DOI: 10.4018/IJEIS.2019070105 International Journal of Enterprise Information Systems Volume 15 • Issue 3 • July-September 2019 Copyright © 2019, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited. 76 Application Programming Interface (API) Research: A Review of the Past to Inform the Future Joshua Ofoeda, University of Professional Studies, Accra, Ghana Richard Boateng, University of Ghana Business School, Accra, Ghana John Efah, University of Ghana Business School, Accra, Ghana ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to perform a synthesis of API research. The study took stock of literature from academic journals on APIs with their associated themes, frameworks, methodologies, publication outlets and level of analysis. The authors draw on a total of 104 articles from academic journals and conferences published from 2010 to 2018. A systematic literature review was conducted on the selected articles. The findings suggest that API research is primarily atheoretical and largely focuses on the technological dimensions such as design and usage; thus, neglecting most of the social issues such as the business and managerial applications of APIs, which are equally important. Future research directions are provided concerning the gaps identified. KEywoRdS Application Programming Interface, Conceptual Approaches, Future Research Directions, Methodological Approaches, Software, Systematic Literature Review, Technology, Themes INTRodUCTIoN Software has become indispensable in today’s business environment. It has become challenging to envisage business success without software. Given this, there have been advances in the field of software development on how software is developed (Kroll, Richardson, Prikladnicki, & Audy, 2018), and tested (Barr, Harman, McMinn, Shahbaz, & Yoo, 2015). Software development over the years is perceived as a daunting task (Park & Bae, 2011) and demands a lot of activities (Tang, Aleti, Burge, & Vliet, 2010). Hence, developers are continually exploring innovations that will aid the software development process. Application Programming Interfaces (here after referred to as APIs) are one of such innovations in the software development domain. APIs form an integral component of the software ecosystem (Manikas, 2016). These software ecosystems have become an ideal way of constructing large software solutions on top of a common technology platform (Manikas & Hansen, 2013). Historically, APIs have been there since the advent of personal computers. APIs primarily existed for the exchange between two or more programs (IBM, 2016). The emergence of APIs on the web