What is MIS?
An exploratory research project By Michael Byrd, Eric Case, Bradley Dorn, Steven
Pentland, and Wenli Zhang
For MIS 696A, Fall 2013
December 18, 2013
1
Contents
Executive Summary....................................................................................................................................... 3
Approach ....................................................................................................................................................... 4
Introduction .............................................................................................................................................. 4
Defining a field .......................................................................................................................................... 4
Developing metrics ................................................................................................................................... 4
Limitations ................................................................................................................................................ 4
Data collection .............................................................................................................................................. 5
Initial journal survey ................................................................................................................................. 5
Author list ................................................................................................................................................. 5
Article list .................................................................................................................................................. 5
Journal classification ................................................................................................................................. 5
Summary ................................................................................................................................................... 6
Analysis ......................................................................................................................................................... 7
Author Publication .................................................................................................................................... 7
MIS Change Over Time............................................................................................................................ 10
Journal Categories................................................................................................................................... 14
Co-Authors .............................................................................................................................................. 15
Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................... 16
Appendix A: Author Biographies ................................................................................................................. 17
Ritu Agarwal ............................................................................................................................................ 17
Izak Benbasat .......................................................................................................................................... 18
Robert O. Briggs ...................................................................................................................................... 19
Eric K. Clemons........................................................................................................................................ 20
Alok Gupta .............................................................................................................................................. 21
Blake Ives ................................................................................................................................................ 22
Robert J. Kauffman.................................................................................................................................. 23
Jay F. Nunamaker Jr. ............................................................................................................................... 24
Paul A. Pavlou ......................................................................................................................................... 25
Viswanath Venkatesh.............................................................................................................................. 26
James C. Wetherbe ................................................................................................................................. 27
Andrew B. Whinston ............................................................................................................................... 28
Robert Zmud ........................................................................................................................................... 29
Vladimir Zwass ........................................................................................................................................ 30
2
Executive Summary
In previous years, students in this class have taken the approach of attempting to define the discipline of
Management Information Systems by analyzing publications in MIS journals and using the citations of
those publications to link to other disciplines. These citation links serve to identify reference disciplines
of MIS as a proxy to the definition of the field itself. In this study, we take a slightly different approach.
Instead of using citations as the link to reference disciplines, we use the authors themselves as the link.
We first identified the top authors in the top MIS journals, and then analyzed the complete publication
record of those authors to identify the journals they had published in and by extension, the reference
disciplines that those journals represent. We used both subjective coding and linguistic analysis to
identify reference disciplines and we analyzed our data using a variety of visualization techniques.
3
Approach
Introduction
Management Information Systems (MIS) is a relatively new field of study. Currently, its scope is
interdisciplinary, broad, and somewhat ill-defined. The purpose of this research is to provide a firm,
defensible definition of the scope of MIS from an academic perspective.
Defining a field
Fields of study are defined by the knowledge they represent. In
academia, authors create knowledge. The knowledge that
authors create is disseminated by publication in journals.
Academic journals select and evaluate knowledge that is
appropriate to the focus of the journal. Previous work by
students in this class has taken the approach of categorizing the
articles published in these journals to identify the scope of
topics that define MIS. We take a slightly different approach of
focusing on the authors as a basis for defining a field of study. Since authors bring their various
experiences and knowledge bases to bear in the execution of research and the publication of results, we
feel that the author’s background can serve as a mechanism for identifying topic areas that define a
discipline. We then use the academic journals in which the authors publish as a proxy for the knowledge
base and use the journal subject area to classify generated knowledge into categories.
Developing metrics
To develop our definition of management information systems, we use journal articles as atomic pieces
of knowledge. We assume that knowledge that is classified together by a journal, meets some common
criteria. For our study, we base the definition of these criteria on the self-assigned description of each
journal. We interpret this definition using both computational linguistics and a subjective, normative
evaluation. We then infer that the most prolific authors of journals that classify according to
management information systems criteria are the most influential generators of management
information systems knowledge.
Limitations
One limitation to our classification system is that each component is defined by the others. It is
necessary to start with a given seed of information – the journal list generated by from our survey. We
feel our approach is valid, but we acknowledge this potential limitation to our methodology.
4
Data collection
Initial journal survey
Our data collection began with a survey of faculty members in the Management Information Systems
department at The University of Arizona to identify journals. The results of the survey produced a
subjective list of the top, most influential management information systems journals.
