[1] Swanson had started his career at IBM, where he worked in the system development of applications.
He returned to the academia in 1974 to the University of California, Los Angeles, where he became Professor of Information Systems at the UCLA Anderson School of Management, where he directed the Information Systems Research Program.
He has held visiting positions in England, Belgium and Germany.
Swanson research interests are in the fields of Information Systems and Technology and Enterprise Systems, particularly Business Innovations and organizing vision; a term developed by Swanson and Neil Ramiller.
His research is focused on "the life cycles of systems in organizations, addressing issues of innovation, implementation, utilization, and maintenance.