Information Technology-Enabled Transformation: Research That Bridges the Functional Divide

The field of information systems can do more to clarify the significance of its research in relation to other management disciplines. Few external stakeholders, including faculty in other fields, deans, practitioners, senior managers, and policy makers, are able to identify common topics in IS research, and fewer still know what it is that draws IS researchers to a particular problem or an unexplained phenomenon. This panel considers the proposition that understanding IT-driven transformations is one of the core themes of the IS research field. The panel focuses on the role that research on IT-enabled transformations can play in offering a compelling story about the field and its scholarly and practical contributions. Because IT-enabled transformations inevitably influence and are influenced by a range of environmental and contextual factors, these phenomena cannot be examined in isolation and must necessarily draw upon theories and insights developed in other functional disciplines. Transformations are non- incremental, leap-frogging advances in the use of IT that reshape markets, radically alter cost structures, and lead to entirely new digital products. Focusing on the role of research in knowing what gives rise to IT-enabled transformations (and how various players and organizations will succeed or are disrupted) bridges the different areas of IS research, and offers the most compelling story about our field to those outside it