[AISWorld] A short academic critique on the current MIS research

mmora at securenym.net mmora at securenym.net
Tue Mar 28 16:01:50 EDT 2017


Two top senior MIS researchers (Benbazat & Zmud, 2003; p. 183) reported:
"We are concerned that the IS research community is making the
discipline's central identity ambiguous by, all too frequently,
under-investigating phenomena intimately associated with IT-based systems
and over-investigating phenomena distantly associated with IT-based
systems".

They defined (idem, 2003; p. 186) the "IT artifact",  the core construct
to be studied in our discipline, as "the application of IT to enable or
support some task(s) embedded within a structure(s) that itself is
embedded within a context(s)".

Finally, they also critiqued (idem, 2003; p. 188) on a sample of 2000-2001
papers published on the #1 and #2 MIS journals "that about one-third offer
and/or examine research models that include neither the IT artifact nor at
least one of the elements associated with its immediate nomological net".

Hence, these top senior authors classified these MIS research defects as
inclusion (themes distant to the ore IT artifact) and exclusion errors
(missed themes).

Regarding these excellent research critique in our discipline, I report
and denounce academically the deliberated omission of research and
teaching on Data Center System as a valid and legitimate IT artifact. At
present, there are only white papers and other industrial-based reports on
relevant topics related with Data Center Systems, despite they are they
demand both technical and managerial knowledge generated by the academy.
In particular, the phenomenon of SMAC (social media, analytics and cloud)
cannot be explained without references to the underlying IT artifact
enabling it.
Furthermore, industrial-based recent studies (Ponemon Institute© Research
Report, 2016; p. 2) reported "... the average cost of a data center outage
has steadily increased from $505,502 in 2010 to $740,357 today (or a 38
percent net change)." This industrial report was conducted on a sample of
63 organizations in the sectors of eCommerce, Financial services,
Healthcare, Retail, Industrial, Public sector, Consumer products,
Education, Communications, Hospitality, Media Research and Transportation.
Hence, it implies practically any core service and industry sector
including governmental organizations. Interesting also to review the job
title of surveyed people: Facility manager, Chief information officer
(CIO),  Data center management,  Chief information security officer, IT
operations management, IT compliance & audit, and Operations & engineering
staff. It, part of our main target expected audience for MIS research.

Thus, I call for top journals, tops conferences (ICIS, AMCIS, ECIS, PACIS)
and related ones, to open an academic discussion on this relevant fact
(via several special issues in both technical and managerial topics). I
invite also to consider in the near future the inclusion of these topics
in the PhD MIS agenda of relevant Institutions and the IS and MIS graduate
curriculum.

Sincerely,
Prof. Mora

PS. As one of the current scarce examples of academic efforts for starting
these demands, please visit:

http://americancse.org/events/csce2017/conferences/eee17/featured_sessions

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Manuel Mora, EngD.
Full-time Professor and Researcher Level C
ACM Senior Member / SNI Level I
Manager of Data Center Lab
Department of Information Systems
Autonomous University of Aguascalientes
Ave. Universidad 940
Aguascalientes, AGS
Mexico, 20131
http://x3620a-labdc.uaa.mx:8080/web/drmora
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