Exploring foundations for using simulations in IS research

Simulation has been adopted in many disciplines as a means for understanding the behavior of a system by imitating it through an artificial object that exhibits a nearly identical behavior. Although simulation approaches have been widely adopted for theory building in disciplines such as engineering, computer science, management, and social sciences, their potential in the IS field is often overlooked. The aim of this paper is to understand how different simulation approaches are used in IS research, thereby providing insights and methodological recommendations for future studies. A literature review of simulation studies published in top-tier IS journals leads to the definition of three classes of simulations, namely the self-organizing, the elementary, and the situated. A set of stylized facts is identified for characterizing the ways in which the premise, the inference, and the contribution are presented in IS simulation studies. As a result, this study provides guidance to future simulation researchers in designing and presenting findings

Under What Conditions is IS Research Relevant to Practice? An Analysis of IS Scholars Who Are Mentioned or Cited Often in Trade Magazines and the General Media

The issue of rigor and relevance has been a longstanding topic of discussion and debate within many subfields of business. Among disciplines that are far more established than information systems (IS), including marketing, management, and accounting, scholars continue to debate whether the research produced has any direct value to managers and employees in organizations. Not surprisingly, in disciplines that are much younger – such as information systems – the same issues have arisen. We bring scientometric, empirical methods to bear on the question. Defining relevance as the mention of IS research and IS researchers in mainstream business magazines and general newspapers, we employ a host of methods to identify the extent to which IS research and researchers are mentioned in the mainstream media – or not – and we identify individuals who are most frequently mentioned or cited. Although we find that scholarly IS research is largely ignored in these outlets, we do identify a dozen IS scholars who have maintained a very strong public presence in trade magazines and newspapers

The Nature of Adherence to Planning – Systematic Review of Factors Influencing its Suitability as Criterion for IS Project Success

Derived from engineering, adherence to planning (ATP) is the central and most often used criterion for the evaluation of information system (IS) projects. Although this evaluation is questionable, as ATP does not account for all of IS projects’ particularities, a systematic evaluation of ATP’s suitability in the context of IS projects is still missing. As a first step to close this gap, we use aggregations of the project life cycle’s processes and conduct a systematic literature review to identify research dealing with these aggregations. Our results show that ATP’s suitability depends on an IS project’s context, and is not given or at least questionable in many cases. Researchers and managers should adapt the way of evaluating IS projects to avoid misleading implications

The Nature of Adherence to Planning as Criterion for Information System Project Success

Derived from engineering, adherence to planning (ATP) is the central and most often used criterion for the evaluation of information system (IS) projects. Although this evaluation is questionable as ATP does not account for all of IS projects\u27 particularities, a systematic approach for the assessment of ATP\u27s suitability in the context of IS projects is still missing. We propose a theory to explain the suitability of using ATP as success criterion for IS projects. Thereby, we use the project life cycle\u27s processes and their outcomes as the theory\u27s primary constructs. We argue for the constructs\u27 interdependencies corroborated by a systematic literature review. Our results show that ATP\u27s suitability is not given or at least questionable in many cases. Researchers and managers should adapt the way of evaluating IS projects to avoid misleading implications

Rethinking the Value of Simulation Methods in the Information Systems Research Field: A Call for Reconstructing Contribution for a Broader Audience

The impact of simulation methods for social research in the Information Systems (IS) research field remains low. A concern is our field is inadequately leveraging the unique strengths of simulation methods. Although this low impact is frequently attributed to methodological complexity, we offer an alternative explanation – the poor construction of research value. We argue more intuitive value construction, better connected to the knowledge base, will facilitate increased value and broader appreciation. Meta-analysis of studies published in IS journals over the last decade evidences the low impact. To facilitate value construction, we synthesize four common types of simulation research contribution: Analyzer, Tester, Descriptor, and Theorizer. To illustrate, we employ the proposed typology to describe how each type of value is structured in simulation research and connect each type to instances from IS literature, thereby making these value types and their construction visible and readily accessible to the general IS community

The Anatomy of a Design Theory

Design work and design knowledge in Information Systems (IS) is important for both research and practice. Yet there has been comparatively little critical attention paid to the problem of specifying design theory so that it can be communicated, justified, and developed cumulatively. In this essay we focus on the structural components or anatomy of design theories in IS as a special class of theory. In doing so, we aim to extend the work of Walls, Widemeyer and El Sawy (1992) on the specification of information systems design theories (ISDT), drawing on other streams of thought on design research and theory to provide a basis for a more systematic and useable formulation of these theories. We identify eight separate components of design theories: (1) purpose and scope, (2) constructs, (3) principles of form and function, (4) artifact mutability, (5) testable propositions, (6) justificatory knowledge (kernel theories), (7) principles of implementation, and (8) an expository instantiation. This specification includes components missing in the Walls et al. adaptation of Dubin (1978) and Simon (1969) and also addresses explicitly problems associated with the role of instantiations and the specification of design theories for methodologies and interventions as well as for products and applications. The essay is significant as the unambiguous establishment of design knowledge as theory gives a sounder base for arguments for the rigor and legitimacy of IS as an applied discipline and for its continuing progress. A craft can proceed with the copying of one example of a design artifact by one artisan after another. A discipline cannot

