Mission
MIT CISR helped executives lead increasingly digital and data-driven organizations. Its research explored how organizations could realize value from approaches such as digital business transformation, data monetization, business ecosystems, and the digital workplace. Grounded in MIT’s tradition of combining academic knowledge with practical purpose, MIT CISR worked directly with executives, digital leaders, and boards to develop insights. Member organizations funded CISR’s research and participated in its consortium.
After advancing this mission for 52 years, MIT CISR ceased operations in October 2026.
History
In 1974, MIT CISR was established to address an emerging business challenge: How could companies manage and find value from their computers? Three faculty members at the MIT Sloan School of Management joined to launch the Center for Information Systems Research: Michael Scott Morton, John F. (Jack) Rockart, and Stuart Madnick.
Since then, the questions that motivated MIT CISR’s founding remained remarkably consistent: How do companies figure out what computer technologies to adopt? How could they get the most value from them? What could they learn from their peers’ experiences to avoid pitfalls?
From the start, the founders saw an opportunity to create a consortium of public- and private- sector members interested in participating in their research. They developed MIT CISR’s organizational structure to support both member involvement and professional staff. Members didn’t just contribute funding; they also helped identify issues worthy of research. Peter Weill, who assumed MIT CISR’s leadership in 2000, continued this approach while also globalizing the center’s member base and expanding its research expertise.
The center’s vision included “disseminat[ing] significant research findings to the information systems user community.” The center pursued this through publications and face-to-face meetings. In its early years, MIT CISR established a working paper series for sharing unrefereed findings and progress reports on projects and program areas under investigation. In 2001, MIT CISR began distributing research briefings—short, sharp, easy-to-consume reports—in addition to working papers. By the time it closed in October 2026, the center had published 470 working papers and 312 briefings.
From its founding, MIT CISR engaged directly with senior information technology executives—and later, chief information officers, digital leaders, boards of directors, and other top company leaders—to investigate their challenges and share research findings via a variety of methods. This close connection between research and practice helped make MIT CISR a world leader in management thinking.
Review our research publications