Showing papers in "Management Information Systems Quarterly in 2004"
TL;DR: The objective is to describe the performance of design-science research in Information Systems via a concise conceptual framework and clear guidelines for understanding, executing, and evaluating the research.
Abstract: Two paradigms characterize much of the research in the Information Systems discipline: behavioral science and design science The behavioral-science paradigm seeks to develop and verify theories that explain or predict human or organizational behavior The design-science paradigm seeks to extend the boundaries of human and organizational capabilities by creating new and innovative artifacts Both paradigms are foundational to the IS discipline, positioned as it is at the confluence of people, organizations, and technology Our objective is to describe the performance of design-science research in Information Systems via a concise conceptual framework and clear guidelines for understanding, executing, and evaluating the research In the design-science paradigm, knowledge and understanding of a problem domain and its solution are achieved in the building and application of the designed artifact Three recent exemplars in the research literature are used to demonstrate the application of these guidelines We conclude with an analysis of the challenges of performing high-quality design-science research in the context of the broader IS community
10,264 citations
4,637 citations
TL;DR: A model of IT business value is developed based on the resource-based view of the firm that integrates the various strands of research into a single framework and provides a blueprint to guide future research and facilitate knowledge accumulation and creation concerning the organizational performance impacts of information technology.
Abstract: Despite the importance to researchers, managers, and policy makers of how information technology (IT) contributes to organizational performance, there is uncertainty and debate about what we know and don't know. A review of the literature reveals that studies examining the association between information technology and organizational performance are divergent in how they conceptualize key constructs and their interrelationships. We develop a model of IT business value based on the resource-based view of the firm that integrates the various strands of research into a single framework. We apply the integrative model to synthesize what is known about IT business value and guide future research by developing propositions and suggesting a research agenda. A principal finding is that IT is valuable, but the extent and dimensions are dependent upon internal and external factors, including complementary organizational resources of the firm and its trading partners, as well as the competitive and macro environment. Our analysis provides a blueprint to guide future research and facilitate knowledge accumulation and creation concerning the organizational performance impacts of information technology.
3,318 citations
TL;DR: The paper concludes that the hedonic nature of an information system is an important boundary condition to the validity of the technology acceptance model and perceived usefulness loses its dominant predictive value in favor of ease of use and enjoyment.
Abstract: This paper studies the differences in user acceptance models for productivity-oriented (or utilitarian) and pleasure-oriented (or hedonic) information systems. Hedonic information systems aim to provide self-fulfilling rather than instrumental value to the user, are strongly connected to home and leisure activities, focus on the fun-aspect of using information systems, and encourage prolonged rather than productive use. The paper reports a cross-sectional survey on the usage intentions for one hedonic information system. Analysis of this sample supports the hypotheses that perceived enjoyment and perceived ease of use are stronger determinants of intentions to use than perceived usefulness. The paper concludes that the hedonic nature of an information system is an important boundary condition to the validity of the technology acceptance model. Specifically, perceived usefulness loses its dominant predictive value in favor of ease of use and enjoyment.
3,308 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore and critically evaluate use of the resource-based view of the firm (RBV) by information systems researchers and suggest extensions to make the RBV more useful for empirical IS research.
Abstract: Information systems researchers have a long tradition of drawing on theories from disciplines such as economics, computer science, psychology, and general management and using them in their own research. Because of this, the information systems field has become a rich tapestry of theoretical and conceptual foundations. As new theories are brought into the field, particularly theories that have become dominant in other areas, there may be a benefit in pausing to assess their use and contribution in an IS context. The purpose of this paper is to explore and critically evaluate use of the resource-based view of the firm (RBV) by IS researchers.
The paper provides a brief review of resource-based theory and then suggests extensions to make the RBV more useful for empirical IS research. First, a typology of key IS resources is presented, and these are then described using six traditional resource attributes. Second, we emphasize the particular importance of looking at both resource complementarity and moderating factors when studying IS resource effects on firm performance. Finally, we discuss three considerations that IS researchers need to address when using the RBV empirically. Eight sets of propositions are advanced to help guide future research.
2,588 citations
TL;DR: It is reported 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.
Abstract: 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' be liefs 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.
