History of the Information Systems and Innovation Faculty Research Group

Pioneering the study of information studies at LSE

At LSE, teaching and research in information systems started in the 1960s when Gordon Foster, a professor of statistics applied and got one of two £30,000 grants offered by the National Computing Centre (NCC) to promote the study of information systems (Imperial College received the other grant).  With Gordon Foster’s supervision, in 1967 Patrick Alfred Losty completed the PhD thesis “The computer and Management structures” – one of the first PhDs in the IS field. With the NCC grant, in 1968 the School appointed Frank Land as Research Fellow in Management and LSE computer services manager (Bryant and Land 2021).

Frank Land had 16 years of experience in the pioneering team that developed LEO, the first computer for business operations and first commercial computer services (Bryant and Land 2020). With that experience, Frank Land understood the development of information systems as an innovation that involved more than the construction of computer applications. It involved the implementation of changes of work and management practices. This understanding set the foundation of the perspective of information systems as sociotechnical systems rather than technology artefacts and this sociotechnical perspective continues to underpin IS research and teaching at LSE.

Information Systems unit in the Department of Statistics and Mathematical Sciences (1968-1991)

Sociotechnical IS scholarship and teaching were established at LSE in the 1970s with the creation of an IS faculty unit in the then Department of Statistical and Mathematical Sciences (SAMS). In addition to Frank Land, influential appointments during that decade included Sandy Douglas as professor of Computational Methods, Sam Waters with expertise in systems analysis and design, and Ronald Stamper who developed a theory of semiotics for systems design and a computer language for expressing rules (Stamper 1973; Stamper 1978).

In the early 1970s, a graduate diploma programme was designed for students from the Civil Service College. Later, the IS unit launched the MSc Analysis, Design and Management of Information Systems (ADMIS), a diploma in IS, and a specialization of the BSc Economics degree in Computing.

The PhD programme in IS was also launched in the 1970s. Despite being part of SAMS, the IS PhD programme fostered mostly qualitative research with an interpretivist epistemology. Among the first who graduated from this PhD programme are well-known IS scholars, including Richard Baskerville, Rudy Hirschheim, Bob Galliers, Bay Arinze and Oscar Guiterrez.

ADMIS student numbers grew in the 1980s and that allowed the expansion of the IS unit with the appointment of Rudy Hirschheim, Tony Cornford, Steve Smithson, George Doukidis, Chrisanthi Avgerou, Jonathan Liebenau, and Ray Paul who moved from the Operational Research to the IS unit of SAMS.

IS research at LSE acquired international reputation as a major contributor to the European sociotechnical systems development school of thought that was founded by, among others, Frank Land, Enid Mumford and Peter Checkland in the UK, Börje Langefors at Stockholm University, Kristen Nygaard at the University of Oslo, Niels Bjorn-Andersen at Copenhagen Business School. 

Yet, the research strength of the IS unit was questioned within LSE. Frank Land writes: “…  many academics at LSE were suspicious of IS. I am not sure that they really understood what it involved as an academic study. In 1986, one of my colleagues applied for promotion/tenure and was turned down, bringing into question not only the merits of the application itself but also of the entire academic value of IS.” (Bryant and Land 2021, p. 45). Frank Land left LSE for a 5-year professorial contract at the London Business School (LBS). Tony Cornford followed him with a position at LBS, but he came back to LSE two years later. Rudy Hirschheim left for a position at Oxford university (Templeton College). 

Ian Angell was then appointed as IS professor. He was a mathematician with a PhD in algebraic number theory and notable for his research in computer graphics. It was expected that with Ian Angell’s leadership, the IS unit will shift its research towards computer science. But in the following 20 years as professor at LSE, Ian Angell’s teaching and publications shifted focus on the social and organizational aspects of information systems which he came to consider decisive for successful technology innovation: “[E]ven the very best investment in new technology can be a source of commercial risk, if the societal aspects are not managed properly”.

Information Systems Department (1991-2007)

In 1991 the disciplinary units of SAMS became Departments in their own right. ADMIS, the flagship programme of the IS Department, attracted increasing numbers of international students. The IS PhD programme also grew in numbers and its weekly seminars became the centre of the new Department’s research environment. The undergraduate BSc Econ Computing specialization and the postgraduate diplomas were discontinued.

