This paper provides an introspective assessment of the current state of management information systems as a research discipline using the "lens" of the informing sciences. Based on this assessment, we observe that the degree to which MIS research is informing its key external clients--practitioners, students, and researchers in other disciplines--has declined over the years. This problem is particularly acute with respect to informing practitioners. Unfortunately, practitioner support may be critical in making up for lost resources caused by declining student enrollments. Despite this dire prognostication, we believe that it is possible to reverse this trend. Drawing upon cognitive science and diffusion of innovations research, we analyze the source of the problem and then present five recommendations aimed at leading MIS journals, scholars, and professional societies for improving the ability of MIS research to engage and inform its external clients.
The article presents commentary on a paper in the current issue entitled "Fashion Waves in Information Systems Research and Practice" by Baskerville and Myers (B&M). In their paper B&M identified correlations between topics covered in information systems (IS) practitioner and research literature, and based on those findings offered recommendations for the conduct of IS research. The authors evaluate those recommendations and express agreement with some of them, but offer a competing explanation for the patterns B&M observe in the literature.
Failures in large-scale information technology implementation are abundantly documented in the practitioner literature. In this study, we examine why some firms benefit more from enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementation than others. We look at ERP implementation from a technological diffusion perspective, and investigate under what contextual conditions the extent of ERP implementation has the greatest effect on business process outcomes. Using empirical data, we find that the extent of ERP implementation influences business process outcomes, and both ERP radicalness and delivery system play moderating roles. For information systems (IS) practice, this study helps managers direct their attention to the most promising factors, provides insights into how to manage their complex interactions, and elaborates on their differential effects on business process outcomes. For IS research, it integrates innovation diffusion theory into our current knowledge of ERP implementation and provides theoretical explanations for ERP implementation failures.
Many enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementation projects fail despite huge investments. To explain such failures, we draw on the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm to define various dimensions of information systems (IS) resources. Using resource-picking and capability-building arguments, we examine the relationships between IS resources and ERP capabilities to find out whether they have complementary effects on outcomes. Empirical results from a survey of manufacturing firms that recently implemented ERP systems support the hypothesized model. For IS research, this study further develops the complementary and capability-building roles of IS resources, integrates RBV into our current knowledge of ERP implementation, and provides theoretical explanations for when or under what conditions building ERP capabilities has the highest impact on business process outcomes. For IS practice, it emphasizes the importance of IS resources in building ERP capabilities, provides preliminary measures for IS resource dimensions, and demonstrates their impact on firms' ERP capabilities and consequent business process outcomes.
This study examines how processes of external influence shape information technology acceptance among potential users, how such influence effects vary across a user population, and whether these effects are persistent over time. Drawing on the elaboration-likelihood model (ELM), we compared two alternative influence processes, the central and peripheral routes, in motivating IT acceptance. These processes were respectively operationalized using the argument quality and source credibility constructs, and linked to perceived usefulness and attitude, the core perceptual drivers of IT acceptance. We further examined how these influence processes were moderated by users' IT expertise and perceived job relevance and the temporal stability of such influence effects. Nine hypotheses thus developed were empirically validated using a field survey of document management system acceptance at an eastern European governmental agency. This study contributes to the IT acceptance literature by introducing ELM as a referent theory for acceptance research, by elaborating alternative modes of influence, and by specifying factors moderating their effects. For practitioners, this study introduces influence processes as policy tools that managers can employ to motivate IT acceptance within their organizations, benchmarks alternative influence strategies, and demonstrates the need for customizing influence strategies to the specific needs of a user population.
User beliefs and attitudes are key perceptions driving information technology usage. These perceptions, however, may change with time as users gain first-hand experience with IT usage, which, in turn, may change their subsequent IT usage behavior. This paper elaborates how users' beliefs and attitudes change during the course of their IT usage, defines emergent constructs driving such change, and proposes a temporal model of belief and attitude change by drawing on expectation-disconfirmation theory and the extant IT usage literature. Student data from two longitudinal studies in end-user computing (computer-based training system usage) and system development (rapid application development software usage) contexts provided empirical support for the hypothesized model, demonstrated its generalizability across technologies and usage contexts, and allowed us to probe context-specific differences. Content analysis of qualitative data validated some of our quantitative results. We report that emergent factors such as disconfirmation and satisfaction are critical to understanding changes in IT users' beliefs and attitudes and recommend that they be included in future process models of IT usage.
The importance of trust as a key facilitator of electronic commerce is increasingly being recognized in academic and practitioner communities. However, empirical research in this area has been beset by conflicting conceptualizations of the trust construct, inadequate attention to its underlying dimensions, causes, and effects, and lack of a validated trust scale. This paper addresses these limitations in part by theoretically conceptualizing and empirically validating a scale to measure individual trust in online firms. The proposed scale taps into three key dimensions of trust: trustee's ability, benevolence, and integrity. An iterative testing and refinement procedure using two field surveys of online retailing and online banking users, leads to a final seven-item trust scale that exhibits adequate levels of reliability, convergent validity, discriminant validity, and nomological validity. It is expected that the scale presented in this paper will assist future empirical research on trust in online entities.
This paper examines cognitive beliefs and affect influencing one's intention to continue using (continuance) information systems (IS). Expectation-confirmation theory is adapted from the consumer behavior literature and integrated with theoretical and empirical findings from prior IS usage research to theorize a model of IS continuance. Five research hypotheses derived from this model are empirically validated using a field survey of online banking users. The results suggest that users' continuance intention is determined by their satisfaction with IS use and perceived usefulness of continued IS use. User satisfaction, in turn, is influenced by their confirmation of expectation from prior IS use and perceived usefulness. Post-acceptance perceived usefulness is influenced by users' confirmation level. This study draws attention to the substantive differences between acceptance and continuance behaviors, theorizes and validates one of the earliest theoretical models of IS continuance, integrates confirmation and user satisfaction constructs within our current understanding of IS use, conceptualizes and creates an initial scale for measuring IS continuance, and offers an initial explanation for the acceptance-discontinuance anomaly.
Despite the ever increasing importance of information technology (IT) in firms, the extent to which IT management practices are applied creatively to critical tasks varies widely across firms. For over a decade, firms have employed IT steering committees to manage their IT resources. However, the impacts of such committees on the IT management function have not been examined in depth. This paper hypothesized relationships between the level of sophistication of IT steering committees and level of IT sophistication of management within firms, and tested those relationships empirically via a field survey of 213 IT managers in the financial services industry. Results of the study suggest that presence and roles of IT steering committees are significantly related to the level and nature of IT management sophistication within firms. Firms interested in achieving the most benefit from their steering committees should carefully select their preferred roles depending on the type and the level of IT management sophistication desired. The article concludes with discussion and implications for IT researchers and firms' executives.
This paper examines post-adoption behavior (continued adoption versus discontinuance) within the context of online service use. Innovation diffusion theory is used as a theoretical framework to extend information technology adoption research to the case of post-adoption behavior. This theory is used to formulate 11 research hypotheses distinguishing discontinuers from continuing adopters and exploring reasons behind their discontinuance (replacement versus disenchantment). These hypotheses were then empirically tested using data collected from a field survey of online service users. Our results indicate that potential discontinuers can be discriminated from continued adopters based on their sources of influence (external and interpersonal), perceived service attributes (usefulness and compatibility), service utilization, and network externality (complementary product usage), during their time of initial adoption. We also found that later adopters are more likely to discontinue due to disenchantment than replacement, and are more influenced by interpersonal sources and utilize the service less during their adoption period than replacement discontinuers. Implications for research and practice are drawn.