Practitioners’ Attitudes and Intentions to Use Information Systems Research: A Mixed Method Study of the Research Format

Abstract

Balancing research relevance and rigour has been a long-standing concern in the Information Systems (IS) discipline, crucial for advancing academic understanding and disseminating knowledge to practitioners. This paper addresses the need for effective knowledge product translation and dissemination by proposing the use of animated research briefs with visual storytelling cues. Grounded in the cognitive theory of multimedia learning and critical narrative theory, these briefs aim to make research more accessible and engaging for IS practitioners. A mixed-method approach is deployed: (1) a survey-based experiment to assess how research format influences practitioners' attitudes, which in turn affect their intentions to use academic research to solve work-related problems in the near term, and (2) in-depth interviews to explore practitioners’ perceptions of different research formats and their impact on the intention to use academic research in the near term. The paper offers new insights into the effectiveness of multimedia formats in enhancing practitioner engagement and understanding, thereby fostering a more effective dissemination and translation of research knowledge for practitioner audiences