Integrated Information Systems in Higher Education: Systematic Review and Research Opportunities

Abstract

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In Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), as in many other organisations, Information Systems (IS) started as in-house developments that tended to satisfy the immediate needs of the different departments and schools. More recently HEI make huge investments on integrated IS such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems; however, they do not seem to achieve the full potential of these systems while these new systems significantly alter the way academia operates. This paper provides a systematic literature review to gain insights of the implementation of integrated IS in the HE sector besides highlighting some of the possible research directions. We have reviewed 50 articles published between 2000 and 2017 in 35 different journals following different methodological approaches and summarising a variety of findings in various countries. Our comprehensive review identified four themes that show the link between integrated IS and the HE environment. Three (out of the four) themes are related to the steps undertaken while implementing the integrated IS while the fourth theme is related to the impact of these complex systems at an organisational and stakeholder level. Our findings can make a significant contribution to researchers by signposting valuable areas for future research while it can be used as a guide for HEI while implementing integrated IS.

Keywords: Enterprise resource planning, Higher education, Integrated information systems, Literature review.

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