Int. J. Business Information Systems, Vol. 16, No. 3, 2014 247 Copyright © 2014 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. Experimental research and multivariate statistical analyses in business information systems research – a meta-review Arif Perdana*, Alastair Robb and Fiona Rohde UQ Business School, The University of Queensland, Colin Clark Building, Blair Drive, St Lucia, Queensland 4072, Australia E-mail: a.perdana@business.uq.edu.au E-mail: a.robb@business.uq.edu.au E-mail: f.rohde@business.uq.edu.au *Corresponding author Abstract: Experimental research has been widely used within the information systems (IS) field. Using a meta-review, this study examines the use of experimental research in the IS field during the period 1990 to 2013 and investigates the utilisation of statistical techniques, particularly multivariate analyses. This study provides important information regarding the pattern of experimental research in the IS field (i.e., experimental designs, treatments, tasks, incentives and participants). This study finds that multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) is frequently used as the multivariate statistical technique in experimental IS research. While the use of multivariate analyses is common in recent experimental IS research, concerns remain about the potential inappropriate use of measurements and violations of statistical assumptions required by the various multivariate analyses, for example, using ordinal scales rather than interval scales and issues surrounding the normality of data. This article is intended to offer guidelines to help future researchers be aware of the statistical issues and to mitigate the shortcomings that arise due to inappropriate use of measurements and violations of the statistical assumptions in experimental IS research. Keywords: multivariate analysis of variance; MANOVA; business information systems; meta-review; experimental research. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Perdana, A., Robb, A. and Rohde, F. (2014) ‘Experimental research and multivariate statistical analyses in business information systems research – a meta-review’, Int. J. Business Information Systems, Vol. 16, No. 3, pp.247–270. Biographical notes: Arif Perdana is currently a PhD student at the UQ Business School, The University of Queensland, and a Lecturer at Business Administration Department, State Polytechnic of Pontianak. His research interests are in the fields of IT/IS adoption, data quality, and extensible business reporting language (XBRL). His research have been published in Alliance Journal of Business Research and in various conference proceedings including The International Research Symposium in Service Management 2 (IRSSM-2), The International Conference on Informatics for Development 2011 (ICID), Society of Interdisciplinary Research 2012, and International Seminar on Entrepreneurship and Business 2012. He previously worked in the insurance and finance industry.