Theoretically Speaking

The MIS Quarterly has always had a strong focus on building and testing theory. In this regard, most research articles published in the MIS Quarterly have proposed a theory and then tested it either in whole or in part. In the June 1998 issue of the MIS Quarterly, however, Bob Zmud as then Editor-in-Chief issued a call for pure-theory submissions: research article submissions that had the sole purpose of articulating a theory of some information systemsor information technology-related phenomena (http://www.misq.org/ archivist/vol/no22/issue2/edstat.html#pure). Empirical research would not be a feature of such submissions. As a model for theory-only submissions, Bob pointed to articles published in the Academy of Management Review, a management journal devoted solely to publishing pure-theory papers. Implicit in Bob’s editorial comments was the need for theory-only submissions to relate to the MIS Quarterly’s mission— namely, publication of high-quality research about “both the management of information technology and the use of information technology for managerial and organizational purposes” (http://www.misq.org/).