THE IDENTITY CRISIS WITHIN THE IS DISCIPLINE: DEFINING AND COMMUNICATING THE DISCIPLINE'S CORE PROPERTIES.

Author List: Benbasat, Izak; Zmud, Robert W.;

MIS Quarterly, 2003, Volume 27, Issue 2, Page 183-194.

We are concerned that the IS research community is making the discipline's central identity ambiguous by, all too frequently, under-investigating phenomena intimately associated with IT-based systems and over-investigating phenomena distantly associated with IT-based systems. In this commentary, we begin by discussing why establishing an identity for the IS field is important. We then describe what such an identity may look like by proposing a core set of properties, i.e., concepts and phenomena, that define the IS field. Next, we discuss research by IS scholars that either fails to address this core set of properties (labeled as error of exclusion) or that addresses concepts/phenomena falling outside this core set (labeled as error of inclusion). We conclude by offering suggestions for redirecting IS scholarship toward the concepts and phenomena that we argue define the core of the IS discipline.

Keywords: errors of exclusion; errors of inclusion; IS discipline; IT artifact; IT nomological net

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List of Topics

#21	0.474	research information systems science field discipline researchers principles practice core methods area reference relevance conclude set focus propose perspective inquiry
#259	0.299	identity norms identification symbolic community help sense european social important verification set identities form obtained properties deterioration mixed match emphasis
#100	0.118	affective concepts role questions game gaming production games logic play shaping frames future network natural processes evidence addresses reference theorizing
#96	0.057	errors error construction testing spreadsheet recovery phase spreadsheets number failures inspection better studies modules rate replicated detection correction optimal discovering