Ronald Stamper left LSE for a professorial position at the University of Twente. Frank Land returned to LSE, which he said he preferred from LBS as an academic environment (Bryant and Land 2021). Initially he was visiting professor and later became emeritus professor, a post he continues to hold. Moreover, with several lecturer appointments, the Department acquired breadth of expertise in emerging technologies (Edgar Whitley, James Backhouse, Angeliki Poulymenakou, Dimitris Tsoubelis, Marios Angelides, Julika Matravers, and Carsten Sorensen) and deeper knowledge of social theories (Susan Scott, Lucas Introna, Shirin Madon, Nathalie Mitev). By the end of the decade, some of these scholars left for positions in universities that offered faster career progression than LSE, spreading the sociotechnical perspective within which they were nurtured at LSE to other universities.  For example, George Doukidis and Angeliki Poulymenakou were instrumental in the development of sociotechnical IS research and teaching at the newly formed Department of Business and Technology at Athens University of Economics and Business (AUEB).

The LSE IS faculty made important contributions to the institutional development of the IS field. In the 1980s Frank Land had played an important role in the formation of the Technical Committee on Information Systems of the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP TC8) and chaired the IFIP working group WG 8.2 which studies the Interaction of Information Systems and the Organization. In the 1990s, the WG 8.2 conferences became the prime forum of the field for sociotechnical theoretical debate, with regular and notable contributions from LSE PhD researchers and faculty.

Also, LSE IS faculty pioneered research on IT and socio-economic development and played a leading role in the IFIP Working Group that studies The Implications of Information and Digital Technologies for Development (WG 9.4). One of the first PhD students in this sub-field of IS, Mayuri Odedra, served as Secretary of the Group in its formative first eight years (1987-1995). Later, Chrisanthi Avgerou chaired the IFIP Working Group 9.4 (1995-2003) and Shirin Madon served as Secretary of the Group. Chrisanthi Avgerou also chaired the IFIP Technical Committee 9 on Social Impact of IT (2005-2011).

Edgar Whitley played a leading role in the launching of the European Conference of Information Systems (ECIS). Ray Paul successfully negotiated with the Operational Research Society their sponsorship of the publication of the European Journal of Information Systems, and Jonathan Liebenau and Steve Smithson were the first Editors in Chief. Chrisanthi Avgerou served as councillor for Europe, Middle East, and Africa of the newly formed Association for Information Systems (AIS) in 1995-97.

Recognising the importance of the area of expertise of the Department, the sociologist Tony Giddens who became LSE Director in 1996, took the decision to make two high profile professorial appointments. Claudio Ciborra and Bob Galliers added complementary strengths to the Department, consolidated its position within LSE, and elevated its international reputation. Claudio Ciborra brought unparalleled in the IS field theory development capabilities, and Bob Galliers re-invigorated the PhD programme - although he stayed only three years and, in 2002, he joined Bentley University in the US as Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs.

As Head of Department, Claudio Ciborra presided a shift of the traditional sociotechnical perspective that informed the practices of systems development and management of IT in organizations towards engagement with social theory that produced more abstract sociotechnical theory about the nature of information systems and their organizational and social impact. The appointment of Jannis Kallinikos, whose research focused on the social, economic and cultural consequences of the growing involvement of information in organizations brought about by IT, bolstered the theory development orientation of the Department.

In the first half of the 2000s, the IS Department had a vibrant research environment, confident in its place in the international IS field as a theory development hub and enjoying recognition as an important social science field within LSE. It produced a series of research books (Avgerou 2002; Avgerou et al. 2004; Ciborra 2002; Kallinikos 2006) and launched an annual research workshop on the Social Study of IT attracting international attendance that lasted till the COVID 19 pandemic in 2020. ADMIS and the PhD programmes continued to attract highly competent students from all over the world. ADMIS cohorts had students from between 40 to 50 nationalities. New lecturer appointments were made: Antonio Cordella, Ela Klecun and Will Venters.

With a 16 member-strong faculty, the IS Department conducted research on the substantive areas of the development of enterprise information systems infrastructure and organizational change, IT in health care, IT and socio-economic change in developing countries, IT and public sector reform, and privacy. Most importantly, it enjoyed an international reputation as a major contributor to theory about interactions between information technologies (IT) and socially embedded individual actors, which is considered “an axis of cohesion for the IS field” (Sarker et al. 2019).

But the second half of the 2000s brought unprecedented challenges. The untimely death of Claudio Ciborra in 2005 happened at the time the School was about to realise its long-standing ambition to create substantial capabilities for the study of Management. A discipline-based Department of Management was created in 2007 by merging a number of existing departments, including IS. The IS Department voluntarily joined the Department of Management, becoming one of its constituent Groups. Leslie Willcocks, who was a new professor in the IS Department, appointed just before its incorporation into the Management Department, represented the IS Group in the formative negotiations that determined its standing within LSE. 

