Employing constructivist grounded theory coding to analyse data from a qualitative case study: Methodological scaffolding to study strategic alignment through a Strategy-as-Practice lens

This paper demonstrates how constructivist grounded theory coding can be availed of as a qualitative data analysis tool to help overcome the risk of an unformulated form of analysis from qualitative case study. Two of Ireland’s Institutes of Technology are chosen as the cases, with a focus on how the alignment of business and information systems strategies is practiced by information systems managers in Ireland’s Institutes of Technology. With the emphasis on the practices of information systems managers, the study is underpinned by a strategy-as-practice lens from which the initial codes are constructed. The findings show the information systems manager to be a functional manager in receipt of a sector wide information systems strategy, whose main concern is to obtain optimum efficiencies from information systems at lowest possible cost

The artifact's theory - A grounded theory perspective on design science research

The need for theoretical work in IS research has been pointed out frequently in past discussions on the cumulative tradition of our discipline. In order to distinct IS research from adjacent fields, the practice of designing artifacts plays a crucial role. On the one hand, the construction and evaluation of new and innovative arti-facts solving real world problems is the core of our discipline. On the other hand, this designing aspect of IS research has been ac-cused of not being linked sufficiently to theoretical considerations in the past. To help IS design researchers to address this chal-lenge, our paper analyzes research generating theory based on the Grounded Theory Method. By identifying, analyzing, and review-ing such research we identify some process characteristics of grounded theory building that can help IS researchers to improve their design processes to also yield theoretical output. Thus, we aim to make an IS design researcher‟s work clearly distinguisha-ble to the work of a software developer or a consultant. By also discussing the role of theory in this context, we intend to make a case for more theoretical work in IS design research