THE FACTORS INFLUENCING THE EVOLUTION OF AN INFORMATION SYSTEM AND THEIR IMPACTS: FROM THE INTRANET TO ADVANCED INFORMATION SYSTEMS

摘要

Information systems evolve through the following phrases: invention, development, innovation, transfer, growth, competition, and consolidation (Hughes, 1987). Yet, scholars from the information science discipline tend to focus on the development phrase only, studying user's information seeking behavior and improving system information retrieval algorithms. Neglected alone is the context where information systems are developed and used, not to mention the factors contributing to the evolution of information systems. Consequently, the necessity for the Information Science discipline to incorporate with other disciplines, such as Computer Science and Management Information Systems, is less manifested. The practical applications of studies of Information Science are limited, so are their impacts. To tackle such a problematic research phenomenon and discover potential research directions for information scientists, this study identifies the potential factors that are likely to influence the evolution of information systems and creates a conceptual model that describes the interactions among those factors. The conceptual model takes into account the requirements for information behavior and system structure and the changes as feedback for adjusting those requirements, in the both organization and individual levels. As an example, the Intranet technologies and their information system applications are used to illustrate the developed conceptual model. The significance of this study is multi-dimensional. First, it develops a macro view of information system evolution to inspire research interests. Second, it helps raise the awareness of current information technology with the illustration of the Intranet technologies. Finally, it promotes the interdisciplinary studies as a pragmatic approach of studying the information age.