Identifying and characterizing topics in enterprise content management: A latent semantic analysis of vendor case studies

Since the turn of the millennium, the notion of enterprise content management (ECM) has been an umbrella term for all the technological and managerial capabilities required to manage every type of unstructured information over its entire lifecycle. Because the term "ECM" characterizes a very broad approach to digital information management, its precise definition challenges researchers and practitioners alike. The aim of this paper is to shed light on the use of the notion of ECM in practice. Grounded in a latent semantic analysis (LSA) of 1,083 case studies published by ECM vendors, the study identifies and characterizes twelve key topics that dominate the ECM discussion, from capture and scanning to archiving and backup. The results can help information systems (IS) researchers to gain a more profound understanding of the ECM concept, to distinguish it from related approaches to digital information management, and to reconsider and realign their ECM research agendas. Practitioners gain an overview of potentially interesting ECM topics that can trigger and guide their future information-management efforts.