A Taxonomy of Classification Approaches in IS Research

Even though the word classification appears in a number of publications in high ranking information systems (IS) journals, few discussions on the fundamental aspects regarding classification could be found. Most IS scholars intuitively embrace some classification approach as a fundamental activity in their research but without considering what classification entails. This paper reports on an investigation into classification, how classification is used within science and disciplines related to IS, as well as how it is approached within IS research itself. The main contribution of the paper is a proposed taxonomy of classification approaches (ToCA) that was validated by classifying classification approaches in relevant publications in three IS journals. ToCA provides a language for scholars to describe and comment, as well as understand the impact of the diverse adoption of classification approaches within IS research