Information systems: what sort of science is it?

The academic field of Information Systems (IS) is concerned with a large range of multifaceted questions regarding the development, use and implications of information and communication technologies in organisations. Responsive to the challenge that profound technological innovation in the last 30 years posed to all types of social life, IS studies have developed a wealth of detailed knowledge at the organisational level. Yet, the field of IS is not well understood by academics and professionals in other fields, even in fields related to IS, such as Operational Research, Management, or Psychology. In this paper, written mainly for academics and professionals who are not IS specialists, we outline the IS field in terms of its main thematic areas, theories, and investigation approaches and discuss its institutional characteristics. We argue that the major strength of the field is its responsiveness to a large variety of issues emerging in organisations as they learn to exploit the new technological potential. However, being so far mainly issue oriented rather than theory driven, IS lacks the distinctiveness and rigour usually associated with scientific disciplines and remains institutionally weak. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.