1,632 citations
TL;DR: The results support the vendors-to-partners thesis that IT deployments in supply chains lead to closer buyer-supplier relationships and suggest the complementarity of the transaction-cost and resource-based views, elaborating the logic by which specialized assets can also be strategic assets.
Abstract: Supply chain management systems (SCMS) championed by network leaders in their supplier networks are now ubiquitous. While prior studies have examined the benefits to network leaders from these systems, little attention has been paid to the benefits to supplier firms. This study draws from organizational theories of learning and action and transaction cost theory to propose a model relating suppliers' use of SCMS to benefits. It proposes that two patterns of SCMS use by suppliers-exploitation and exploration-create contexts for suppliers to make relationship-specific investments in business processes and domain knowledge. These, in turn, enable suppliers to both create value and retain a portion of the value created by the use of these systems in interfirm relationships.
Data from 131 suppliers using an SCMS implemented by one large retailer support hypotheses that relationship-specific intangible investments play a mediating role linking SCMS use to benefits. Evidence that patterns of information technology use are significant determinants of relationship-specific investments in business processes and domain expertise provides a finer-grained explanation of the logic of IT-enabled electronic integration. The results support the vendors-to-partners thesis that IT deployments in supply chains lead to closer buyer-supplier relationships (Bakos and Brynjyolfsson 1993). The results also suggest the complementarity of the transaction-cost and resource-based views, elaborating the logic by which specialized assets can also be strategic assets.
1,115 citations
TL;DR: Action research has been accepted as a valid research method in other applied fields such as organization development and education, and there is no reason why action research should not be accepted in the field of information systems as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: There have been frequent calls for IS researchers to make their research more relevant to practice (Zmud 1998), yet it seems IS researchers continue to struggle to make excellent research practically relevant. We believe action research methods provide one potential avenue to improve the prac tical relevance of IS research. Action research has been accepted as a valid research method in other applied fields such as organization development and education, (e.g., Carr and Kemmis 1986; Elden and Chisholm 1993; Van Eynde and Bledsoe 1990). It has been described as "the touchstone of most good organizational develop ment practice" and "remains the primary methodo logy for the practice of organizational develop ment" (Van Eynde and Bledsoe 1990, p. 27). We see no reason why action research should not be accepted in the field of information systems.
803 citations
TL;DR: A model positing that a firm's abilities to coordinate and exploit firm resources create online informational capabilities which then leads to improved operational and financial performance is proposed, suggesting that while most firms are lagging in their supplier-side initiatives relative to the customer-side, supplier- Side digitization has a strong positive impact on customer- side digitization, which, in turn, leads to better financial performance.
Abstract: Many traditional organizations have undertaken major initiatives to leverage the Internet to transform how they coordinate value activities with customers, suppliers, and other business partners with the objective of improving firm performance. This paper addresses processes through which business value is created through such Internet-enabled value chain activities. Relying on the resource-based view of the firm, we propose a model positing that a firm's abilities to coordinate and exploit firm resources (processes, information technology, and readiness of customers and suppliers) create online informational capabilities (a higher order resource) which then leads to improved operational and financial performance. The outcome of a firm's online informational capabilities is reflected in superior operational performance through customer and supplier-side digitization efforts, which reflect the extent to which transactions and external interactions occur electronically. We also hypothesize that increased customer and supplier-side digitization leads to better financial performance. The model is tested with data from over 1,000 firms in the manufacturing, retail, and wholesale sectors. The analysis suggests that while most firms are lagging in their supplier-side initiatives relative to the customer-side, supplier-side digitization has a strong positive impact on customer-side digitization, which, in turn, leads to better financial performance. Further, both customer and supplier readiness to engage in digital interactions are shown to be as important as a firm's internal digitization initiatives, implying that a firm's transformation-related decisions should include its customers' and suppliers' resources and incentives.
788 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors introduce the notion of mindful innovation with IT and contrast this with mindless innovation, where a firm's actions betray an absence of such attention and grounding, and bring mindfulness and mindlessness together in a larger theoretical synthesis in which these apparent opposites are seen to interact in ways that help to shape the overall landscape of opportunity for organizational innovation.
