Editorial 'Is there a European Information System?'

EJIS has from its inception been dedicated to the principle that there is some distinctly European nature to information systems. Either through the differences associated with the contexts in which information systems have been used in Europe or in the character of research work and other writing coming from European academics. After three years, it seems appropriate at this time to question the extent to which this is the case. As with most questions posed in this way, the answer is evidently 'yes and no'. Yes, European academics conduct their research in ways which differ from the mainstream North American approaches. We have published papers on 'soft' systems approaches which are still regarded as deviant outside Europe. Yes, there are distinct application areas where the nature of institutions, the activities of experts and the assumptions behind design principles are distinct to, for example, European municipal administrative practices or state-industry relations. This can be seen in the papers on British municipal systems and on Finnish business practices. These differences do not extend quite as far as some people might have expected. Some surprising similarities between European and North American approaches to information systems seem to have come about because of recent changes in the attitude of American business school researchers. Some of it is more apparent now only because we have been looking for similarities and because the range of activities in North America is so large. There is another sense in which there are, and at the

same time are not, European information systems. The European Union and its predecessors and associated institutions have been engaged in a number of projects over the past few years to integrate more of the working practices, and to increase the compatibility of technical standards. Some of these, such as can be seen in electronic data interchange, are becoming de facto European standards of practice. Other features, such as European Union policy on competition and legal standards are having a strong influence far beyond the Union, where major trading partners, or hopeful partners in eastern Europe, seek to understand or anticipate European regulations and make compatible their new legislation. Although some industries, notably the financial sector and some large international retailing operations, have what could be regarded as Europe-wide information systems, there is not yet any real European information system in the sense that the 'information superhighway' anticipates a United States wide system. While it is not clear what effect the superhighway will have on the discipline of information systems in the United States, we in Europe are already being challenged both to accommodate new American practices and to conceive of ways to structure any potential European superhighway. If we fail to bring together our vision of Europe's information system, and to accommodate the political, economic and academic features which we expect to change, then we will have lost the opportunity, not only to create a real approach for a distinctive European information system, but we will place ourselves once again at the call of the distinct agenda of North American practitioners and academics.

© 1994 Operational Research Society Ltd Eur. J. Inf. Systs. Vol. 3, No. 4, pp 247,1994

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