SBA MIS research ranked among top in country

The faculty members who make up OU’s SBA Decision and Information Sciences department are dedicated to research, and together carry on an outstanding research tradition through exceptional productivity.

Independent organizations that identify and rank research work in the MIS field consistently recognize these contributions. In fact, the wealth of research projects and published findings completed by DIS faculty has led OU to be listed among the Top 100 business schools for MIS research by the University of Texas-Dallas School of Management for more than 15 years.

Thomas Lauer, DIS chair and an MIS professor, knew DIS had a strong commitment to research. It wasn’t until he saw the rankings, however, that he realized the breadth and depth of how the DIS department’s work impacts OU’s rankings as compared to other universities.

“Since the 1980s, a tradition of quality research developed in the department. Now we find good researchers are interested in working here,” Lauer said.

In fact, this year "Information Systems Research" (ISR), one of two premier journals in the MIS area, named Professor Balaji Rajagopalan’s research paper, “Competition Among Virtual Communities and User Valuation: The Case of Investing-Related Communities,” as its Best Published Paper.

Another example is a 1991 article by Associate Professor Kieren Mathieson, which is the fifth-most-cited article in the MIS field. “That is extraordinary,” Lauer said.

Also published in ISR, Mathieson’s article, “Predicting User Intentions: Comparing the Technology Acceptance Model with the Theory of Planned Behavior,” has been cited more than 200 times according to the 2007 article “Assessing Leading Institutions, Faculty, and Articles in Premier Information Systems Research Journals.” It appeared in "Communications of the Association for Information Systems" (AIS). 

AIS also lists OU as 25th in cumulative citation of articles published. A number of highly prestigious universities have lower cumulative citations than OU.

OU’s significant contribution to MIS research is also highlighted in a 2007 issue of "Information & Management, The International Journal of Information Systems Applications" (I&M). An article that provides a profile of information systems research published in I&M shows that OU is tied for 20th in publications in its journal for the period of 1992-2005. I&M is the oldest MIS journal and is consistently ranked among the top 15 journals in the field, occasionally in the top five.

“Our faculty members have published ten articles in I&M during that time period,” Lauer said. “This accomplishment is clearly due to the efforts of many in our department.”

The article also lists single individuals ranked by institution. The fact that OU has no one single researcher listed confirms Lauer’s view that this accomplishment it is truly a departmental effort.

One of the most telling signs of OU’s increasing strength in MIS research comes from a program offered by the University of Texas-Dallas School of Management. Its Web site, which ranks the Top 100 Business Schools based on research contributions, lists OU as 72nd among North America’s more than 500 business schools based on research contributions from 1990-2008 for two prestigious publications, ISR and MIS Quarterly (MISQ). OU has consistently appeared in the top 100 since 1990. From 1990-2007, OU ranked 83rd and from 2005-2008 it ranked 84th.

“Most schools that rank above OU have a doctoral program in MIS,” Lauer said. “This puts us ahead of Big 10 schools like Iowa, Northwestern, Purdue, Wisconsin and Ohio State for example, as well as Wayne State.”