MIS stage hypothesis proposed by Nolan laid the foundation on the stage theory in information systems. However, the hypothesis has largely been regarded as being invalid because of the inconsistencies between benchmarks; especially, the level of expenditure variable, among others, proved to have no discriminating power between stages empirically.
The primary purpose of this thesis is to identify MIS stage in Korean industries by reexamining the stage hypothesis and deriving the appropriate benchmarks. The relevancy of the benchmarks is tested with the discriminating powers of pheonomenal variables using Multiple Discriminant Analysis and Kruskal-Wallis Test.
Data were collected from thirty major industries in Korea using questionnaires and interviews. The level and portfolio of application systems were derived as benchmark. The result of data analysis indicated that the application systems benchmark is a prominant one for identifying the MIS stages.
MIS stage in Korean industries then has been classified into four stages a priori. The analysis indicates that the three stages among the four are shown to be distinguishable classes. The first class is comparable to Nolan's stage I and II, and the second and third classes are comparable to Nolan's stage III and IV, respectively.
