Barki-Rivard-Talbot
Codes
^^H ^fl
150_I ^^H" 139 ^KlT A Reference
Disciplines
^■3321 Ki BEx^Envàooment
! 109 CTedioologicdE-viioamaet
■ á_^B_)3>
^Hl^-i I^H
______ _______ ______^_^_^_^_^_^_H. _^_^_^_l P Environment
n OrauiIixlLuL I TT......
ürgani7inon«l
100-" ^^E_T ^ _^_^_l
E B Management
" ^^3 ^^^^^^■1 ^^H 70
F IS Development
»dOpeniiont
^^^1 55 ^^^^160 ^^Hl _^|
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MIS RESEARCH AND DISCIPLINARY DEVELOPMENT 55
6. DiscussionandConclusion
By collecting and analyzing MIS literature publishedincorejournalsin the
period1968-88we havebeenable topaintan overallpictureoftheMIS fieldandits
evolutionas represented in thisliterature.
Ananalysisofthetopicareascoveredbythearticlesindicated a dearthofpublished
workon thetopicsof externalenvironment (economic,legal, social, and political
environments), technological environment (hardwareand software), and organiza-
tionalenvironment (organization dynamics, and
structure, taskcharacteristics).The
smallnumber oftechnological articlesrepresented inthesamplemaybe attributed to
themanagement orientation ofthejournalsincludedin thestudy.On theotherhand,
theresearchemphasison theexternaland organizational environments shouldbe
increased.In ouropinion,as information systems becomemoreprevalent in organi-
zationsandsocieties,moreworkon thesetopicsis neededtomovethefieldforward
byproviding feedbackandtoguidepracticeandfurther research.
Ourresearchrevealsa trendintheevolutionoftheMIS field.Sincethemid-1980s
therehas beena shiftin MIS researchefforts. For thefirsttimeduringthepasttwo
decades,the numberof empiricalarticlesexceededthe numberof nonempirical
articlesessentiallyfocusingon purelyconceptualwork.This mayindicatethatthe
lattertypeofarticlewas appropriate intheearlyyearsofMIS, butwiththematurity
of thefield,therehas beena redirection of theresearcheffort paralleledby changes
in thepublishingstandards and practicesof coreMIS journals.Empiricalresearch
articlesinvolvingcase studies,
laboratory experimentation, andfieldstudieshavebeen
on theriseduringthepasttwenty In the
years. particular, popularity ofthelaboratory
experimentation suggeststhatan effort is beingmade to focuson testingtheories
and/or constructingempirically basedtheories. However,thesmallnumberoftheo-
retically articles
oriented (only fifteenin the entiresample)raisesquestionsaboutthe
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56 ALAVI AND CARLSON
SubjectCategories
ABCDEFGHI
Research 1968 1968 1971 1971 1968 1974 1970 ?969 1970
Articles
Practitioner 1971 1969 1968 1970 1968 1970 1968 1968 1968
Articles
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MIS RESEARCH AND DISCIPLINARY DEVELOPMENT 57
NOTES
1. Incaseswherethecodersfeltthatthearticleabstractwasa goodrepresentation
ofcontent,
thesummary wasbasedon theabstract. On theotherhand,forthearticlesforwhichtheabstract
was nothighlydescriptiveofthecontent, thesummary wasbasedon materialfromthearticle.
2. To calculateintercoder a randomsampleof thearticleswas recodedtwice
reliability,
duringthecodingprocess.Thereliabilities of71 percentand70 percentwerecalculated;these
areconsistentwiththecommonly acceptedcriteriaof70 percentforthistypeofresearch.
was madebetweena case studyas a research
thearticles,a distinction
3. In categorizing
methodology articlethatessentiallyuses exemplarsfordemonstrative
and an illustrative
purposes.
REFERENCES
E. Revisiting
1. Alavi,M., andJoachimsthaler, DSS implementation a meta-anal-
research:
andsuggestions
ysisoftheliterature forresearchers.
MIS Quarterly,
forthcoming.
2. Barki,H.; Rivard,S.; and Talbot,J.An informationsystemskeywordclassification
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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
58 ALAVIAND CARLSON
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MIS RESEARCH
ANDDISCIPLINARY
DEVELOPMENT59
DataBase,16,1 (Fall1984),
sities. 3-14.
D.E.Theoretical
28. Weick, andresearch
assumptions selection.
methodology InW.McF-
arlan,ed.,Information Systems ResearchChallenge,Boston:HarvardBusinessSchoolPress,
1984,pp. 110-132.