Author list
For each journal in our initial journal list, we gathered a list of individuals with the most publications. We
combined the lists developed from each journal to create our list of significant management information
systems authors. Please see Appendix A for a brief biographical dossier on each author. The selected
authors were:
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Agarwal, Ritu
Benbasat, Izak
Briggs, Robert O.
Clemons, Eric K.
Gupta, Alok
Ives, Blake
Kauffman, Robert J.
Nunamaker Jr, Jay
Pavlou, Paul A.
Venkatesh, Viswanath
Wetherbe, James C.
Whinston, Andrew B.
Zmud, Robert
Zwass, Vladimir
Article list
For each author in our author list, we gathered citations for all of their publications. With this list, we
gathered article titles, co-authors, year, and journal. The combined list of all publications would allow us
to create a new expanded list of journals.
Journal classification
For each journal on the new journal list, we searched for the journal online and located either the
website for the journal, the publisher’s website for the journal, or the website for the society that
publishes the journal if neither of the previous were available. We then reviewed the websites and
found statements that defined the aim and scope of articles published in the journal; usually a mission
statement, overview, summary, etc. We collected these statements into a data file. We then manually
assigned subject tags based on articles in the journal, the journal title, and the self-describing statement.
These tags were selected to parsimoniously categorize the journal subject matter for analysis. Three
raters coded the tags with overlap to enhance inter-rater reliability.
5
Summary
By gathering data previously described, we developed and used the following data sets in our analysis:

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List of influential management information systems authors
List of articles written by influential management information systems authors
o Title
o Author and co-authors
o Publishing journal
o Year
List of journal influential management information systems authors have published in
o Description
o Tag-based classification
6
Analysis
Data analysis was conducted over several dimensions - top author contributions, breadth of
publications, and keywords associated with each journal. The objective of this research paper is to
identify the top authors in the MIS field and then evaluate how their work has influenced other
disciplines. Our analysis will begin with an overview of the main contributors to the MIS
Author Publication
As the discipline of information systems has developed over the years, the influence of our selected
authors has grown. The graph below describes the number of yearly publications for the researchers
being evaluated in this paper starting in the 1960s.
Two main factors contribute to the temporal growth presented in the graphic: Researchers have
developed research careers and gained notoriety, which led to an increase in publications over time. As
we will discuss in detail later, the influence of MIS on other disciplines increased leading to an increase
in publication outlets.
Interestingly, the year-by-year publication count takes on a familiar trend. The gradual increase in the
number of publications, followed by dramatic peak to trough movements reflects the same trend as the
S&P 500 stock index.
7
The diverse composite of the S&P 500 make it an excellent indicator of U.S. economic health. The
correlation between the number of publications and the S&P 500 suggests that researchers are able to
conduct and publish research in flourishing economic time periods. In hindsight, this seems obvious
because of the availability of grant funding during strong market growth. Amusingly, the number of
publications takes a significant drop in the late ‘90s and early ‘00s when the S&P was rising due to the
Dot Com bubble. We speculate that the number of publications dropped because researchers were
working with tech companies instead of publishing research.
Overall, the year-by-year comparison of publications demonstrates the influence of our information
system researchers. Given the method used to derive the list of MIS researchers, the majority of their
publication were in IS specific journals. As the discipline has progressed over the years, its influence on
other disciplines continues to expand. For this study, we are interested in the breadth of influence of
MIS.
The table below highlights where the researchers have published the majority of their research:
Rank Journal
Count
1
MIS Quarterly
163
2
Journal of Management Information Systems
141
8
3
Information Systems Research
100
4
Decision Support Systems
52
5
Electronic Commerce Research and Applications 50
6
Communications of the ACM
49
7
System Sciences
43
8
Management Science
37
When these outlets are removed from the dataset, we begin to see the breadth of influence MIS
researchers have. The original dataset consisted of over 1,400 publications in more than 400 journals.
The visualization below exhibits the influence of top researchers. Darker colors represent the number of
publications in each journal.
When analyzing the outlying journals, we start to see contributions to a variety of disciplines including:
Accounting, Marketing, Organization, Water Resource Management, Economics, Education, ECommerce, Transportation, Health Care, and Psychology. This demonstrates the scope of influence even
a small subset of MIS researchers have on a variety of disciplines. This was not always the case for MIS
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researcher. As the field evolved over time its influence and acceptance in other disciplines has
increased.