Abstract: Although organizational innovation with information technology is often carefully considered, bandwagon phenomena indicate that much innovative behavior may nevertheless be of the "me too" variety. In this essay, we explore such differences in innovative behavior. Adopting a perspective that is both institutional and cognitive, we introduce the notion of mindful innovation with IT. A mindful firm attends to an IT innovation with reasoning grounded in its own organizational facts and specifics. We contrast this with mindless innovation, where a firm's actions betray an absence of such attention and grounding. We develop these concepts by drawing on the recent appearance of the idea of mindfulness in the organizational literature, and adapting it for application to IT innovation. We then bring mindfulness and mindlessness together in a larger theoretical synthesis in which these apparent opposites are seen to interact in ways that help to shape the overall landscape of opportunity for organizational innovation with IT. We conclude by suggesting several promising new research directions.
656 citations
Journal Article•
TL;DR: It is suggested that the scaling (i.e., spreading) of intervention is a prerequisite, not a luxury, for sustainable action research, and more generally, IS implementations that are dispersed, large-scale, and have scarce resources.
Abstract: Our paper is motivated by one simple question: Why do so many action research efforts fail to persist over time? We approach this question, the problem of sustainability, building on a perspective on action research identifying the pivotal importance of networks. More precisely, local action research interventions need to be conceptualized and approached as but one element in a larger network of action in order to ensure sustainability. A vital aspect of our perspective is that local interventions depend heavily on the support of similar action research efforts in other locations. This is essential for the necessary processes of learning and experience sharing. We suggest that the scaling (i.e., spreading) of intervention is a prerequisite, not a luxury, for sustainable action research. Empirically, we base our analysis on an ongoing, large-scale action research project within the health care sector (called HISP) in a number of developing countries. HISP provides a fruitful occasion to investigate key criteria for our approach to action research, namely sustainability, scalability, and capacity to be politically relevant to the participants. We contribute to three discourses: (1) models of action research, (2) lessons for health information systems in developing countries, and (3) more generally, IS implementations that are dispersed, large-scale, and have scarce resources.
TL;DR: A qualitative analysis of interviews conducted with 23 IT professionals and business users in a large manufacturing and distribution company is summarized in a conceptual framework showing the conditions, practices, and consequences of knowledge brokering by IT professionals.
Abstract: This interpretive case study examines knowledge brokering as an aspect of the work of information technology professionals. The purpose of this exploratory study is to understand knowledge brokering from the perspective of IT professionals as they reflect upon their work practice. As knowledge brokers, IT professionals see themselves as facilitating the flow of knowledge about both IT and business practices across the boundaries that separate work units within organizations. A qualitative analysis of interviews conducted with 23 IT professionals and business users in a large manufacturing and distribution company is summarized in a conceptual framework showing the conditions, practices, and consequences of knowledge brokering by IT professionals. The framework suggests that brokering practices are conditioned by structural conditions, including decentralization and a federated IT management organization, and by technical conditions, specifically shared IT systems that serve as boundary objects. Brokering practices include gaining permission to cross organizational boundaries, surfacing and challenging assumptions made by IT users, translation and interpretation, and relinquishing ownership of knowledge. Consequences of brokering are the transfer of both business and IT knowledge across units in the organization.
TL;DR: The results support the suggested structure for business competence and indicate that business competence significantly influences the intentions of IT professionals to develop partnerships with their business clients.
Abstract: This research aims at improving our understanding of the concept of business competence of information technology professionals and at exploring the contribution of this competence to the development of partnerships between IT professionals and their business clients. Business competence focuses on the areas of knowledge that are not specifically IT-related. At a broad level, it comprises the organization-specific knowledge and the interpersonal and management knowledge possessed by IT professionals. Each of these categories is in turn inclusive of more specific areas of knowledge. Organizational overview, organizational unit, organizational responsibility, and IT-business integration form the organization-specific knowledge, while interpersonal communication, leadership, and knowledge networking form the interpersonal and management knowledge. Such competence is hypothesized to be instrumental in increasing the intentions of IT professionals to develop and strengthen the relationship with their clients.
The first step in the study was to develop a scale to measure business competence of IT professionals. The scale was validated, and then used to test the model that relates competence to intentions to form IT-business partnerships. The results support the suggested structure for business competence and indicate that business competence significantly influences the intentions of IT professionals to develop partnerships with their business clients.
