The Concept of Creativity in the Information Systems Discipline: Past, Present, and Prospects

In 1993 Couger et al. stated in an MIS Quarterly article on creativity in information systems (IS) organizations that the topic of creativity is under-researched in the IS discipline. Is the subject of creativity—despite its undisputable importance for individuals, organizations, and societies—still a neglected area in IS research? In what contexts, with what methods, and with what results have IS researchers studied the phenomenon of creativity? And what creativity-related themes warrant further investigation? In this article we analyze, based on six analytical dimensions, IS studies on creativity published in the eight top-ranked IS journals as recommended by the Association for Information Systems. The analysis provides a detailed picture of how the concept of creativity has been treated in our discipline’s arguably most influential publication outlets. It becomes apparent that IS researchers have been predominantly employing a rather limited number of research designs aiming at a rather limited number of creativity-related topics. Grounded in our analysis, we discuss the prospects of creativity research in the IS discipline and provide a future research agenda. In doing so, we propose three main research themes that can meaningfully contribute to our discipline.