MIS Change Over Time
The Series of images below show the growing influence of MIS research over time. Each bubble
represents the journal top MIS researchers published. The larger the bubble the more publications in
that particular journal. The links between the journals are based on keywords extracted from the name
of each publication:
1960’s
10
1970’s
11
1980’s
12
1990’s
13
2000’s
Two key interesting trends can be observed in these visualizations: as MIS matures, it has evolved away
from a dependence on the journals of other fields and, the universe of outlets continued to expand,
both within MIS and without. Major MIS journals are now surrounded by a variety of sub-disciplines
encompassing MIS as a whole. Yet, even with this expanding universe of specialty journals, MIS
researcher still contribute broadly to multiple diciplines.
Journal Categories
To further determine the influences on information system research, we categorized each journal. Our
ontology consisted of 47 categories including: accounting, business administration, environment,
government, health care, logistics, negotiations, manufacturing, marketing, phycology, sociology, and
statistics. Journals were tagged with multiple categories depending on the description offered by the
journal’s website. Multiple tags and the volume of journals allowed us to create a network map
demonstrating the variety of influence and the relationships between each category. Each node in the
network diagram below represents a different category. The closer nodes are to each other, the
stronger the interdisciplinary research.
14
Overall, MIS researchers have had a most noticeable presence in Business Administration, Economics,
Operations, Decision Science, Accounting, E-Commerce, Health Care, Engineering, Human-Computer
Interaction, Education, and Sociology.
Co-Authors
Along with analyzing the breadth of research by top MIS authors, we also looked at cross collaboration
between co-authors. Our intension was to determine the extent that top MIS researchers work with
each other as well as other scientists. Our evaluation revealed that most top authors publish with a
distinct subset of authors. Cross collaboration was minimal.
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Each of the larger spheres in the image represents our selected researchers. The surrounding clusters
and smaller spheres represent co-authors. As the image shows, most top authors collaborate with only a
small subset of researchers. Interestingly, Andrew Whinston, the larger green sphere, shows the most
collaboration with other top researchers and has diversified work with lesser known scientists.
Conclusion
We set out to define the discipline of MIS through the identification of disciplines not directly related to
information technology. Our analysis revealed that as MIS has grown as a discipline, it has been
influenced by and also influenced a variety of other fields. These include health care, psychology,
sociology, and education. Although we studied only a small subset of MIS researchers, we believe that
their work is an indication of the direction of MIS. The exponential growth of technology has solidified
the need for a bridge between technologist and end-user. Our findings demonstrate that MIS research
has contributed to filling the void. As more and more disciplines and industries have voiced a need for
effectiveness and efficiency through technology, MIS researchers have provided the structure necessary
for successful implementation. We believe MIS has value in all areas of business and study. Our
discipline is relatively young and its impact on real-world problem solving will continue expand.
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Appendix A: Author Biographies
Ritu Agarwal
Professor and Robert H. Smith Dean’s
Chair of Information Systems
Robert H. Smith School of Business
The University of Maryland, College Park
Year Degree Major
Institution
1988 PhD
1988 Masters
1984
1982 Bachelors
Biography
Syracuse University
Syracuse University
Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta
St. Stephen's College, Delhi University
Management Information Systems
Computer Science
MBA
Mathematics
Prof. Ritu Agarwal is Professor and the Dean’s Chair of Information Systems at the Robert H.
Smith School of Business, University of Maryland, College Park. Prof. Agarwal has evolved her
interest in the use of information technologies in healthcare settings into an institutional effort.
She and her colleagues started CHIDS to provide an independent third party research platform
and organization that could build knowledge and insights into the complex domains of health
information and decision systems. In addition to health information technology, Prof. Agarwal’s
current research in the area of information technology management is focused on technologyenabled transformations in various industry sectors and the evolving effects of electronic
markets. Prof. Agarwal has published extensively on information technology management
topics in several top journals, and has made multiple presentations at industry and academic
forums.
17
Izak Benbasat
Professor and Canada Research Chair in
Information Technology Management
The University of British Columbia
Year Degree Major
Institution
1974
1971
1969
University of Minnesota
University of Minnesota
Robert College, Istanbul
PhD
Management Information Systems
Masters
Management Information Systems
Bachelors Marketing
Biography
Prof. Izak Benbasat Ph.D. is a fellow of the Fellow, Royal Society of Canada (Academy of
Humanities and Social Sciences). He is a CANADA Research Chair in Information Technology
Management at Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia, Canada. He has a
Ph.D. in Management Information Systems (MIS) from the University of Minnesota. His
research interests includes:
Evaluating human-computer interfaces, specifically how to design web-based interfaces to
facilitate business-to-consumer electronic commerce;
Investigating the role of explanations in intelligent support systems in improving user
productivity and knowledge transfer to users; and
Measuring IT-related competencies, namely, IT knowledge in line managers and business
competence in IT professionals, and their impact on the effective deployment of IT.
