Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to review the literature that measures the concept of firms' information environment (IE) with focus on the validity of proxies used to measure IE.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper reviews the IE literature using theoretically based categories and analyzes the contextual meaning and use of IE proxies. The review is based on a selection of 284 research articles from 51 journals between 2000 and 2018. A total of 37 different proxy measures of IE are found and analyzed with respect to causality based on categories and the use of IE variables as dependent, independent and control variables.

Findings

The study indicates that the IE measures are heterogeneous and there is a lack of consensus regarding their use. The different conditions used to study IE explain part, but far from all, of this heterogeneity. Furthermore, we find that the use of IE measures is only briefly discussed or motivated among the studies in the sample. These findings suggest a necessary discussion about causality in the use of IE as dependent, independent or control variables.

Originality/value

This study contains new and significant information on IE and IE proxy measures. It provides an extensive literature review and provides a novel typology to analyze IE.