Abstract
The field of information systems is premised on the centrality of
information technology in everyday socio-economic life. Yet, drawing
on a review of the full set of articles published in Information
Systems Research (ISR) over the past ten years, we argue that the
field has not deeply engaged its core subject matter--the information
technology (IT) artifact. Instead, we find that IS researchers tend
to give central theoretical significance to the context (within which
some usually unspecified technology is seen to operate), the discrete
processing capabilities of the artifact (as separable from its context
or use), or the dependent variable (that which is posited to be affected
or changed as technology is developed, implemented, and used). The
IT artifact itself tends to disappear from view, be taken for granted,
or is presumed to be unproblematic once it is built and installed.
After discussing the implications of our findings, we propose a research
direction for the IS field that begins to take technology as seriously
as its effects, context, and capabilities. In particular, we propose
that IS researchers begin to theorize specifically about IT artifacts,
and then incorporate these theories explicitly into their studies.
We believe that such a research direction is critical if IS research
is to make a significant contribution to the understanding of a world
increasingly suffused with ubiquitous, interdependent, and emergent
information technologies.
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