The general theme that links his areas of research interest is improving the communication
between IT, management, and users of technology.
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Robert O. Briggs
Professor of Management Information
Systems, Director of Doctoral Studies,
Management Information Systems
Department
San Diego State University
Year Degree Major
Institution
1994
1987
1986
1986
University of Arizona
San Diego State University
San Diego State University
San Diego State University
PhD
Management Information Systems
Masters
MBA Information Systems emphasis
Bachelors Art History
Information Systems
Biography
Robert O. Briggs, Ph.D. (University of Arizona, 1994). Dr. Briggs studies the cognitive
foundations of collaboration and applies his findings to the design and deployment of
collaboration systems. He is co-founder of the field of Collaboration Engineering and coinventor of the ThinkLets design pattern language for collaborative work practices. He has
made theoretical contributions on group productivity, ideation, creativity, consensus, change,
technology transition, and satisfaction. He is currently working to reduce military decision
cycles with collaboration systems and to reduce the dropout rate among K12 learners-at-risk
with collaborative learning techniques, with a focus on technical and cognitive challenges for
transferring engineered work practices to non-experts without training on either the
techniques or technologies.
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Eric K. Clemons
Professor of Operations and Information
Management and Area Coordinator,
Information, Strategy, and Economics
The Wharton School
University of Pennsylvania
Year Degree Major
Institution
1976
1974
1970
Cornell University
Cornell University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
PhD
Operations Research
Masters
Operations Research
Bachelors Physics
Biography
Dr. Eric K. Clemons is Professor of Operations and Information Management at The Wharton
School of the University of Pennsylvania. A pioneer in the systematic study of the
transformational impacts of information on the strategy and practice of business, his research
and teaching interests include strategic uses of information systems, information economics,
and the changes enabled by information technology.
20
Alok Gupta
Curtis L. Carlson Schoolwide Chair in
Information Management
Department Chair, Dept. of IDSc, Carlson
School of Management
University of Minnesota
Year Degree Major
Institution
1996
University of Texas Austin
PhD
Management Science and
Information Systems
1991 Masters
Mine Electrical Systems
1988 Bachelors Mining Engineering
Biography
Pennsylvania State University
Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University
Alok Gupta is Curtis L. Carlson Schoolwide Chair in Information Management and Chair of Information
and Decision Sciences at the Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota. His research has
been published in various information systems, economics, and computer science journals such as
Management Science, ISR, MIS Quarterly, CACM, JMIS, Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control,
Computational Economics, Decision Support Systems, and IEEE Internet Computing. In addition, his
articles have been published in several leading books in the area of economics of electronic commerce.
He was awarded a prestigious NSF CAREER Award for his research on dynamic pricing mechanisms on
the internet. From 1999-2001, he served as co-director of Treibick Electronic Commerce Initiative (TECI),
an endowed research initiative at Dept. of OPIM, University of Connecticut. He is also an affiliate of the
Center for Research in Electronic Commerce (CREC) at the University of Texas at Austin. He serves as
Senior Editor for ISR and an Associate Editor for Management Science. He also serves on the editorial
boards of JMIS, DSS and Brazilian Electronic Journal of Economics. He has been serving as Publisher of
MIS Quarterly since 2005. He teaches courses in the areas of computer networking, electronic
commerce, decision support, IT infrastructure, and computer programming at the undergraduate, MBA
and Ph.D. levels.
21
Blake Ives
Charles T. Bauer Chair of Business
Leadership
University of Houston
Year
1978
1970
1969
Degree
PhD
Masters
Bachelors
Major
Management Information Systems
Computer Science
Management
Institution
University of Minnesota
State University of New York, Albany
State University of New York, Albany
Biography
Blake Ives holds the C.T. Bauer Chair in Business Leadership at the Bauer College of Business at
the University of Houston. He is past Director of the Information Systems Research Center and
immediate past Director of Research for the Society for Information Management’s Advanced
Practice Council. Blake is also Past President of the Association for Information Systems, a
Fellow of the Association for Information Systems, and a past Editor-in-Chief of the MIS
Quarterly. Ives is one of eight faculty at the University of Houston listed in ISI’s Highly Cited
archive. ISI reports over 2,000 citations to his work, while Google Scholar identifies over 7,000
citations, including teen of his peer reviewed articles that each been cited over 200 times. He is
on the editorial board of six journals including Communications of the Association for
Computing Machinery and, as Senior Editor, the MISQ Executive.
