Geographic Information Systems in Information Systems Research - Review and Research Prospects

Since historical times, cartographic maps have revealed spatial relations and enabled decisions and processes. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) allow for acquisition, management, analysis, and presentation of geospatial objects. With free geospatial data becoming available through open data policies and an increasing amount of digitally connected objects in the Internet of Things (IoT), GIS are becoming indispensable to Information Systems (IS) research. However, the consideration and relevance of GIS has only been investigated rarely. We examine, how and in which fields of application GIS have been studied in the IS literature and elicit the importance of GIS regarding their design and usage. A systematic literature review leads us to develop four research propositions. Our results indicate that GIS are still an undeservedly underrepresented discipline in IS and should be more theorized, put center-stage in design-oriented research, and considered for creating superior value co-creation in service systems.