The Future of Academic MIS: Redux

Abstract

<p>As the quotes that preface this article indicate, predicting the future is tough. This article is about the future of the academic discipline called Management Information Systems, often referred to simply by the acronym MIS. Since the late 2000s, faculty who teach MIS and conduct research in this academic discipline have been concerned about issues like fluctuating enrollments, changing technologies, and concerns about the relevance of research in the discipline. This article begins by describing and examining the field of MIS in 2010, and then the analysis turns to a description of what the future looks like from the perspective of 2016. The next topic is the intellectual underpinnings of our field, with a focus on the broad research categories that have characterized MIS research in the past. This leads to a discussion of a series of research topics that are important today, to both academics and practitioners, and that will still be of great importance to both groups three to five to even 10 years in the future. The next section explores what is being published in top MIS journals currently, compared to which topics have been popular over the past few decades, and compared to the research topics identified as important now and in the future. The article ends with a few closing thoughts.</p>