1. Book Series Perspectives on Information
Management
The book series Perspectives on Information Management is dedicated to creating and
disseminating academic knowledge on information management that opens new ave-
nues for academic research and is relevant to practitioners in the field.1 Our central
mission is to enhance the profession of information management by advancing
scholarship and by enriching the professional development of our audience in a way
that is relevant and makes valuable contribution to society and its institutions. The
book series provides a high-quality international forum for researchers, practitioners
and policy makers to exchange ideas on information management.
The series is motivated by developments in the field of information management.
Information management nowadays is focussed on the management of information
instead of the management of ICT2 or the management of the business–ICT rela-
tionship.3 As information is primarily a social construct and subject to interpreta-
tion, information management is about the construction of meaning for the
organization and, derivatively, the construction of the organization’s meaning for its
environment. Information management deals with the identity of organizations.4
Information management is about organizing information and communication
processes and media around the construction of meaning for the organization and its
environment and around identity development of organizations and organizational
members. Information management is about decisions connecting organizational
structures and technological infrastructures to facilitate such processes. Information
governance and superior information use are more important than increasingly
sophisticated data production. Understanding organizational ambiguity has become
more important than understanding technical complexity. In our vision information
management is a discipline not necessarily executed in a separate organizational
function or profession; it is the aspect of general management where information is
1
Like (Chief)Information Officers (CIOs), Information Managers, policy makers and general managers
who work for information-intensive organizations in which the management of information has become
core business as for instance in the financial service industry, the travel industry, government or the health
care industry.
2
Over the last two decades information management was completely absorbed by ICT management and
hence non-existent. The CIO, if in function, was more a Chief Technology Officer (CTO), responsible for
ICT and, derivatively, for its link with business departments.
3
In the sense of a liaison function to bridge gaps between business departments and ICT suppliers/
departments.
4
Maes, R. (2004). Information management reconstructed, PrimaVera Working Paper 2004–19, Univer-
siteit van Amsterdam.

2. xii Information Management
consciously and knowledgeably dealt with. Information management is not restricted
to intra-organizational issues: information management questions are also about
supply chains, networks of organizations, networks of professionals, social networks,
and societies at large. Hence, advancement of the information management field
asks for multiple perspectives; we therefore encourage contributions from multiple
disciplines and industries and welcome inter-disciplinary work.
Besides this vision on developments in the information management discipline, the
book series is further motivated by a vision on the relationship between academic
research and practice. In recent years there has been a debate in the academic lit-
erature on the topic ‘rigor versus relevance’.5 It is our intention to be rigorously
relevant by emphasizing relevance in our choice for themes and topics to be included
into the book series. As research in the field matures, there is an increasing need to
carry its results into practice and to align research with practice. We do so by
choosing topics in which enduring organizational problems and timely business is-
sues are addressed.6 The book series further contributes to linking research with
practice and policy by targeting a mixed audience of people working at universities,
research institutes, governments and the private sector. The series focuses on rel-
evance by providing incentives to apply research methods that make sense to prac-
titioners, to produce policy research and to write papers that are consumable for
practitioners7; and by welcoming thoughtful practitioner reflections on action8 and
case studies.
5
This debate evolves around the idea that research in our field is in crisis because academics are unable to
target the practitioners audience due to an overemphasis on quantitative rigor, irrelevant topics, unread-
able papers and long lead-times for publication, as stressed in: Robey, D., & Markus, M. L. (1998). Beyond
rigor and relevance: Producing consumable research about information systems. Information Resources
Management Journal, 11 (1), 7–15.
6
As has been suggested in: Benbasat, I., & Zmud, R. W. (1999). Empirical Research in Information
Systems: The Practice of Relevance. MIS Quarterly, 23(1), 3–16.
7
As has been suggested in: Robey, D., & Markus, M. L. (1998). Beyond rigor and relevance: Producing
consumable research about information systems. Information Resources Management Journal 11(1), 7–15.
8
Meant as in: Schon, D. A. (1983). The reflective practitioner. How professionals think in action. New
¨
York: Basic Books.