TL;DR: An action research study that develops and tests design principles for competence management systems and develops an integrative model of competence that not only outlines the interaction between organizational and individual level competence and the role of technology in this process, but also incorporates a typology of competence.
Abstract: Even though the literature on competence in organizations recognizes the need to align organization level core competence with individual level job competence, it does not consider the role of information technology in managing competence across the macro and micro levels. To address this shortcoming, we embarked on an action research study that develops and tests design principles for competence management systems. This research develops an integrative model of competence that not only outlines the interaction between organizational and individual level competence and the role of technology in this process, but also incorporates a typology of competence (competence-in-stock, competence-in-use, and competence-in-the-making). Six Swedish organizations participated in our research project, which took 30 months and consisted of two action research cycles involving numerous data collection strategies and interventions such as prototypes. In addition to developing a set of design principles and considering their implications for both research and practice, this article includes a self-assessment of the study by evaluating it according to the criteria for canonical action research.
TL;DR: The finding of a positive association between integrated interpersonal trust and performance not only yields the strongest support for a relationship between trust and VCR performance but also contradicts prior research.
Abstract: This article examines the relationship between interpersonal trust and virtual collaborative relationship (VCR) performance. Findings from a study of 10 operational telemedicine projects in health care delivery systems are presented. The results presented here confirm, extend, and apparently contradict prior studies of interpersonal trust. Four types of interpersonal trust-calculative, competence, relational, and integrated are identified and operationalized as a single construct. We found support for an association between calculative, competence, and relational interpersonal trust and performance. Our finding of a positive association between integrated interpersonal trust and performance not only yields the strongest support for a relationship between trust and VCR performance but also contradicts prior research. Our findings indicate that the different types of trust are interrelated in that positive assessments of all three types of trust are necessary if VCRs are to have strongly positive performance. The study also established that if any one type of trust is negative, then it is very likely that VCR performance will not be positive. Our findings indicate that integrated types of interpersonal trust are interdependent, and the various patterns of interaction among them are such that they are mutually reinforcing. These interrelationships and interdependencies of the different types of interpersonal trust must be taken into account by researchers as they attempt to understand the impact of trust on virtual collaborative relationship performance.
TL;DR: It is demonstrated how the taxonomy of bidder behavior can be used to enhance the design of some types of information systems, including developing user-centric bidding agents, inferring bidders' underlying valuations to facilitate real-time auction calibration, and creating low-risk computational platforms for decision making.
Abstract: While traditional information systems research emphasizes understanding of end users from perspectives such as cognitive fit and technology acceptance, it fails to consider the economic dimensions of their interactions with a system. When viewed as economic agents who participate in electronic markets, it is easy to see that users' preferences, behaviors, personalities, and ultimately their economic welfare are intricately linked to the design of information systems. We use a data-driven, inductive approach to develop a taxonomy of bidding behavior in online auctions. Our analysis indicates significant heterogeneity exists in the user base of these representative electronic markets. Using online auction data from 1999 and 2000, we find a stable taxonomy of bidder behavior containing five types of bidding strategies. Bidders pursue different bidding strategies that, in aggregate, realize different winning likelihoods and consumer surplus. We find that technological evolution has an impact on bidders' strategies. We demonstrate how the taxonomy of bidder behavior can be used to enhance the design of some types of information systems. These enhancements include developing user-centric bidding agents, inferring bidders' underlying valuations to facilitate real-time auction calibration, and creating low-risk computational platforms for decision making.
TL;DR: This research moves beyond directly controlling informated workers through legitimized managerial authority to a better understanding of how to informate autonomous professionals and suggests that a clan can be informed if the principal can improve the perceived legitimacy of the information.
Abstract: Past literature recognizes the power of information technology (IT) to establish greater transparency and in turn the potential for greater control. Theoretical perspectives such as informating and agency theory describe situations whereby legitimized management authority can control goal divergence by implementing information systems to better monitor agents' behavior and outcomes. But what happens when the principal does not possess legitimacy to impose an agent's use of information and/or behavioral conformance? This study investigates this situation. Through an action research project, a physicians' profiling system (PPS) was used to monitor and benchmark physicians' clinical practices and outcomes resulting in changed practice behaviors in closer congruence with management's goals.
