Research
What is information systems (IS) success? How do we measure it? What key factors contribute to systems success? Even before I started on an academic career path these were key issues that intrigued me, when I worked in industry. My educational background placed me in job situations that involved quite a bit of interaction with information systems, but somehow, these systems never seemed to fully satisfy my needs as a knowledge worker. On the other hand, the information systems department folks always raved about how good these systems were. Obviously there was a cognitive gap between users and developers as to what constituted systems success.
So my natural drift in my academic career was towards understanding the information formation systems construct. My primary research agenda is focused around the information systems (IS) success nomological network proposed by DeLone and McLean (Information Systems Research 1992, Journal of MIS 2003), that measures success along six key constructs namely information quality, system quality, service quality, system utilization/usage, user satisfaction, and net benefits. At present my focus is on behavioral issues within the information systems organization (with consequent impact on systems quality) and the information systems usage construct. The IS usage research stream is further along the road than the former. I am particularly interested in the usage of Internet technologies by various stakeholders in the health care sector for obtaining or disseminating medical information. My slant in this stream is more towards social computing than organizational computing, as individuals seems to have a better handle on how to generate or obtain medical information than organization.
Key publications from my primary research stream are listed below. As always with academics, there are numerous other research streams that capture my attention every now and then, leading to other projects and publications.
“Internet Usage for Information Provisioning: Theoretical Construct Development and Empirical Validation in the Clinical Decision-Making Context,” IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, February 2006, Vol. 53 Issue 1, pages 112-129, with Arun Rai, and Arkalgud Ramaprasad.
“Neo-Tribes: The Power and Potential of Online Communities in Health Care,” Communications of the ACM, Jan 2006, Vol. 49 Issue 1, pages 107-113.