The Intellectual Development of Management Information Systems, 1972–1982: A Co-Citation Analysis

Researchers in all academic disciplines benefit from an understanding of the intellectual development of their field. This understanding is essential for conducting studies which build systematically on prior research. The purpose of this study is to document the intellectual development of the ideas represented by published research in Management Information Systems (MIS) based on an author co-citation analysis. The resulting mapping is intended to serve as a benchmark for future assessments of MIS as a field as well as a means for documenting the emergence of new research specialties. The study sought to identify (1) the subfields which constitute MIS research, (2) the reference disciplines of these subfields, (3) the diffusion of the ideas represented by these subfields to other disciplines, and (4) which of these subfields represent active areas of current MIS research. Nine invisible colleges, or informal clusters of research were uncovered. These nine empirically defined conceptual groupings collectively define the intellectual foundations of MIS as well as the forces currently shaping MIS research. Four of the clusters represent early MIS research themes which are still popular, based on subsequent citation patterns. Despite the centrality of the concept of the organization to widely-accepted definitions of MIS, the results suggest that MIS research is not well-grounded in organization theory nor have MIS research results been widely diffused in the organizational literature. Suggestions for developing a better link between MIS and organizational theory are presented based on the concept of organizational effectiveness.