The PPS project represents a successful attempt of a hospital's management (principal) to "informate the clan" of physicians (agents) to reduce clinical procedural costs and adopt practices benchmarked to produce better outcomes. This research moves beyond directly controlling informated workers through legitimized managerial authority to a better understanding of how to informate autonomous professionals. Emerging insights suggest that a clan can be informated if the principal can improve the perceived legitimacy of the information (the message), legitimize the technical messenger (customized user interface), legitimize the human messenger (boundary spanners and influential clan members), and facilitate an environment where clan-based discussion, using the information provided by the principal, is incorporated into the process of concertive control.
Journal Article•
TL;DR: This research proposes an approach to tailor risk management to specific contexts within the information systems and software engineering disciplines and draws upon insights from the literature on SPI and software risk management as well as practical lessons learned from managing SPI risks in the participating software organizations.
Abstract: Many software organizations engage in software process improvement (SPI) initiatives to increase their capability to develop quality solutions at a competitive level. Such efforts, however, are complex and very demanding. A variety of risks makes it difficult to develop and implement new processes.
We studied SPI in its organizational context through collaborative practice research (CPR), a particular form of action research. The CPR program involved close collaboration between practitioners and researchers over a three-year period to understand and improve SPI initiatives in four Danish software organizations. The problem of understanding and managing risks in SPI teams emerged in one of the participating organizations and led to this research. We draw upon insights from the literature on SPI and software risk management as well as practical lessons learned from managing SPI risks in the participating software organizations.
Our research offers two contributions. First, we contribute to knowledge on SPI by proposing an approach to understand and manage risks in SPI teams. This risk management approach consists of a framework for understanding risk areas and risk resolution strategies within SPI and a related process for managing SPI risks. Second, we contribute to knowledge on risk management within the information systems and software engineering disciplines. We propose an approach to tailor risk management to specific contexts. This approach consists of a framework for understanding and choosing between different forms of risk management and a process to tailor risk management to specific contexts.
TL;DR: It is concluded that internal transparency may well be a concept that offers significant potential for MIS research as well as a discussion about the applicability and credibility of participatory action research for this project.
Abstract: While many large businesses start out as a small enterprise, remarkably little is known about how an organization actually changes internally during the periods of growth. Small business growth is known to strain internal communication processes, for example, which likely limits growth opportunities. Information systems are often called upon to remedy such deficiencies. Through a participatory action research project, we investigated the ways in which a small business management team developed an IS-enabled solution to address their growth needs. During the progression of the project, a new outcome of organizational effectiveness, internal transparency, was identified and developed. Adopting a punctuated equilibrium perspective, a theoretical process model is proposed that sheds light on a relationship between internal transparency, small business growth, and IS. The paper concludes with observations that internal transparency may well be a concept that offers significant potential for MIS research as well as a discussion about the applicability and credibility of participatory action research for this project.
TL;DR: Information systems researchers have a long tradition of drawing on theories from disciplines such as economics, computer science, psychology, and general management and using them in their own resiliency as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Information systems researchers have a long tradition of drawing on theories from disciplines such as economics, computer science, psychology, and general management and using them in their own res...
TL;DR: A model to guide the design and the continuous management of customer-centric Web-based systems, or sites that support customer relationship management (CRM) activities, makes extensive use of current technologies for tracking the customers and their behaviors, and combines elements of data mining and statistical analyses.
Abstract: Customer-centric Web-based systems, such as e-commerce Web sites, or sites that support customer relationship management (CRM) activities, are themselves information systems, but their design and maintenance need to follow vastly different approaches from the traditional systems lifecycle approach. Based on marketing frameworks that are applicable to the online world, and following design science principles, we develop a model to guide the design and the continuous management of such sites. The model makes extensive use of current technologies for tracking the customers and their behaviors, and combines elements of data mining and statistical analyses. A case study based on a financial services Web site is used to provide a preliminary validation and design evaluation of our approach. The case study showed considerable measured improvement in the effectiveness of the company's Web site. In addition, it also highlighted an important benefit of the our approach: the identification of previously unknown or unexpected segments of visitors. This finding can lead to promising new business opportunities.
TL;DR: The differences in user acceptance models for productivity-oriented and pleasure-oriented information systems are studied to establish a baseline for hedonic information systems.
