In 2024, MIT CISR proudly celebrates its 50-year legacy. Throughout this year, we will be collecting and sharing memories and milestones from MIT CISR's history of practice-based research and industry collaboration on this webpage.
If you have memories to share, feel free to contact us at cisr@mit.edu.
Decision Support Systems research demonstrated how information technology could be a useful tool for non-technical executives and laid the path for Executive Support Systems for higher-level executives. Prior to the introduction of Decision Support Systems, IT was seen by managers only as an accounting or operational tool. This research led to the book authored by Peter G.W. Keen and Michael S. Scott Morton in 1978, Decision Support Systems: An Organizational Perspective.
• Read the MIT CISR Working Paper No. 54.
• Learn more about Peter Keen.
• Learn more about Michael Scott Morton.
#MITCISR50th #MITCISR #DecisionSupportSystems
IT risk was understudied when George Westerman, a research scientist at MIT CISR from 2002 to 2011, began research on the dimensions of IT risk and how to communicate about it. In his book, IT Risk: Turning Business Threats into Competitive Advantage, written with Richard Hunter, George argued that incorporating IT risk into management conversations was a way to align IT and business objectives. During his time at MIT CISR, George also studied IT innovation and communicating the business value of IT. The latter topic was the subject of his book, also written with Richard Hunter, The Real Business of IT: How CIOs Create and Communicate Value.
• Read more about The Real Business of IT: How CIOs Create and Communicate Value.
• Read more about IT Risk: Turning Business Threats into Competitive Advantage.
• View a list of MIT CISR publications written by George Westerman.
#MITCISR50th #MITCISR #ITRisk
Many attendees of MIT CISR on-campus events over the past eight years undoubtedly cherish memories of campus tours led by the charming Nils Fonstad, former research scientist and current academic research fellow at MIT CISR. Nils, who spent his formative years on the MIT campus (his father is currently an MIT professor emeritus), has enthusiastically shared his favorite spots and captivating stories with many groups of MIT CISR event participants. Nils's infectious good nature has often inspired other campus wanderers to join the tour!
Learn more about Nils Fonstad.
#MITCISR50th #MITCISR
Thinkers50 honored Jeanne Ross as a finalist in 2019 for the Digital Thinking award for her research about how companies can retool for digital success. And in 2023, Stephanie Woerner, Peter Weill, and Ina Sebastian were finalists for the Thinkers50 Strategy award for their work on the different ways businesses undertake transformation and the types of organizational disruption that are necessary for change.
• Learn more about Jeanne Ross.
• Learn more about Peter Weill.
• Learn more about Stephanie Woerner.
• Learn more about Ina Sebastian.
Additional information on Thinkers50.
View the Thinkers50 2023 Strategy Award Shortlist.
#MITCISR50th #MITCISR #Thinkers50
MIT CISR’s early attempts at globalization—with joint goals of global research supported by a global community of member organizations—began in 2008. The MIT CISR team produced the first of many subsequent international executive forums in April that year, co-hosted by IESE in Barcelona, Spain. In Sept. 2009, the “road show” moved to Sao Paolo, Brazil followed by forums in Copenhagen, Denmark and Sydney, Australia in the fall of 2010. MIT CISR currently holds international executive forums in Europe and Australia each year to maintain personal contact with members based in those regions, most recently in Sydney, Australia and Paris, France in March 2024. Our current global consortium includes organizations from Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, and North, South, and Central America.
Review the list of current MIT CISR member organizations.
See a list of our past MIT CISR events.
#MITCISR50th #MITCISR
Jack Rockart and Christine Bullen used the concept of Critical Success Factors to design a method for talking with CEO-level executives about defining their information needs. At the time (1979) CEOs were receiving too much operational-level data, when what they needed was strategic managerial-level information. The CSF interview allowed CEOs to communicate their needs to their IT managers in a clear, never-before understood way.
#MITCISR50th #MITCISR #research #CSFs #criticalsuccessfactors
When Summer Session was held in the Green Building in the middle of the MIT campus, MIT CISR took advantage of the design of the building—featuring a pedestrian “underpass”—to set up refreshments for a pleasant outdoor break. It was quickly discovered that students passing by were confident that the refreshments were for them and “guards” were required to keep everything from disappearing. This was a very challenging assignment, as MIT students were (and still are!) wily and fast.
Additional info on the Green Building.
