Scientific progress of management information systems

The results of this survey indicate that MIS has been undergoing significant shifts in terms of the research strategies employed by researchers, and there has been a shift from non-empirical research to empirical studies over the past nine years.

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to explore the historical progress of management information systems (MIS) from a philosophic scientific perspective. The study is based on the thematic analysis of research strategies of 536 articles published during the period 1977-1985. The results of this survey indicate that MIS has been undergoing significant shifts in terms of the research strategies employed by researchers. More specifically, there has been a shift from non-empirical research to empirical studies over the past nine years. However, it seems that in spite of recent progress in the demarcation of its boundaries, MIS has not made very significant progress as a scientific discipline. The paper takes the position that this state of the arts will not change until MIS develops a body of substantive theories specific to its domain.