Decision Sciences Journal
Volume 30, Number 1
Winter 1999
Information Systems Management Issues: Reporting and Relevance
Prashant C. Palvia
Fogelman College of Business & Economics, The University
of Memphis, Memphis, TN 38152, email: ppalvia@cc.memphis.edu
Suvojit Choton Basu
Walker L. Cisler College of Business, Northern Michigan University,
Marquette MI 49855-5359, email: sbasu@nmu.edu
ABSTRACT. Reports of key information systems issues
have been published over the last two decades in many journals.
Leading IS journals (e.g., MIS Quarterly, Information & Management,
among others) have published key IS management issue reports
every three or four years over the last 15 years, and will probably
continue to provide such reports in the future. Although these
reports claim to provide decisional guidance to practitioners,
researchers, consultants, etc., the authors in their experience
have noted concerns about their usefulness. While not questioning
the validity of the methods and analysis conducted in these studies,
we address two important questions in this article: the manner
of reporting of the key issue results (which might be misleading),
and the relevance of the results (are they providing what they
intended to?). We hope that our discussion will provide new perspectives
in making resource allocation decisions to both readers and authors
of key issue articles.
Subject Areas: Factor Analysis, Key Information Systems
Issues, and IS Management Issues. |