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Robert J. Kauffman
Professor of Information Systems
Associate Dean (Research)
Deputy Director, SMU-Carnegie Mellong
Living Analytics Research
Centre (LARC)
School of Information Systems
Singapore Management University
Year Degree Major
Institution
1988
1985
1977
Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University
University of Colorado, Boulder
PhD
Industrial Administration
Masters
Systems Science
Bachelors Psychology
Biography
Robert J. Kauffman is currently a Visiting Professor of Information Systems and Strategy at the
School of Information Systems and the Lee Kong Chian School of Business at Singapore
Management University, where he serves as Associate Dean of Research, and Deputy Director
of the Living Analytics Research Center. He also is a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Center
for Digital Strategies of the Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth College. Previously he served at
Arizona State University, the University of Minnesota, New York University and the University of
Rochester. He also visited the Research Department of the Federal Reserve Bank of
Philadelphia, and worked in international banking and finance prior to beginning his academic
career. His work has recently appeared in Information Systems Research, IBM Research and
Development Journal, MIS Quarterly, the Journal of Management Information Systems, and the
Review of Economics and Statistics.
23
Jay F. Nunamaker Jr.
Regents Professor and Soldwedel
Professor of Management Information
Systems, Computer Science, and
Communication
Director and P.I., The National Center for
Border Security and Immigration
(BORDERS)
Director and founder, Center for
Management of Information (CMI)
Eller College of Management
University of Arizona
Year Degree Major
Institution
1969
1965
1964
1960
Case Institute of Technology
University of Pittsburgh
Carnegie Mellon University
University of Pittsburgh
PhD
Operations Research and Systems Engineering
Masters
Industrial and Systems Engineering
Bachelors Industrial Management
Mechanical Engineering
Biography
Dr. Jay Nunamaker is Regents and Soldwedel Professor of MIS, Computer Science and
Communication. He is Director of the Center for the Management of Information and the
National Center for Border Security and Immigration (BORDERS) at the University of Arizona.
Dr. Nunamaker was inducted into the Design Science Hall of Fame, May 2008. Dr. Nunamaker
received the LEO Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Association of Information Systems
(AIS) at ICIS in Barcelona, Spain, December 2002. He was elected a fellow of the AIS in 2000 and
featured in the July 1997 Forbes Magazine issue on technology as one of eight key innovators in
information technology.
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Paul A. Pavlou
Professor of Information Systems,
Marketing, and Management
Stauffer Senior Research Fellow
Fox School of Business
Temple University
Year Degree Major
2004
1999
1998
1998
Institution
PhD
Information Systems University of Southern California
Masters
Electrical Engineering University of Southern California
Bachelors Electrical Engineering Rice University
Management
Biography
Paul A. Pavlou is a Professor of Management Information Systems, Marketing, and Strategic
Management and a Stauffer Senior Research Fellow at the Fox School of Business at Temple
University. His research focuses on e-commerce strategy, digital business strategy, and the
development of research methods. Paul was ranked first in the world in publications in the two
top MIS journals (MISQ and ISR) in 2011 and second in 2010.
His research has appeared in MISQ, ISR, JMIS, JAIS, JAMS, CACM, and Decision Sciences, among
others. His work has been cited over 2,000 times by the Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) of
the Institute of Scientific Information (ISI) and over 8,750 times by Google Scholar.
25
Viswanath Venkatesh
Distinguished Professor and George and
Boyce Billingsley Chair in Information
Systems
Department of Information Systems,
Walton College of Business
University of Arkansas
Year Degree Major
1997
1993
1991
Institution
PhD
Information and Decision Sciences University of Minnesota
Masters
Information Systems
Temple University
Bachelors Computer Science and Engineering Bharathiar University India
Biography
Viswanath Venkatesh, who completed his PhD at the University of Minnesota in 1997, is a
Professor and the first holder of the George and Boyce Billingsley Chair in Information Systems
at the Walton College of Business, University of Arkansas, where he has been since June 2004.
