‘MIS Quarterly’ Names Wigand Paper Best of 2006; NSF Funds More Study

A paper written by UALR Professor Rolf Wigand and his research partners has won the 2006 Best Paper Award by Management Information Systems Quarterly, a peer reviewed scholarly journal concerning the development of IT-based services, management, the management of information technology resources, and the economics and use of information technology with managerial and organizational implications. The paper, “Industry-Wide Information Systems Standardization as Collective Action: The Case of the U.S. Residential Mortgage Industry,” was published in MIS Quarterly’s special issue on standard making. Wigand and his partners, M. Lynne Markus and Charles W. Steinfield, landed an $800,000 National Science Foundation grant to expand their research in interorganizational information system integration through industry-wide standardization. The research holds enormous potential to reduce significantly business costs by developing Internet-based “vertical information systems.” “The proposed study aims to contribute to knowledge about IT-enabled collaboration within three industries – automotive, retailing, and mortgage finance – and its consequences for national productivity improvement,” Wigand said.