:The current study focuses on the development of MIS as a field of research and inquiry and examines its intellectual evolution. These issues are addressed through a systematic examination and analysis of 908 MIS articles published between 1968 and 1988 in eight core journals. The articles were analyzed for themes, topics. and research approach. The findings identify popular research topics. the dominant research perspective, and the relationship between MIS research and practice. The popular research topics consist of: IS management, information systems types and characteristics, and development and operation of systems. The dominant research perspective employed in almost all of the empirical articles included in the study can be characterized as a traditional approach reflecting a positivist orientation.

A review of MIS research and disciplinary development

It is commonly believed that the user's cognitive style should be considered in the design of Management Information Systems and Decision Support Systems. In contrast, an examination of the literature and a consideration of some of the broader issues involved in MIS and DSS design lead to the conclusions that: 1 the currently available literature on cognitive style is an unsatisfactory basis for deriving operational design guidelines, and 2 further cognitive style research is unlikely to provide a satisfactory body of knowledge from which to derive such guidelines. The article presents six specific bases for these two conclusions.

From a manager's pespective, the outcome of the study is a suggestion: maintain a healthy skepticism if it is suggested that paper and pencil assessments of the user's cognitive style should be used as a basis for MIS or DSS designs. From a researcher's viewpoint, the study raises two questions: 1 If our research interest is MIS and DSS design, does it seem that further research in cognitive style is a wise allocation of our research resources? 2 If our research interest is cognitive style, does it seem that the use of cognitive style as a basis for MIS and DSS designs will become an important application area?

Cognitive Style as a Basis for MIS and DSS Designs: Much ADO About Nothing?

Information systems are becoming increasingly critical to the daily operations and success of many firms. This, combined with the rising investments in design and development of these systems, make implementation a high priority research topic. Although information systems implementation has been a topic of interest to researchers over the past two decades, the extent to which the existing body of research reflects substantial and cumulative development is not entirely clear.The objective of this study is to conduct a rigorous and quantitative review of the empirical DSS implementation literature as a basis for providing guidelines for implementation management and conduct of future research. Meta-analysis of 144 findings from3 3 studies indicates that user-situational variables (involvement, training and experience) are more important than psychological factors to DSS implementation success and that user-situational variables can improve the implementation success by as much as 30 percent. Furthermore, the meta-analytic findings regarding the methodological characteristics of studies provide useful insights for the design of future research studies of implementation. The findings also allow us to put into perspective the incremental contribution of additional substantive and empirical studies in this area. Additionally, several specific domains (e.g., construct validation research on user involvement and causal modeling) might profit most form future research efforts.

Revisiting DSS implementation research: a meta-analysis of the literature and suggestions for researchers

Web-based information systems are increasingly being used for decision support applications. However, few empirical studies have been conducted on web-based decision support systems (DSS). This experimental research endeavors to understand factors that impact decision-making satisfaction in web-based decision support systems. Using structural equation modeling (SEM) approach, the analysis reveals that information quality and system quality influence decision-making satisfaction, while information presentation does not have an effect on decision-making satisfaction.

https://scholarworks.umb.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1011&context=msis_faculty_pubs

An empirical investigation of decision-making satisfaction in web-based decision support systems

Developing a multidimensional measure of system-use in an organizational context

An exploratory study was conducted to analyze whether interface and user characteristics affect decision effectiveness and subject behavior in an interactive human/computer problem-solving environment. The dependent variables were performance and the use of the systems options. Two of the independent variables examined, experience and cognitive style, were user characteristics; the other three, dialogue, command, and default types, were interface characteristics. Results indicate that both user and interface characteristics influence the use of the system options and the request for information in the problem-solving task.

Paul S. Masulis

Papers

An experimental study of the human/computer interface