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Web-based businesses succeed by cultivating consumers' trust, starting with their beliefs, attitudes, intentions, and willingness to perform transactions at Web sites and with the organizations behind them.

Management information systems (MIS) is both a young and unique field , constantly experiencing rapid change and turmoil. Consequently, MIS research faces dual changes of rigor and relevance. Many research methodologies exist that provide various combinations of rigor and relevance. The MIS researcher selects a methodology based on several factors including rigor, relevance, subject area, and personal preferences. In this article, we examine thirteen different methodologies as used by seven leading MIS journals during a recent five-year period. The results of this extensive analysis yielded some interesting results. Survey methodology consistently ranks at the top; while frameworks and conceptual models, laboratory experiments, and case studies also found significant use among the MIS community. Several trends were observed, one of them being a greater use of the case study method and other qualitative technologies over the years. Clear patterns also emerged based on the journal itself and the subject areas. At a macro level, this information should help authors in the choice of appropriate methodologies to use in specific subject areas and in targeting manuscripts to appropriate journals. It would also be helpful to journal editors in assessing the type of research and methods being used across journals and subjects, and whether they need to make any changes in the emphases of their own journals.

This article presents trends in published MIS research for an 11 year period, 1993-2003. It is an update of a previous article in CAIS (Volume 11, Article 16) that covered the period 1993-1997. All of the articles in seven mainstream MIS journals were examined in terms of subjects researched and methodologies employed to conduct research. Recent trends are presented and compared to those of the earlier study. The results clearly indicate the focus of efforts of researchers on information system usage and information systems resource management. The survey methodology still appeals to many researchers but increases in the use of mathematical models and laboratory experiments is an indication that the field is attaining maturity by using more rigorous research methods.

Research disciplines and subdisciplines are steeped in epistemological beliefs and theoretical assumptions that guide and constrain research. These beliefs and assumptions both enable scientific inquiry and limit scientific progress. Theory and review papers tend to be a means for reproducing ideological assumptions. However, review papers can also challenge ideological assumptions by critically assessing taken-for-granted assumptions. Critical review methods are underdeveloped in the management disciplines. The information systems (IS) discipline must do more to improve the critical examination of its scientific discourse. In this paper, we present a method with guiding principles and steps for systematically conducting critical reviews of IS literature based on Habermasian strains of critical discourse analysis. We provide an empirical example of the method. The empirical example offers a critical review of behavioral information security research with a focus on employees' security behaviors.