从数据处理到区块链网络--信息系统领域研究的回顾与展望

From Data Processing to Blockchain Networking A Recount and Projection of Information Systems Research

自1953年国际商业机器有限公司(IBM)售出第一台大型计算机以来,七十年岁月变迁已使得人类社会成为一个高度依赖网络化计算系统的信息社会。随着算力的提升,信息系统(IS)在商学与管理学中的地位越来越重要,它在为其他管理学子学科做出贡献的同时,也深入发掘着自身的商业价值。与此同时,信息技术(IT)维系企业生存发展之基、构筑竞争优势之源,也成为一家企业基业长青的必要条件之一。在本文中,通过对顶刊文献进行主题分析,我们详细讨论了信息系统领域研究自20世纪80年代萌发以来的演变。结果表明,信息系统相关研究历经数次变革,在此期间,研究者们的背景学科在发生改变,支持研究的基础技术也在不断精进。从基础的数据处理到系统开发、客户-服务器网络、电子商务、三代互联网(1.0、2.0、3.0),再到区块链,每一次技术演进都催生出与之相应的独特研究问题,吸引着信息系统领域研究者的目光,并促使其更新自身的研究理论与方法。以史为镜,以古鉴今。我们相信,本文研究的内容能为信息系统及其相关领域的研究新人提供一定程度的指引和启迪。

In the past seventy years since the sale of the first mainframe computer by IBM in 1953,the world have become an information society that relies on networked computing systems in all aspects of work and life.Along with the evolution of computing,Information Systems have become an indispensable discipline in business and management that serves the needs of other managerial disciplines and performs its business functions.Further information technology(IT)has become a sine qua non for the survival of a business and a source of much competitive advan-tage.Without advanced IT systems,an organization cannot survive for long today.In this paper,we recount and evaluate the evolution of Information Systems research since its infancy in the 1980s by empirically analyzing the research that has been published in leading academic journals.We found that research in Information Systems has evolved through several stages.During this e-volution the basic disciplines from which researchers have drawn have also shifted considerably.Over this period the underlying technology support for the research has also developed enormously from simple data processing to systems development,client-server networks,electronic com-merce,several generations of the Web(10,20 and 30)and blockchain.Each new technology generation has spawned its own unique set of research issues and in turn influenced the research a-genda of the scholars in the IS field in terms of research topics,methods,and theories.History offers a mirror to the past and a lesson for the present,and thus we believe that the results of this study should provide instructional value for new researchers such as doctoral students in Informa-tion Systems and other related disciplines.