Special issue on ontological analysis in conceptual modeling, Part 2

As discussed in Burton-Jones et al. (2017), the field of information systems requires native theories. The field of information systems has utilized, adopted, and adapted theories from fields such as psychology, sociology, organizational behavior, and management to provide the theoretical underpinning and conceptual foundation for our research. As the information systems field starts to mature, the field requires native theories that we can call our own. Wand and Weber’s ontological theory (drawing on the ontology of Mario Bunge) provides a theory that can be applied to study information systems analysis and design, an area that some argue is unique to the information systems field. Wand and Weber introduced the ontological theory in three seminal papers (1990, 1993, 1995). These three papers established three views on information systems as representations of human perceptions of a domain of interest: the representation model, the state-tracking model, and the good decomposition model.