Commentary on Gill and Bhattacherjee: is there an informing crisis?

The article by Gill and Bhattacherjee (2009) continues what is starting to become a regular theme: that of lamenting the state of information systems as a research discipline. Early on, the field was criticized for having virtually no cumulative tradition (Keen 1980). Two decades later, Orlikowski and Iacono (2001) commented that they could not find the "IT" in IS research. This soon led to suggestions that the IS field as a whole had an identity crisis (Benbasat and Zmud 2003). Continuing in this vein, Gill and Bhattacherjee say that the future of MIS as an academic research discipline itself is under threat. We now have an "informing" crisis. Unless MIS researchers make a determined effort to engage and inform external clients, "our very survival" may be at stake.

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