A discipline for a stage? A Shakespearean reflection on the research plot and performance of the Information Systems field

Abstract

The different traditions of European and North American Information Systems research are highlighted and traditional means of measuring research quality (including citation patterns and journal impact factors) are questioned. Shakespearean metaphors are used to highlight these distinctions. The article concludes with a call for greater diversity and appreciation of alternative research traditions and cultures, and of the journals that publish such research.

Keywords:

• European and North American Information Systems research traditions
• research quality
• citation patters
• impact factors

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Robert D Galliers

About the author

Bob Galliers is Provost of Bentley College, a business school that espouses trans-disciplinarity across business and the arts & sciences, and which recently received EQUIS accreditation to go alongside its long-standing accreditation from AACSB-International. He is a Visiting Professor in the Information Systems and Innovation Group at the London School of Economics (LSE), U.K.; the Australian School of Business, University of New South Wales, Australia, and Brunel Business School, U.K. He was previously Professor of Information Systems and Research Director in the Department of Information Systems at the LSE, the Lucas Professor of Business Management Systems and Dean of Warwick Business School, U.K., and earlier, the Foundation Professor and Head of the School of Information Systems at Curtin University in Australia. Galliers is founding editor-in-chief of the Journal of Strategic Information Systems, and a fellow of the Association for Information Systems (AIS), the British Computer Society and the Royal Society of Arts. He served as president of the AIS in 1999, as chair of the 1997 ECIS, and as co-chair of the 2002 ICIS. He has previously held Visiting Professorships at INSEAD, France; University of St Gallen, Switzerland; City University of Hong Kong; the Institute for Advanced Management Studies, Belgium; National University of Singapore; Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and Bond University, Australia. Galliers has published widely in many international IS journals, including EJIS; ISJ; JAIS; I&O; IT&P; I&M; JMIS; JIT, and IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management. He has also co-authored a number of books, the most recent being: the fourth edition of Strategic Information Management (Routledge, 2009); Exploring Information Systems Research Approaches (Routledge, 2007); Strategic Information Management, 3rd edition (Butterworth-Heinemann, 2003); Rethinking Management Information Systems (Oxford University Press, 1999), and Information Technology and Organizational Transformation (Wiley, 1998). He holds an AB degree with honors in Economics from Harvard University, U.S.A., an MA with distinction in Management Systems from Lancaster University, U.K., and a Ph.D. in Information Systems from the London School of Economics, U.K. He was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Science degree by Turku University of Economics and Business Administration, Finland in 1995. His research focuses in the main on information systems strategy and the management of change associated with the adoption and appropriation of ICT-based systems within and between organizations.