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Twenty years of the European information systems academy at ECIS: emergent trends and research topics

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European Journal of Information Systems

Abstract

While the information systems (IS) community is increasingly international, it is reasonable to expect that different regions might display different research approaches, interests and publication orientations. This paper contributes to the growing number of historical accounts in the IS field by further developing the profile of European IS research that was reported on in EJIS following the first 10 years of the European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS). On the basis of an analysis of all papers published in ECIS proceedings during the 10-year period 2003–2012, the paper highlights three key characteristics of the developing European IS research profile: (1) continuation of the traditional European IS research profile as developed in the first decade; (2) convergence with aspects of the North American tradition and (3) development of a distinct approach to design science. We place these observed characteristics within broader historical and contextual features such as the changing European academic landscape, with increasing pressures to ‘publish or perish’ in order to be internationally competitive. Our contribution lies in providing a contemporaneous account of the dominant contextual factors influencing the European IS academy in recent years as well as our interpretation of the developing research profile, thus informing future understanding of European IS research and the choices facing individual IS researchers.

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Acknowledgements

We are extremely grateful to Steve Stein who was of immense help in processing and cleaning the data in preparation for analysis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. IT Management Department, Copenhagen Business School, Frederiksberg, Denmark

    Mari-Klara Stein

  2. Information and Process Management & Sociology Departments, Bentley University, Waltham, MA, United States

    Robert D Galliers

  3. Department of Management, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK

    Edgar A Whitley

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  1. Mari-Klara Stein
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  2. Robert D Galliers
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  3. Edgar A Whitley
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Correspondence to Mari-Klara Stein.

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Supplementary information accompanies this article on the European Journal of Information Systems website (www.palgrave-journals.com/ejis)

That men do not learn from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons of history: Aldous Huxley, Collected Essays

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Stein, MK., Galliers, R. & Whitley, E. Twenty years of the European information systems academy at ECIS: emergent trends and research topics. Eur J Inf Syst 25, 1–15 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1057/ejis.2014.25

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