Document Type

Article

Original Publication Date

2020

Journal/Book/Conference Title

MIS Quarterly

Volume

44

Issue

2

First Page

525

Last Page

559

DOI of Original Publication

10.25300/MISQ/2020/13932

Date of Submission

July 2025

Abstract

The notions of significance and relevance have provoked much controversy and confusion among those who conduct and those who are intended to be informed by quantitative research in the information systems (IS) field. The history of quantitative research in the IS field and beyond reveals not only disputes over the adequacy of statistical significance to warrant the scientific merits of research, but also pleas for drawing attention to practical significance, as well as a lack of distinction between relevance and practical significance. This essay offers a remedial, overarching account. We establish the position that statistical significance, practical significance, and relevance are distinct qualities, where the latter two transcend mere statistical concerns and respectively refer to the distinct matters of research impressiveness and real-world usefulness. Furthermore, we draw attention to the importance of proper communication of quantitative/statistical analyses through a detailed examination of published IS research. Our examination gives rise to three major issues. The three issues are concerned with the proper communication of (1) research rigor, (2) practical significance, and (3) research relevance. We express our opinions with respect to the three issues and provide a number of recommendations.

Rights

Copyright © 2019 by the Management Information Systems Research Center (MISRC) of the University of Minnesota. Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and full citation on the first page. Copyright for components of this work owned by others than the MISRC must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, to post on servers, or to redistribute to lists requires prior specific permission and possibly a fee.

Is Part Of

VCU Information Systems Publications

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