The Intellectual Development of HCI Research in MIS: A Survey of the MIS Literature (1990-2002)

Abstract

As one of the five research streams of the Management Information Systems (MIS) discipline, Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) was predicted to resurge in the postmillennium era. To date, however, few studies have either synthesized existing studies or drawn an overarching picture of this sub-discipline. This study delineates the intellectual development of HCI research in MIS by a multifaceted assessment of the published HCI articles over a period of 13 years (1990-2002) in seven prime MIS journals: MISQ, ISR, JMIS, Decision Sciences, Management Science, DATA BASE, and JAIS. Twenty-two specific questions are addressed to answer the following five general research questions about the HCI sub-discipline: (1) What constitutes its intellectual substance? (2) What relationships does it have with other disciplines? (3) What are its recent evolutions? (4) What are the patterns of publishing HCI studies in the primary MIS journals? And, (5) Who are its contributing members? We use classification approach to address these questions. Descriptive analyses, including co-occurrence and cross-facet analyses, depict the key relationships. Trend analyses demonstrate recent evolutions. We present a number of areas for future research, along with a discussion of potential future directions for the sub-discipline. This study should be of interest to researchers in this sub-discipline, in the MIS discipline, and in other related disciplines for future research, collaboration, publication, and education. It should also be of interest to doctoral students to identify potential research topics for dissertation research and to identify academic institutions for future employment where such research is understood, appreciated, and encouraged.

Keywords: Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Human Factors in Information Systems (HFIS), scientific fields, intellectual development, literature assessment, subject topics, research methods, study contexts, individual characteristics, levels of analysis, contributing disciplines, IT and service, Management