Investigating the Role of Value Creation in Information Systems Relevance

The purpose of this paper is to provide an explanation towards achievement of relevance in the field of Information Systems (IS) by pointing out the critical role of value creation amongst the various stakeholder groups. The research approach was positivistic in its orientation. A survey of IS Lecturers, IS under graduate and postgraduate students and IS practitioners was conducted, with 311 respondents. Questions focused mainly on current and future perceptions of IS value as well as respondent opinions on the value creation strategies that are critical in ensuring IS relevance amongst the various stakeholders. Descriptive statistical analysis was employed to explore the perceptions of the various respondents on the issue of IS relevance and value creation as an antecedent. The findings support the view that the IS discipline needs to focus more of its efforts on improving delivery of application knowledge and research whilst at the same time emphasizing less on other knowledge types such as theoretical and technical knowledge. Furthermore specific aspects of IS knowledge and research such as its usefulness and its transferability need greater attention.