An Anatomy of European Information Systems Research: The First 20 Years of the European Conference on Information Systems

While the IS community is increasingly international, there is evidence to suggest that different elements of the community have different research and publication orientations, interests and expectations. This paper contributes to this discussion by further developing the profile of European Information Systems (IS) research that was reported on following the first ten years of the European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS). It is timely, in that ECIS celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. As with the earlier articles, this paper reflects on European IS research, as presented at ECIS, but this time it concentrates on the second decade, in comparison with the first. Based on an analysis of all papers published in ECIS proceedings during the period 2003-2012, the paper highlights key research topics, research approaches adopted and key references used by ECIS authors. By comparing these data with the first ten years of ECIS (i.e., the period 1993-2002), it provides some evidence of emerging (and declining) trends over the 20-year history of ECIS.