Reviewing My Research Career of Four Decades: What I Got Right, What I Got Wrong, and What I Have Left to Do

Abstract

I will review my philosophical/epistemological perspective on the information systems discipline, my social/political strategy in pursuing research, my research efforts that did not pay off, and my plans for “wrapping up” my research programs.

Biography

Allen S. Lee is Professor Emeritus of Information Systems at Virginia Commonwealth University and Honorary Professor in the Discipline of Business Information Systems, The University of Sydney Business School. He was editor-in-chief of MIS Quarterly and a founding senior editor of MIS Quarterly Executive. His research program over more than three decades has involved identifying basic lessons from the philosophy and history of science and extending them, in the information systems discipline, to show not only how qualitative research can be done rigorously, but also how quantitative research equally needs to live up to the requirements of science. He is a Fellow of the Association for Information Systems, a member of the Circle of Compadres of the Information Systems and Sciences Doctoral Students Association (ISSDSA) of the PhD Project, and a founder of Chinese American Professors of Information Systems. In 2015, he received the LEO Award for “lifetime exceptional achievement in information systems” from the Association for Information Systems.