Information Systems

Discussion of the precise nature of the Information System discipline has raged for more than twenty years and continues fiercely today. The most interesting aspect of recent debate is not only the sharpness and depth of the arguments, but the diverse conclusions arrived at by participants. While very different, these have all been reached with the genuine aim of strengthening IS scholarship, and they all add to our specific understanding of the discipline in the last two decades. Edited by two of the most prominent academics in the field, Information Systems - The State of the Field brings together such perspectives along with wider contextual discussion to provide a fertile ground for reflection, learning and further debate. It includes articles from Izak Benbasat, Robert Galliers, Rudi Hirschheim, Heinz Klein, Suzi Iacono, Wanda Orlikowski, Gerry DeSanctis, Bob Zmud, Dan Robey, Kalle Lyytinen, John King, Sal March and Ron Weber, all of whom also provide a short original commentary of their views on this debate. List of Contributors.

Foreword—Gordon B. Davis.

Series Preface—Rudy Hirschheim.

Introduction—John Leslie King and Kalle Lyytinen.

Original Papers.

1 Scoping the Discipline of Information Systems—David Avison and Steve Elliot.

2 Desperately Seeking the ‘IT’ in IT Research: A Call to Theorizing the IT Artifact—Wanda J. Orlikowski and C. Suzanne Iacono.

3 Still Desperately Seeking the IT Artifact—Ron Weber.

4 The Identity Crisis within the IS Discipline: Defining and Communicating the Discipline’s Core Properties—Izak Benbasat and Robert W. Zmud.

5 Crisis in the IS Field? A Critical Reflection on the State of the Discipline—Rudy A. Hirschheim and Heinz K. Klein.

6 Change as Crisis or Growth? Toward a Trans-disciplinary View of Information Systems as a Field of Study: A Response to Benbasat and Zmud’s Call for Returning to the IT Artifact—Robert D. Galliers.

7 The Social Life of Information Systems Research: A Response to Benbasat and Zmud’s Call for Returning to the IT Artifact—Gerardine DeSanctis.

8 Identity, Legitimacy and the Dominant Research Paradigm: An Alternative Prescription for the IS Discipline—Daniel Robey.

9 Design Science in Information Systems Research—Alan R. Hevner, Salvatore T. March, Jinsoo Park and Sudha Ram.

10 Nothing at the Center?: Academic Legitimacy in the Information Systems Field—Kalle Lyytinen and John Leslie King.

11 Reach and Grasp—John Leslie King and Kalle Lyytinen.

Commentaries.

12 The Artifact Redux: Further Reflections on the ‘IT’ in IT Research—Wanda J. Orlikowski and C. Suzanne Iacono.

13 Like Ships Passing in the Night: The Debate on the Core of the Information Systems Discipline—Ron Weber.

14 Further Reflections on the Identity Crisis—Izak Benbasat and Robert W. Zmud.

15 Further Reflections on the IS Discipline: Climbing the Tower of Babel—Heinz K. Klein and Rudy A. Hirschheim.

16 ‘Don’t Worry, be Happy . . . ’ A Post-Modernist Perspective on the Information Systems Domain—Robert D. Galliers.

17 Cleaning the Mirror: Desperately Seeking Identity in the Information Systems Field—Daniel Robey.

18 Designing Design Science—Salvatore T. March.

19 The Future of the IS Field: Drawing Directions from Multiple Maps—John Leslie King and Kalle Lyytinen.

Index.

John Leslie King is Dean and Professor in the School of Information at the University of Michigan. He previously served on the faculty of the University of California, Irvine. He has published many articles and five books on the relationship between technical and social change, and has served in key editorial positions for many academic journals, including Information Systems Research, Information Infrastructure and Policy, Information Polity, Organization Science, Organizational Computing and Electronic Commerce, Information Systems Frontiers, ACM Computing Surveys, the Journal of Strategic IT, Computer Supported Cooperative Work, and the Journal of Information Systems Management. He is currently a member of the National Science Foundation’s Advisory Committees for the directorates of Computer and Information Science and Engineering and Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Computing Research Association. He holds a PhD in Administration from the University of California, Irvine.

Kalle Lyytinen is Iris S. Wolstein Professor at Case Western Reserve University. He has published books, articles and conference papers on his research, which includes system design, method engineering, implementation, software risk assessment, computer-supported cooperative work, standardization, ubiquitous computing, IT-induced innovation in architecture and the construction industry, design and use of ubiquitous applications in health care, high level requirements model for large scale systems, and the development and adoption of broadband wireless standards and services. He serves currently on the editorial boards of several leading IS journals including the Journal of AIS (Senior Editor), Information Systems Research, the Journal of Strategic Information Systems, Information and Organization, Requirements Engineering Journal and Information Systems Journal among others. He holds a PhD from the University of Jyväskylä, Finland.

This volume explores key questions on the state of the information systems field:

• What is at the core of the IS field?
• What part does the ‘IT artifact’ play in the shaping of the field?
• What are the best ways to build the identity, legitimacy and institutional strength of the field?
• What roles do analytical, empirical and design perspectives play?
• How does the field best balance its intellectual and professional dimensions?
• How best can the IS field be sustained as a learning community?

The volume offers a unique set of influential essays from thought leaders in the field, followed by commentaries and critical reflections on what can be learned from the ongoing debate as the field moves forward in the 21st century.

The information systems field has contributed greatly to the rise of the information economy and the information society. Yet, after more than a quarter-century since its formation, it still is plagued by doubts about its identity and legitimacy. Information Systems: The State of the Field contains the reflections of leading IS scholars on the nature of the discipline, its core identity and the challenges of creating a strong and legitimate academic enterprise centred on information systems. It includes debates, reflections and commentaries from a group of leading information system scholars, and offers an overview of the state of the field at this time. This book is intended for all who are interested in the nature and direction of the information system field as it enters the 21st century.

"The sociologist Zygmund Bauman has defined a discipline which is constantly debating its credentials as a “flawed” discipline. This critique can certainly be applied to the IS discipline. The editors of this book must be congratulated on collecting together the principal writings reflecting the nature of the debate to provide a learned and fascinating account of where the field now stands and perhaps where it is going. It is essential reading for any student of IS."
—Frank Land, Emeritus Professor, Department of Information Systems, London School of Economics

"The struggle for identity, according to Alford North Whitehead entails a dialectic of “becoming”. It evolves from coping with continuous change, a conflict of perspectives and always asking: “Who am I?”, “Who are we?”, “Who are we not?”, “What do we inherit from our past?”. In this imaginatively edited volume, King and Lyytinen recount information systems' restless pursuit for identity. Anyone who is affected by the struggles, but more importantly everyone who wants to join it must read this book."
—Richard O. Mason, Carr P. Collins Distinguished Professor, Management Information Sciences, Edwin L. Cox School of Business, Southern Methodist University