29. Weill, P., and Olson, M.H. An assessmentof contingency theoryof management
information systemsJournalofManagement InformationSystems.6, 1 (Summer1989),59-85.
30. Wood-Harper, A.J.Researchmethodology ininformation
systems : usingactionresearch.
In E. Mumford, et al., eds., ResearchMethodsin InformationSystems.New York: North
Holland,1985,pp. 169-191.
I. NonempiricalArticles
A. ConceptualOrientation
4. TheoryfromReferenceDisciplines:presentstheoryor theoriesdrawnfrom
an MIS context.
outsidetheMIS fieldbutappliedwithin
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60 ALAVI AND CARLSON
B. Illustrative
Articles
Rockart,J.F.Chiefexecutivesdefinetheirowndataneeds.HarvardBusinessReview,57, 2
(March-April1979),81-93.
March,S.T., andCarlis,J.V.On theinterdependences
betweenrecordstructure andaccess
pathdesign.JournalofManagement Information
Systems,4, 2 (Fall 1987),45-73.
C. Applied Concepts
Frameworks
Conceptual andApplications:
contains
bothconceptual
andillustrative
elements.
May presentsomeconceptorframeworkandthendescribean application
ofit.
Naumann,J.D.,andJenkins, A.M.Prototyping:
thenewparadigmforsystems
development.
MIS Quarterly,6, 3 (September
1982),29-44.
McFarlan,F.W. Information technologychangesthewayyou compete.HarvardBusiness
Review,62, 3 (May-June1984),98-103.
II. EmpiricalArticles
A. Objects
1. Description
ofa TypeorClass ofProducts,
Technologies,
Systems, etc.
Projects,
Johansen,R.,andBullen,C. Whattoexpectfrom HarvardBusinessReview,
teleconferencing.
62, 2 (March-April1984),164-174.
Vassiliou,Y. On theinteractive
use ofdatabases:querylanguages.JournalofManagement
InformationSystems, 1,3 (Winter1984),22-48.
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MIS RESEARCH AND DISCIPLINARY DEVELOPMENT 61
2. Descriptionof a SpecificApplicationSystem,Product,Installation,
Software
Model,Program, IS
Company, Function, etc.
B. Events/Process
1. Laboratory manipulates
Experiment: variable;controls
independent forinterven-
incontrolled
ingvariables;conducted settings.
Alavi,M., andHenderson, J.C.An evolutionary forimplementing
strategy a decisionsupport
system.Management Science,27, 11 (November1981), 1309-1323.
Benbasat,L; Dexter,A.S.; andMasulis,P.S. An experimentalstudyofthehuman/computer
Communications
interface. oftheACM, 24, 11 (November 1981),752-762.
as forlaboratory
2. Field Experiment: butin a naturalsettingof the
experiment,
phenomenon under
study.
Franz,C.R.; Robey,D.; andKoeblitz,R.R. Userresponsetoanonlineinformation
system:a
fieldexperiment. 10, 1 (March1986),29-42.
MIS Quarterly,
Barber,R.E., andLucas,H.C. Systemresponsetime,operator andjob satisfac-
productivity
tion.Communications oftheACM,26, 11 (November1983),972-986.
of independent
3. Field Study:no manipulation variables,involvesexperimental
controls,is carriedout in thenaturalsettingsof the
designbut no experimental
phenomenon ofinterest.
4. Case Study:
group,orsystemindetail;involves
a. SingleCase: examinesa singleorganization,
no variablemanipulation,
experimental or
design controls; in nature.
is exploratory
butcarriedoutina smallnumber
b. MultipleCase Studies:as forsinglecase studies,
oforganizations orcontext.
inspaceandtime.Communications
workpatterns
Olson,M.H. Remoteofficework:changing
oftheACM,26, 3 (March1983),182-187.
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62 ALAVI AND CARLSON
Boynton,A.D.,andZmud,R.W.Anassessment
ofcriticalsuccessfactors.
SloanManagement
Review,25, 4 (Summer1984), 17-27.
7. Ex-PostDescriptionofSomeProjectorEvent:interest inreporting
theresultsof
theprojectdevelopsaftertheprojectis complete(or is partially
complete).
Kozar,K.A., andMahlum,J.M.A usergenerated informationsystem:an innovative
devel-
opmentapproach.MIS Quarterly, 11,2 (June1987), 163-174.
Hiltz,S.R., andTuroff,
M. The evolutionofuserbehaviorin a computerized
conferencing
system.Communications oftheACM,24, 11 (November1981),739-751.
8. Secondary Data: research using data from secondary sources, that is, data
collected by sources otherthantheresearcher.
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