An exploration of the real or imagined consequences of information systems research for practice

In this paper we attempt to assess the impact of IS research on practice. It is important to show a positive impact, if we can, so that academia, prospective students and the outside world more generally sees that the IS discipline has made a positive and major impact on organizations, people and society. Our research fills a gap as there has been little or no work to date that systematically assesses the effective relevance of IS research to practice. We find that the use of bibliometric indicators to trace the flow of ideas from research published in our top journals to practitioner journals does not detect any strong link between IS research and practice. We suggest several alternative means of assessing effective, rather than imagined, relevance and also consider how more effective diffusion of our IS research might be encouraged.