Prior to joining Arkansas, he was on the faculty at the University of Maryland. In addition to
presenting his work at universities across the world, he has held many visiting appointments at
universities around the world.
His research focuses on understanding the diffusion of technologies in organizations and
society. For over a decade, he has worked with several companies and government agencies in
different capacities ranging from a systems engineer to a special consultant to the VicePresident, and has rigorously studied real world phenomena. Recently, he served on an expert
panel at the United Nations on the advancement of women.
26
James C. Wetherbe
Robert Stevenson Chaired Professor of
Information Technology
Jerry S Rawls College of Business
Texas Tech University
Year Degree Major
Institution
1976
Texas Tech University
1973
1971
PhD
Management Information Systems, Organizational
Behavior and Computer Science Management
Masters
Management Information Systems
Bachelors Management/Systems Analysis
Texas Tech University
New Mexico State
University
Biography
Ph.D. in Management Information Systems, Organizational Behavior, and Computer Science
with over 40 years experience in academia and industry. Experience includes professorial and
administrative positions in higher education including the Universities of Minnesota, Memphis,
Houston, and Texas Tech; and management positions with computing, energy, and consulting
companies. Rated as one of the top 20 consultants and lecturers on MIS by Information Week,
also ranked as one of the 20 most influential scholars in the field. Co-recipient of the first MIS
Quarterly Distinguished Scholar Award, author or co-author of 33 books (including multiple
editions) and widely published in top journals with over 7,500 citations. Brought in over $15
million in funded research during academic career. Served on the Board of several major
corporations including Best Buy and CIBER. Honored as Distinguished alumnus of Texas Tech
and New Mexico State Universities and in the Hall of Fame of New Mexico State University.
27
Andrew B. Whinston
Professor of Information Systems and
Economics
Hugh Roy Cullen Centennial Chair in
Business Administration
Director, Center for Research in Electronic
Commerce
McCombs School of Business
The University of Texas at Austin
Year Degree Major Institution
1962
1960
1957
PhD
Masters
Bachelors
Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University
University of Michigan
Biography
Andrew B. Whinston is the Hugh Roy Cullen Centennial Chair in Business Administration,
Professor of Information Systems, Computer Science and Economics, John Newton Centennial
IC2 Fellow, and Director of the Center for Research in Electronic Commerce at The University of
Texas at Austin. He is editor of the journals Decision Support Systems and Organizational
Computing, and Electronic Commerce, and co-author or co-editor of 23 books and over 250
articles. Recent research interest is the area of electronic commerce.
28
Robert Zmud
George Lynn Cross Research Professor
Emeritus
Price College of Business
University of Oklahoma
Year Degree Major
1974
1970
1968
Institution
PhD
Management
University of Arizona
Masters
Management Information Systems Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Bachelors Aerospace Engineering
University of Virginia
Biography
Robert Zmud is George Lynn Cross Research Professor Emeritus in the Michael F. Price College
of Business at the University of Oklahoma. He is a recipient of: the AIS LEO Award, fellow
awards by DSI, AIS and INFORMS Information Systems Society; and, the OCIS (Academy of
Management) Lifetime Service Award. He has served as EIC of MISQ, as SE with ISR, OS, JAIS,
and MISQE, and as ICIS General Chair (1994) and Program Chair (1986). He holds a Ph.D. from
the University of Arizona, a M.S. from MIT, and a Bachelors of Aerospace Engineering from the
University of Virginia.
29
Vladimir Zwass
Gregory Olsen Endowed Chair and
University Distinguished Professor of
Computer Science and Management
Information Systems
Fairleigh Dickinson University
Year Degree Major
Institution
PhD
Computer Science
Columbia University
Masters
Electrical Engineering
Bachelors
Biography
Dr. Zwass holds a PhD in Computer Science from Columbia University. He is the Editor-in-Chief
of the Journal of Management Information Systems, a leading journal in the field. He is also the
Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Electronic Commerce, the top-ranked scholarly
journal in the area of E-commerce. The series of Advances in Management Information Systems
monographs, of which Dr. Zwass is Editor-in-Chief, aims to codify the knowledge and the
research methods in the MIS domain.
Vladimir Zwass is the author of six books, of which the most recent is Foundations of
Information Systems. He is also the author of a number of papers in various journals and book
chapters, including sections of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. His foundational publications
center on organizational memory and electronic commerce.
30