Revisiting IS business value research: what we already know, what we still need to know, and how we can get there

Abstract

The business value of investments in Information Systems (IS) has been, and is predicted to remain, one of the major research topics for IS researchers. While the vast majority of research papers on IS business value find empirical evidence in favour of both the operational and strategic relevance of IS, the fundamental question of the causal relationship between IS investments and business value remains partly unexplained. Three research tasks are essential requisites on the path towards addressing this epistemological question: the synthesis of existing knowledge, the identification of a lack of knowledge and the proposition of paths for closing the knowledge gaps. This paper considers each of these tasks. Research findings include that correlations between IS investments and productivity vary widely among companies and that the mismeasurement of IS investment impact may be rooted in delayed effects. Key limitations of current research are based on the ambiguity and fuzziness of IS business value, the neglected disaggregation of IS investments, and the unexplained process of creating internal and competitive value. Addressing the limitations we suggest research paths, such as the identification of synergy opportunities of IS assets, and the explanation of relationships between IS innovation and change in IS capabilities.

Keywords:

• IS business value
• IS research framework
• IS impact
• IS value
• research agenda
• literature review

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to the Editor-in-Chief, the Associate Editor and the anonymous reviewers, who all provided many valuable comments that helped to improve the paper. I also thank Rachel Teear for her editorial assistance.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Guido Schryen

About the authors

Guido Schryen holds a position as full professor of Information Systems Research at the University of Regensburg, Germany. He received a doctorate in information systems and earned a post-doctorate degree (habilitation) at the RWTH Aachen University. He was visiting researcher at Stanford University, ICSI (Berkeley), QUT Brisbane and The Information Systems Security Research Center (ISSRC, University of Oulu, Finland). His fields of interest cover quantitative decision support (operations research), benefits of information systems and services, and IT security.