The future of information systems in the enterprise

“Enterprise information systems” have outgrown the organisation as a unit of analysis. This introduction to the special issue on the future of information systems in the enterprise argues that future work should be situated at the level of the integrated whole through which coordinated action and value creation are sustained, which increasingly grows beyond firm boundaries. We conceptualise enterprise information systems as evolving systems of systems, distinguishing enterprise-level objects, activities, and phenomena, read through three lenses: coherency, tensions, and integration and coordination mechanisms. We propose a research agenda on designing under uncertainty, governing human and synthetic actors, and sustaining autonomy at scale, and position the four special issue papers against these categories.