Information Systems and Innovation Faculty Group in the Department of Management (since 2007)

At the time of the formation of the Department of Management, IS was the largest group while other areas of management, notably marketing, organizational behaviour, and strategy, were either missing or very limited and the Department emphasised growth in those areas.  The perceived priorities of the new Department did not favour the group with its object of study not seen as central to the intellectual pre-occupations of management practice and research. Also, the Group’s interpretive qualitative research orientation set it apart all other Groups in the department and its theory development orientation was not appreciated by colleagues most of whom were dedicated to rigorous quantitative empirical research. The IS group lost faculty and battled against objections to promotion nominations within the Department.

Additionally, wider international trends of the IS field, and the social sciences more generally, presented challenges for the Group. First, there was at that time decreasing demand for IS specialization in Business Schools and their MBAs. This lower demand started being noticeable in ADMIS applications too and LSE questioned the ability of ADMIS to continue admitting over one hundred students a year without compromising student quality. Second, increasing importance was attributed to journal metrics and publishing in the ‘right’ journals.  The publication of books as the main research output strategy of the IS Department in the early 2000s wasn’t sustainable in a context of international academic unit assessments by journal metrics.

The Group responded by re-designing its Masters’ programme. The curriculum was updated to introduce emphasis on digital innovation and the emerging digital technologies, and the Management of Information Systems and Innovation (MISDI) programme replaced ADMIS. The Group changed its name too to Information Systems and innovation (ISI).  These updates resulted in MISDI becoming one of the strongest specialist MSc programmes at the School, attracting highly qualified students from around the world.

The group strengthened its skills for publishing in top journals and continued to make remarkable research contributions. It produced influential publications (See for example, Leonardi et al. 2012; Scott and Orlikowski 2014; Tilson et al. 2010) and retained its reputation as an international IS theory hub. These were recognised by the School in promotions and by professorial appointment offers to IS faculty in other renowned universities: Edgar Whitley is now Professor in Practice in the IS Faculty Group of the Department of Management, Susan Scott became professor at LSE and left for a position at Imperial College in 2024, Jannis Kallinikos who had become professor at LSE left for a position in Luiss, Rome, and Carsten Sorensen became Professor of Digitalization at Copenhagen Business School.

In addition to producing high quality publications, ISI scholars have made significant policy contributions, for example, Edgar Whitley’s work as the research coordinator for the LSE Identity Project was the research coordinator of the influential LSE Identity Project on the UK’s proposals to introduce biometric identity cards; proposals that were scrapped following the 2010 General Election.

The intellectual environment of the ISI Faculty Group benefited from senior visiting appointments, including Allan S. Lee, M. Lynne Markus, John Leslie King, Mary Lacity, Saonee Sarker, Suprateek Sarker Monideepa Tarafdar and Youngjin Yoo. Crucially important new appointments (Aaron Cheng, Anuschka Schmitt, Tomislav Karačić) added empirical and theoretical strength to the Group’s research on emerging technologies. Moreover, Aaron Cheng and Anuschka Schmitt brought quantitative skills, changing the exclusively interpretive epistemological identity of the Group, while retaining the sociotechnical focus that make teaching and research contributions of IS al LSE internationally distinctive.

References

Avgerou, C. 2002. Information Systems and Global Diversity. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Avgerou, C., Ciborra, C., and Land, F. (eds.). 2004. The Social Study of Information and Communication Technology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Bryant, A., and Land, F. 2020. "A 'Conversation' between Frank Land (Fl) and Antony Bryant (Ab): Part I," Journal of Information Technology (35 4), pp. 361-375.

Bryant, A., and Land, F. 2021. "A 'Conversation' between Frank Land [Fl] and Antony Bryant [Ab] - : Part 2," Journal of Information Technology (36:1), pp. 39-55.

Ciborra, C. U. 2002. The Labyrinths of Information: Challenging the Wisdom of Systems. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Kallinikos, J. 2006. The Consequences of Information: Institutional Implications of Technological Change. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

Leonardi, P. M., Nardi, B. A., and Kallinikos, J. 2012. Materiality and Organizing. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Sarker, S., Chatterjee, S., Xiao, X., and Elbanna, A. 2019. "The Sociotechnical Axis of Cohesion for the Is Discipline: Its Historical Legacy and Its Continued Relevance," MIS Quarterly (43:3), pp. 695-719.

Scott, S. V., and Orlikowski, W. 2014. "Entanglements in Practice: Performing Anonymity through Social Media," MIS Quarterly (38:3), pp. 873-893.

Stamper, R. K. 1973. Information in Business and Administrative Systems. London: Wiley.

Stamper, R. K. 1978. "Aspects of Data Semantics: Names, Species and Complex Physical Objects," in: Conference of the European Cooperation in Informatics.

Tilson, D., Lyytinen, K., and Sørensen, C. 2010. "Digital Infrastructures: The Missing Is Research Agenda," Information Systems Research (21:5), pp. 748-759.