Management Information Systems a model of mis, Leading Research, and Research Trends
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MIS Time TrendMIS related publications are divided into eight fields: Artificial Intelligence (AI), Collaboration (Coll), Data Management (DM), Decision Science and Operation Management (DS/OR), Economics of Informatics (Econ), Human Computer Interaction (HCI), Social Informatics (Soci. Info.), and System Analysis & Design (Sys. Anay.). The eight fields have different research focuses and use different research methodologies. The growth pattern and popularity, as a result, are very different among them. There are two questions we would like to answer in this time trend analysis: 1) What are the emerging fields and what are the fields that are losing attractiveness? 2) What is the popularity of these fields? That is, what are the fields that have more publication relative to other fields, and what are the fields that have fewer publications? To answer these two questions, we decide to look into the publication time trend of the eight fields. For each field, five sets of keywords are used to extract journal publications during each predefined five-year period: 1970-1974, 1975-1979, 1980-1984, 1985-1989, 1990-1994, 1995-1999, and 2000-2004. Journals contain the keywords in ABI/Inform database are counted. Academic publication itself is also growing. To control the effect of academic growth as a whole, number of publication during each time period is divided by the total number of journal publication during the same period. The figure we get in each field can be interpreted as the publication share for that field. The publication share time trend is summarized in Figure 1ta. From Figure 1ta, we can see that most fields in MIS have a steady trend of growth from 1970. Some fields like Decision Science and Operation Management, Artificial Intelligence, and Economics of Informatics have a temporal recession during 1990-1994. The reason, however, is not known. Besides small drop during 1990-1994, most fields (except System Analysis & Design) have a steady upward time trend. It means most subfields in MIS research are steadily growing. To have a better idea of what fields are growing faster than others, the growth rate of each subfield from 1980 to 2000 is calculated. The result is summarized in Figure 1tb. HCI, which grows more than 30% per year, is the fastest growing field in MIS research. Social Informatics, which enjoys annual publication share growth rate of more than 10%, comes in a second place. Collaboration and Data Management have similar growth rate of 7%. Economics of Informatics, Artificial Intelligence, and Decision Science & Operation Research have steady publication share through last 20 years (annual growth rate about 1%). System Analysis and Design is the only field that do not grow (annual growth rate is about negative 3 percents). The publication share during 2000-2004 is summarized in Figure 1tb. From the result, we can see that Decision Science and Operation Research is the most popular field (about 2.3% among all journal publications). Collaboration, Economics of Informatics, and Artificial Intelligence have similar share in publication (0.9% to 1.3%). Other fields (Social Informatics, Human Computer Interface, Data Management, and System Analysis and Design) have share of less then 0.5%. We use BCG Share-Growth Matrix to further position the eight fields in MIS research (Figure 1tc). For publication share dimension, the eight fields are sorted in descending order and fields of first four ranks are labeled as “high publication share”; the other four fields are labeled as “low publication share”. Similar procedure is used to label “high growth rate” and “low growth rate.” Collaboration has relative high publication share and high growth rate, so it is located in the star grid. A research field in star grid means it is a relatively popular field and new research topics are still being actively explored. DS/OR, AI, and Economics have high publication share and low growth rate, and therefore are located in “Cash Cow” grid. Research field in cash cow grid means it is relatively popular, but new research topics are not very easy to find. For a PhD student searching for future research topic, he should carefully consider the future growth of these fields. Social Informatics, HCI, and Data Management have high growth rate but low share. It is unclear that whether these fields are going to move to star grid in the future or fall into dog grid. The uncertainly of these fields is the concern. System Analysis and Design has both low share and low growth rate. It seems to be the field that is dwindling and does not have a clear future.
Artificial IntelligenceBackground
Artificial Intelligence is not only one of the most advanced and complex area of interest in today's world, but it is also one of the most unique. For nearly the past half-century, the field of AI has been of use, or of potential use, to nearly every field of study existent. This is primarily because AI researchers are more focusing on solving specific problems. Numerous solutions, concentrate on different ways of doing things, have been devised and improved; Different algorithms give different and new perspectives not only on how the task should be completed, but on the nature of the task itself. Since publication of Alan Turing’s famous Turing test, AI research has encompassed a variety of subfields such as learning and perception, knowledge management, information retrieval, and bioinformatics. | |||||||||