Abstract: This paper studies the differences in user acceptance models for productivity-oriented (or utilitarian) and pleasure-oriented (or hedonic) information systems. Hedonic information systems aim to pr...
TL;DR: Dialogical action research recognizes that the practitioner's experience, expertise, and tacit knowledge, or praxis, largely shapes how he understands the suggested actions and appropriates them as his own, hence initiating another cycle of action and learning.
Abstract: In dialogical action research, the scientific researcher does not "speak science" or otherwise attempt to teach scientific theory to the real-world practitioner, but instead attempts to speak the language of the practitioner and accepts him as the expert on his organization and its problems. Recognizing the difficulty that a practitioner and a scientific researcher can have in communicating across the world of science and the world of practice, dialogical action research offers, as its centerpiece, reflective one-on-one dialogues between the practitioner and the scientific researcher, taking place periodically in a setting removed from the practitioner's organization. The dialogue itself serves as the interface between the world of science, marked by theoria and the scientific attitude, and the world of the practitioner, marked by praxis and the natural attitude of everyday life. The dialogue attempts to address knowledge heterogeneity, which refers to the different forms that knowledge takes in the world of science and the world of practice, and knowledge contextuality, which refers to the dependence of the meaning of knowledge, such as a scientific theory or professional expertise, on its context. In successive dialogues, the scientific researcher and the practitioner build a mutual understanding, including an understanding of the organization and its problems. The scientific researcher, based on one or more of the scientific theories in her discipline, formulates and suggests one or more actions for the practitioner to take in order to solve or remedy a problem in his organization. Dialogical action research recognizes that the practitioner's experience, expertise, and tacit knowledge, or praxis, largely shapes how he understands the suggested actions and appropriates them as his own. Upon returning to his organization, he takes one or more of the suggested actions, depending on his reading of the situation at hand. The reactions or responses of the problem to the actions or stimuli of the practitioner would embody, in the practitioner's eyes, success or failure in solving or remedying the problem and, in the scientific researcher's eyes, evidence confirming or disconfirming the theory on which the action was based. The scientific researcher may then suggest, based on her theories, additional actions, hence initiating another cycle of action and learning. To illustrate dialogical action research, this paper reconstructs some dialogues between an information systems researcher and a managing director at a European company called Omega Corporation.
TL;DR: Arguments that users may not be primarily concerned with the number of ideas generated when planning a brainstorming session, but rather may equally desire group well being and member support are presented.
Abstract: This paper argues that much of the past research on electronic brainstorming has been somewhat myopic. Much as Sony focused on the quality of the picture on its Beta format, we as IS researchers have focused on the number of ideas generated as the dominant measure of electronic brainstorming effectiveness. When VHS killed Beta, Sony discovered that image quality was a secondary consideration for most VCR users. Despite the compelling research on its performance benefits, electronic brainstorming has not yet displaced-or even joined-verbal brainstorming as a widely used idea generation technique. This paper presents arguments that users may not be primarily concerned with the number of ideas generated when planning a brainstorming session, but rather may equally desire group well being and member support. We present theoretical arguments and empirical evidence suggesting that electronic brainstorming is not as effective as verbal brainstorming at providing group well being and member support. We believe that these arguments may also apply to other group and individual research areas and may also call for a reevaluation of the technology acceptance model (TAM). Finally, we suggest further research that may help electronic brainstorming avoid the fate of the Beta format.
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TL;DR: This essay takes exception with a common refrain in the anxiety discourse, attributing the anxiety to the field's relative youth, its focus on technology in a technophobic institutional environment, and academic ethnocentrism within and without the field.
Abstract: The short history of Information Systems suggests persistent anxiety about the field's purported lack of academic legitimacy. A common refrain in the anxiety discourse is that legitimacy can be obtained only by creating a strong theoretic core for the field. This essay takes exception with this view, attributing the anxiety to the field's relative youth, its focus on technology in a technophobic institutional environment, and academic ethnocentrism within and without the field. While developing stronger theory might be helpful, it is more important that the IS field pushes back against the hegemony of IS critics outside the field whose arguments masquerade as concerns about academic quality. The anxiety discourse should be replaced by the IS field's aggressive pursuit of new instructional and research opportunities that cross traditional institutional barriers and the pursuit of excellence on academic criteria deemed important by the field itself.