Knowledge utilization among MIS researchers is examined via an analysis of 9,911 references appearing in 532 MIS journal articles published in fifteen journals during the 1970-1979 period. Quantitative indicators of references per article, type of publication referenced, elapsed time between citing and cited publications, and cross disciplinary references are used to categorize knowledge utilization by researchers in the MIS discipline and to analyze changes in reference patterns over the ten year period and differences between academician and practitioner authored works.
While the use and costs of Management Information Systems (MIS) have become highly visible, little attention has been paid to assessing and communicating system effectiveness. Evaluation of system effectiveness is difficult due to its multidimensionality. its quantitative and qualitative aspects, and the multiple, and often conflicting, evaluator viewpoints. This article provides an overview of what system effectiveness means and how it should be measured. It is the first of two articles to appear in consecutive issues of the MIS Quarterly. Starting with a definition of system effectiveness, this article examines evaluation of system effectiveness in terms of a conceptual hierarchy of system objectives. The hierarchy is used to discuss problems in, and recommendations for, evaluating system effectiveness, and to compare MIS evaluation approaches. The second article characterizes and compares the evaluator viewpoints on system effectiveness for decision makers in several functional groups involved in MIS implementation — user, MIS, internal audit, and management. The second article recommends several MIS evaluation approaches for incorporating multiple dimensions and multiple evaluator viewpoints into evaluations of information system effectiveness.
Evaluations of Management Information System (MIS) tend to be subjective and are influenced by the perceptions of system objectives, as well as the experiences with system performance in accomplishing organizational objectives. Consequently, the assessments of MIS effectiveness are often controversial and can be sources of disagreement and conflict between different functional groups involved in MIS implementation -- users, MIS development, internal audit, and top management personnel. This article, the second of two parts, describes and compares the evaluator viewpoints on system effectiveness for these various functional groups. The first part, which appeared in the previous issue of the MIS Quarterly (Volume 5, Number 3) presented a conceptual hierarchy of system objectives and compared various approaches for evaluating accomplishment of objectives.