#MITCISR50th #MITCISR
The Association of Information Systems (AIS) is the professional association for individuals and organizations who lead the research, teaching, practice, and study of information systems worldwide. It hosts conferences, supports journals, and and presents awards each year.
Over the years, AIS has honored MIT CISR researchers with several awards.
In 2003, Jack Rockart received a LEO Award. All recipients of the LEO Award, which was established in 1999, are outstanding scholars who have made a global impact on the field of information systems.
In 2017, Jeanne Ross received an AIS Fellow Award recognizing her research on enterprise architecture and her leadership of the 2015 annual International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS). The AIS Fellow Award recognizes individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the information systems discipline in terms of research, teaching, and service.
The AIS Outreach Practice Publication Award was created to recognize members who successfully transfer research to practitioner audiences in practice-based publications. In 2017, Jeanne Ross, Peter Weill, and David Robertson received an AIS Outreach Practice Publication Award for their book Enterprise Architecture and Strategy: Creating a Foundation for Business Execution. In 2023, Barb Wixom received the same award for her book Data Is Everybody’s Business: The Fundamentals of Data Monetization, which she co-authored with Cynthia Beath and Leslie Owens.
In 2010, Peter Reynolds, an MIT CISR research scientist at the time, was awarded the ACM SIGMIS Doctoral Dissertation Award for outstanding MIS dissertation for his dissertation entitled, “The Alignment of Business and IT Strategy in Multi-Business Organizations.”
#MITCISR50th #research #AIS
Jeanne Ross began her almost 28-year MIT CISR career in 1993. At the beginning of her tenure she worked closely with Jack Rockart, first as a research scientist and then as a principal research scientist. Jeanne served as director of MIT CISR from 2008–2015; she retired from MIT CISR in 2020. Jeanne is best known for her research on enterprise architecture and on how companies are designing themselves to succeed in the digital economy.
Watch this selection of videos revisiting Jeanne’s years with MIT CISR:
#MITCISR50th #enterprisearchitecture #entarch #EA #operatingmodels #Designed4Digital #D4D #digitization
MIT CISR’s first two research briefings were “Atomic e-Business Models” by Peter Weill and Michael Vitale and “When IT Outsourcing Works” by Natalia Levina and Jeanne Ross. Initially, MIT CISR published groupings of several briefings three times per year; in 2009, it switched to publishing individual research briefings monthly. Today, the center also publishes each briefing in an audio version, along with a companion one-page Talking Points summary publication prepared for MIT CISR members.
Review a list of MIT CISR’s research briefings.
#MITCISR50th #research
Peter Weill spent a year at MIT CISR as a visiting scholar in 1993. Following Jack Rockart’s retirement in 2000, MIT hired Peter as director of MIT CISR and senior research scientist. Under Peter’s leadership, both the center’s research and its membership base expanded across the globe. After decades of distinguished work at MIT, today Peter serves as Chairman of MIT CISR.
Read about Peter’s accomplishments in his MIT Sloan bio.
#MITCISR50th
MIT CISR faculty members were seeking a way to disseminate information about the excellent research being carried out under the auspices of MIT CISR. They decided to hold a conference where the researchers themselves would spotlight their research, and to do this in the summer when the teaching schedule was light. Slots to attend the conference were automatically assigned to MIT CISR sponsor organizations, while other prospective attendees went through an application process. The first MIT CISR Summer Session was in 1976. The response was huge, and MIT CISR Summer Session became a yearly tradition through 2023.
#MITCISR50th #research
John F. "Jack" Rockart was appointed the Director of MIT CISR in 1976, when the first director, Michael Scott Morton, became an associate dean at the Sloan School. Jack led CISR until 2000 and remained involved in the work of the Center until his death in 2014. Jack had an amazing gift for bridging academic research and real-world problems, and for mentoring junior faculty and students. During his tenure, MIT CISR’s reputation and impact grew across academia and the business world.
Learn more about Jack Rockart on Wikipedia.
#MITCISR50th
The MIT Center for Information Systems Research (MIT CISR) was established in 1974—50 years ago! It was founded by faculty in the MIT Sloan School’s Management Information Systems group who saw a need for objective, applied research on “significant managerial problems in the utilization of computer-based information systems” and an opportunity to create a consortium of private and public sector sponsors interested in participating in such research. Professor Michael Scott Morton (pictured adjacent, with MIT Sloan bio here) was the first director of MIT CISR.
Read the center's original Statement of Purpose and Structure.
#MITCISR50th #computer #informationsystems #research