What Google-based data can tell us about information systems theory: A review

Abstract

The aim of this study is to examine the attention and acceptance of popular information systems (IS) theory. Both Google Scholar (GS) and Google Trends (GT) data related to popular IS theories from 2006 to 2020 are collected. The study provides an overview of popular IS theories and tests the pair data to show changes in GS’s total publications and GT’s public interest. Correlation analyses are conducted to investigate the relationships between GS and GT data, as well as between GS and GT data. Trend analysis reveals that there are certain IS theories that researchers and practitioners should pay attention to. In addition, this study provides an overview of recent and future directions in this field. Despite the significant increase in research using Google data, the use of big data to explore the interests and applications of IS theories has been rarely explored.