What have we learned from the Smart Machine?

• I analyze Zuboff’s seminal book “In the Age of the Smart Machine”.
• I offer a representation of the theory Zuboff developed in her book.
• I then examine how Information Systems researchers have used that theory.
• The results show that Information Systems researchers have underutilized the theory.
• I explain why this offers a timely and very exciting opportunity for our discipline.

Zuboff's (1988) book In the Age of the Smart Machine: The Future of Work and Power is one of the most celebrated texts among Information Systems researchers. Despite its significant influence, I suggest that it may have a richer story to tell than has been told to date. Motivated by this potential, my essay has two aims: to explicate the theory developed in Zuboff's text, and to determine how fully it has been used and extended by Information Systems researchers, through an analysis of papers citing her text. My findings show that the theory developed in Zuboff's text has been used in a fairly limited and piecemeal fashion. I discuss how this presents a significant opportunity for research because the theory appears to be just as relevant now as it was when the text was published.