Fragmentation or cohesion? Visualizing the process and consequences of information system diversity, 1993–2012

Abstract

In information systems (IS) literature, there is ongoing debate as to whether the field has become fragmented and lost its identity in response to the rapid changes of the field. The paper contributes to this discussion by providing quantitative measurement of the fragmentation or cohesiveness level of the field. A co-word analysis approach aiding in visualization of the intellectual map of IS is applied through application of clustering analysis, network maps, strategic diagram techniques, and graph theory for a collection of 47,467 keywords from 9551 articles, published in 10 major IS journals and the proceedings of two leading IS conferences over a span of 20 years, 1993 through 2012. The study identified the popular, core, and bridging topics of IS research for the periods 1993–2002 and 2003–2012. Its results show that research topics and subfields underwent substantial change between those two periods and the field became more concrete and cohesive, increasing in density. Findings from this study suggest that the evolution of the research topics and themes in the IS field should be seen as part of the natural metabolism of the field, rather than a process of fragmentation or disintegration.

Keywords:

• co-word analysis
• bibliometric study
• information systems
• identity
• cohesion

Associate Editors:

Prof. Frantz Rowe and Dr. Raquel Benbunan-Fich

Associate Editors:

Prof. Frantz Rowe and Dr. Raquel Benbunan-Fich

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Yong Liu

About the authors

Yong Liu is an assistant professor of the Department of Information and Service Economy at Aalto University School of Business, Finland. His research interests cover the areas of big data social science, electronic commerce, mobile commerce, and online social networks. He has more than 55 publications at top international conferences and journals, such as ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI), Decision Support Systems, Information Systems Journal, Information & Management, Government Information Quarterly, and PLOS ONE.

Hongxiu Li

Hongxiu Li is a post-doctoral researcher at Turku School of Economics, University of Turku, Finland. Her expertise and research interests cover the areas of IS adoption and post-adoption behavior, e-services, social media, eWOM, and big data. She has more than 40 research publications in outlets such as Computer & Education, Computers in Human Behavior, Decision Support Systems, Information Systems Journal, Information & Management, PLOS ONE, and the most popular international conferences in IS field, such ICIS, ECIS, PACIS, and AMCIS.

Jorge Goncalves

Jorge Goncalves is a postdoctoral researcher and a member of the Community Imaging research group at the University of Oulu, Finland. Dr. Goncalves has more than 45 publications at top international conferences and journals in the field of Human-Computer Interaction, such as ACM Transactions in Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI), ACM CHI, Interacting with Computers, Computer Networks, ACM CSCW, International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, ACM UIST, etc. His work has also appeared in leading media outlets in the field like the New Scientist magazine and Gizmodo. Dr. Goncalves received a Ph.D. with distinction in Computer Science from the University of Oulu, Finland. He is a member of ACM. He can be contacted at [email protected].

Vassilis Kostakos

Vassilis Kostakos is a professor of Computer Engineering and the director of the Community Imaging research group at the University of Oulu, Finland. His research interests include ubiquitous computing, human-computer interaction, and social systems. Kostakos received a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Bath, U.K. He has more than 140 refereed publications, many in leading journals and conferences such as CHI, UbiComp, ACM Transaction on Computer Human Interaction, IEEE Computer, Interacting with Computers, and Personal and Ubiquitous Computing. He is a member of ACM. He can be contacted at [email protected].

Bei Xiao

Bei Xiao is a master student of the Department of Information Technologies at Åbo Akademi University, Finland. His recent work has appeared in ACM CHI conference.