UTILIZAÇÃO DE TEORIAS NAS PESQUISAS EM GOVERNO ELETRÔNICO: REFLEXÕES INICIAIS SOBRE PESQUISAS BRASILEIRAS

This article discusses the use of theory in Brazilian research on electronic government (eGov). International academic literature has promoted reflections and criticisms about the degree of theorization in the eGov research field and its implications to research. This article aims to understand the use of theories in the Brazilian context. Through a systematic literature review, 96 articles published between 2003 and 2014 were selected. The five types of theory typology proposed by Gregor (2006) in her article ‘The Nature of Theory in Information System’ was used as the framework to analyze the papers. A detailed paper analysis shows that most of them (62%) fit to the ‘Theory to Analysis’, the most basic type. The main interest of Brazilian researches is the description of the phenomenon ("what"), rather than to understand "why", "what will be" or "how to do something," representing necessary stages for the growth and qualification of a research field. The study indicates the need to use other stages of theories in Brazilian studies on eGov.Este artigo trata do uso de teoria nas pesquisas brasileiras sobre governo eletrônico (eGov). A literatura acadêmica internacional tem promovido reflexões e críticas acerca do grau de teorização da área de eGov e suas implicações na pesquisa. Nesse contexto, este artigo tem por objetivo discutir a utilização de teorias no campo de pesquisa de eGov tendo como base para esta reflexão inicial pesquisas brasileiras no tema. Por meio do processo de revisão sistemática de literatura, foram selecionados 96 artigos para análise, publicados entre 2003 e 2014 em periódicos brasileiros. Como modelo de análise foi utilizada a tipologia proposta por Gregor (2006), em seu artigo The Nature of Theory in Information Systems, que apresenta cinco tipologias de teorias. A análise detalhada dos artigos mostra que a maioria deles (62%) se encaixa na “teoria para análise”, o tipo mais básico estabelecido pela autora. O principal interesse das pesquisas brasileiras é na descrição do fenômeno (“o que é”), mais do que entender “porque”, “o que será” ou “como fazer algo”, que representam estágios necessários para o crescimento e qualificação de um campo de pesquisa. O estudo indica a necessidade de utilizar outros estágios de teorias nos estudos brasileiros sobre governo eletrônico

A Framework for Quality Assurance in Crowdsourcing

The emergence of online paid micro-crowdsourcing platforms, such as Amazon Mechanical Turk (AMT), allows on-demand and at scale distribution of tasks to human workers around the world. In such settings, online workers come and complete small tasks posted by a company, working for as long or as little as they wish. Such temporary employer-employee relationships give rise to adverse selection, moral hazard, and many other challenges. How can we ensure that the submitted work is accurate, especially when the verification cost is comparable to the cost of performing the task? How can we estimate the exhibited quality of the workers? What pricing strategies should be used to induce the effort of workers with varying ability levels? We develop a comprehensive framework for managing the quality in such micro crowdsourcing settings: First, we describe an algorithm for estimating the error rates of the participating workers, and show how to separate systematic worker biases from unrecoverable errors and generate an unbiased “worker quality” measurement. Next, we present a selective repeated-labeling algorithm that acquires labels in a way so that quality requirements can be met at minimum cost. Then, we propose a quality-adjusted pricing scheme that adjusts the payment level according to the contributed value by each worker. We test our compensation scheme in a principal-agent setting in which workers respond to incentives by varying their effort. Our simulation results demonstrate that the proposed pricing scheme is able to induce workers to exert higher levels of effort and yield larger profits for employers compared to the commonly adopted uniform pricing schemes. We also describe strategies that build on our quality control and pricing framework, to tackle crowdsourced tasks of increasingly higher complexity, while still maintaining a tight quality control of the process

Mobile appointment reminders in patient-centered care: Design and evaluation

Reminder systems have great potential to enhance healthcare outcome if it can facilitate collaborative appointment management with accessible mobile communication technology in patient-centered care. Yet, Current appointment reminder systems are effective but not optimal (McLean, et al. 2016). Following the design science process delineated by Peffers et al. (2007) and other requirements, this study proposes a design of reciprocal reminder system that automates the process of appointment rescheduling for healthcare providers and patients in addition to confirmation and cancellation. Based on the premises of media synchronicity theory, media naturalness theory and stakeholder theory as kernel theories, this study develops a design theory that covers platform design, communication design and service design. Design principles of new mobile appointment reminders are proposed to cater to the different requirements of provider and patient users. Situation adaptivity and privacy sensitivity are identified as the major design features that need to strike a balance between different user requirements. An experiment investigates how the variation in design may influence user behavior, and the findings suggest that situation adaptivity and privacy sensitivity have positive effects on users’ system experiences in terms of performance expectancy, effort expectancy and subjective consonance. Further survey results on the final design confirm that the reciprocal reminder system adaptive to patient situations and sensitive to privacy concerns has the expected effects on user behavior