Research on information systems (IS) in developing countries focuses on understudied contexts that recent scholars believe have the potential to provide new knowledge. However, the extant discussion on this endeavor rarely considers IS scholars inside the developing countries who could be the ideal discoverers of such context‐specific knowledge. In this study, we review the facilitating conditions of the discovery of new theories to examine IS research in the case of Indonesia. We then interview experienced Indonesian IS scholars to develop a richer understanding of the IS scholarship's conditions. We found that while considering and theorizing context have been interests by a small group, the extant efforts are intertwined by the lack of exposure to myriad research epistemology/methodology, the infancy state of IS as a discipline, and the tendency to address convenient rather than crucial research questions, all of which are manifested in a complex institutional environment. We then provide important pathways and future agendas to strengthen and advance IS scholarship in developing countries.