webster & watson - How to write a LR - MISQ How To Write A Literature Review

Webster & Watson/Guest Editorial ANALYZING THE PAST TO PREPARE FOR THE FUTURE: WRITING A LITERATURE REVIEW By: Jane Webster Queen’s School of Business Queen’s University Kingston, ON K7L 3N6 CANADA [email protected] Richard T. Watson Terry College of Business The University of Georgia Athens, GA 30602-6273 U.S.A. [email protected] A review of prior, relevant literature is an essential feature of any academic project. An effective review creates a firm foundation for advancing knowledge. It facilitates theory development, closes areas where a plethora of research exists, and uncovers areas where research is needed. In the information systems (IS) field, we see few published review articles. As a result, the progress of our field is impeded. To address this concern, the MIS Quarterly launched MISQ Review several years ago. The clear intention was to accelerate the accumulation of IS knowledge. A particular goal was to advance the state of theory within the IS field. The stated purpose of MISQ Review is to …promote MIS research by publishing articles that conceptualize research areas and survey and synthesize prior research. These articles will provide important input in setting directions for future research.1 The lack of theoretical progress in the IS field may be surprising. From an empirical viewpoint, the IS field resembles other management fields. Specifically, as fields of inquiry develop, their theories are often placed on a hierarchy from ad hoc classification systems (in which categories are used to summarize empirical observations), to taxonomies (in which the relationships between the categories can be described), to conceptual frameworks (in which propositions summarize explanations and predictions), to theoretical systems (in which laws are contained within axiomatic or formal theories) (Parsons and Shils 1962). In its short history, IS research has developed from classification systems to conceptual frameworks. In the 1970s, it was considered pre-paradigmatic. Today, it is approaching the level of development in empirical research of other management fields, like organizational behavior (Webster 2001). However, unlike other fields that have journals devoted to review articles (e.g., the Academy of Management Review), we see few review articles in IS—and hence the creation of MISQ Review as a device for accelerating development of the discipline. One reason we see so few theoretical articles in IS relates to the youth of the field. Another concerns the complexity of assembling a review in an interdisciplinary field. That is, constructing a review is a chal- 1 http://www.misq.org/misreview/announce.html MIS Quarterly Vol. 26 No. 2, pp. xiii-xxiii/June 2002 xiii