An investigation of the information center from the user's perspective

Author Highlights for the Past 35 Years

This essay reviews leading contributions to The DATA BASE for Advances in Information Systems over the past 35 years, both in terms of identifying leading scholars who published most frequently in the journal as well as papers that have been cited most frequently. Using standard scientometric methods, I identify the leading authors who published five or more papers since 1982. In terms of analyzing highly cited papers, I organize the analysis into four time periods of nine years each, a structure that reveals that The DATA BASE has been a longstanding venue for IS scholars to introduce their early work - whether conceptual or empirical. Notably, several esteemed IS scholars published early conceptual versions of their ideas in The DATA BASE - often many years before they followed up with related work in other journals. In terms of highly cited papers, the analysis in this essay also reveals that The DATA BASE shifted toward publishing empirical papers after 1990 and, despite the prevalence of positivist, quantitative research during the past 25 years, qualitative research has also become prominent in the journal. More recently, the journal has also featured several literature review papers on important topic areas, such as virtual teams, technostress, IT outsourcing, and IT security. This essay reviews leading contributions to The DATA BASE for Advances in Information Systems over the past 35 years, both in terms of identifying leading scholars who published most frequently in the journal as well as papers that have been cited most frequently. Using standard scientometric methods, I identify the leading authors who published five or more papers since 1982. In terms of analyzing highly cited papers, I organize the analysis into four time periods of nine years each, a structure that reveals that The DATA BASE has been a longstanding venue for IS scholars to introduce their early work - whether conceptual or empirical. Notably, several esteemed IS scholars published early conceptual versions of their ideas in The DATA BASE - often many years before they followed up with related work in other journals. In terms of highly cited papers, the analysis in this essay also reveals that The DATA BASE shifted toward publishing empirical papers after 1990 and, despite the prevalence of positivist, quantitative research during the past 25 years, qualitative research has also become prominent in the journal. More recently, the journal has also featured several literature review papers on important topic areas, such as virtual teams, technostress, IT outsourcing, and IT security.

End-user training methods

End-User Training (EUT) has enjoyed a rich tradition of research in Information Systems. However, with the growing pace of change in technology and the dynamic nature of business, organizations are spending an increasing amount of money on end-user training. Training methods are also changing with little research to support new approaches. Thus, extensive research is required in the future. To be credible, end-user training research should preserve and build upon the significant literature that exists, both in IS and Education. This paper provides a review of EUT literature focusing on training methods. It summarizes research findings, while pointing out key future research issues.

The effect of expertise on software selection

Selection of hardware and software is a complicated task involving the consideration of multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) as well as the expertise of the decision maker. Two MCDM studies examined whether or not expertise in database management systems (DBMS) would facilitate selection among DBMS alternatives. The results of the first study suggest that (I) experts seemed to exhibit more agreement on criterion weights than did novices, (2) experts were about twice as consistent in applying the weights they assigned to the choice task compared to novices, (3) novices tended to rate criteria with scores that were closer to the neutral midpoint than did experts, and (4) experts made different choices than did novices. Consistency was assessed using two different quantitative measures; one was based on ordinality and the other on position. In the second study, concurrent verbal protocols showed that experts tended to bring their own experience to the choice task, were distracted less frequently, and used superior strategies in elimination of weakest alternatives. This implies that staff members with significant domain expertise should be used in DBMS acquisition tasks. Future research should determine whether or not these findings generalize to other task domains.

Quality end user-developed applications

This article examines the dimension of quality in end user-developed applications. Quality is defined as the degree to which an application of "high grade" accomplishes or attains its goal from the perspective of the user. We propose a definition for "quality" as a combination of end user information satisfaction and application utilization. We then discuss three measurement instruments that were developed to capture the dimensions of quality and assess their psychometric properties.

Organizational issues of end-user computing

End-user computing environments are rapidly growing in many organizations. This growth is due primarily to the proliferation of microcomputers and the availability of user-friendly software. However, the end-user computing environment is still poorly understood by practitioners, academics, and vendors. Most managers agree that a basic understanding of the end-user computing environment is necessary in order to effectively manage it. This article attempts to define the scope of the end-user computing and integrate a variety of publications into a common research framework. Several managerial frameworks are presented which address the risks of end-user development. Finally, implications are drawn from the available literature in order to provide managerial direction to firms with growing end-user computing environments.

Information systems strategy and end-user application development

End-user computing in organizations with different information systems strategies was studied to determine the nature and characteristics of user-developed applications, systems development practices, quality assurance methods, and policies and procedures for end-user development. The findings showed that the information systems strategies of the firms studied did not markedly affect end-user computing activities. In most of these firms, strategic end-user systems were being designed by functional specialists, suggesting their role as catalysts for introducing strategic uses of information technology in user departments in which computing had been primarily valuable for operational efficiency in the past. Formal systems development practices such as data validation, documentation, and data security were not being followed, indicating a need for user training. Although policies and procedures for hardware and software acquisition were in effect, users were largely unaware of policies or guidelines addressing application development issues.