Choice of Target Audience for IS Research: Reflections on Discussions with IS Academic Leaders in the UK

摘要

The IS field prides itself on its closeness to practice and needs to ensure its relevance under growing pressures from governments and business for improved utilisation of research results. In this paper we consider choice-making in the research activity from the perspective of Resource-Dependence Theory, with a particular focus on the choice of target audience for research results. IS academic leaders in UK universities were interviewed to gain insights into the influences affecting their choices, taking a broad view of the research context and process, the researchers themselves, and the stakeholders of IS research. The paper aims to provide insights for IS researchers as they reflect on their own individual practice of research and to encourage the explicit inclusion of Resource-Dependence Theory into stakeholder analysis within IS theory. For practitioners it should provide some illumination on the world of academia.