Why things happen – Developing the critical realist view of causal mechanisms

Events happen within the organizational world not by chance but for reasons. It is surely the task of management research to try to explain why these events occur. This requires us to understand the nature of causality but, in general, this is seldom discussed in the management or IS literature. The standard, positivist view underlying statistical analysis is the Humean one of constant conjunctions of events leading to universal laws. Against this, many constructivists find the whole idea of external causality implausible. In this paper we explore a third alternative that is developing strongly within the philosophy of science, social theory and critical realism – the mechanisms view. This proposes that events are generated through the interaction of specific mechanisms endowed with causal powers that may or may not be triggered, and may or may not be countervailed. In particular, the paper develops some of the fundamental concepts such as the nature of events, emergent properties, the difference between properties and powers, casual interactions between levels, absences as causes, event causality and generative causality, and abstracting causal regularities. The paper concludes by illustrating these ideas with a series of empirical case studies

Retroduction, set-theoretic configurational approaches and generative mechanisms: some preliminary insights

Retroduction is a thought operation that has been investigated in a limited fashion in Information Systems (IS) research. Yet, it has the potential of reframing IS research because it can shed a new light on the study of causal mechanisms. In this paper, we call for a renewed effort in the use of retroduction in the study of IS phenomena. Specifically, we claim that IS researchers could retroduce causal mechanisms by leveraging Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) counterfactual approach to causation. Preliminary insights are discussed

OFFERING ACCOUNTS OF COMPLEX IS-PHENOMENA: TOWARDS A COMBINATION OF MECHANISTIC PREDICTIONS AND GENERATIVE EXPLANATIONS

Information Systems (IS) phenomena have become increasingly volatile, complex and fast changing. Capturing their essence is an increasingly daunting task. Data science have emerged in awe to predict future outcomes. Decision-making thus becomes faster while data become bigger. Yet, in the wake of this promising path, many of these predictions lack accuracy due to the unpredictability of complex phenomena. That is why researchers promote the importance of thick qualitative data analysis as a way of seeking explanations of the generativity underlying complex phenomena. This approach is (in comparison) slow, but can answer why events occurred. Thus, we argue that sound accounts of complex IS-phenomena must come from a combinatory approach of fast predictions with slower accounts. Predictions apply laws theorized as causal mechanisms. When these outcomes do not arise, we suggest applying explanatory accounts that apply a different form of causality - generative mechanisms. Generative mechanisms can explain unpredictable outcomes, but can only be inferred through longitudinal qualitative studies. This paper opens up a research agenda for combinatory approaches of fast mechanistic predictions from big data and slower generative explanations from thick data. This combination will help capturing the essence of complex socio-technical phenomena in our capricious digitalized world

Examining the Interplay between Decision-making and Big Data Analytics in driving Decision Value: A Critical Realist Case

To improve organisational performance, much attention has been paid to the value that BDA can produce beyond data-driven decision-making. However, there has been less emphasis on decision value (DV) arising from BDA. To compound this, definitions of DV remain fragmented across different views from social, to technical and economic. We aim to develop an empirically grounded theoretical model characterising how BDA is used in organisations to realize DV and to provide a mechanism-based causal explanation of how DV arises from the interplay between BDA (technical subsystem) and decisionmaking(social subsystem) using a real-world environment. As a result, we propose using retroductive reasoning through Critical Realism (CR) as the overarching philosophy, and Grounded Theory Methodology (GTM) techniques to collect and analyse data. Potential contributions from this research will include the development of a mechanism-based theory explaining how DV arises from the interplay between BDA and decision-making

Systematic Literature Review di Bidang Sistem Informasi dan Ilmu Komputer

Salah satu pendekatan studi pustaka adalah Systematic Literature Review (SLR). Walaupun sudah terdapat banyak naskah berbahasa Indonesia atau asing yang menggunakan SLR sebagai metodologi dalam penelitiannya, namun naskah berbahasa Indonesia yang mengulas tentang SLR masih terbatas atau malah tidak ada. Pada paper ini dirangkumkan langkah-langkah SLR berdasarkan publikasi-publikasi di jurnal berkualitas. Naskah ini berisi panduan untuk melakukan SLR bagi peneliti-peneliti pemula. Isi naskah ini meliputi: metode SLR yang terdiri dari empat tahap (menentukan tujuan SLR, inisiasi dan pemilihan pustaka, analisis dan coding, dan perencanaan untuk mempresentasikan hasil), penentuan kualitas SLR, dan kritik untuk SLR. AbstractThis paper provides a guideline for novel researchers to conduct SLR. Although SLR method is quite familiar in Indonesia, a complete essay that explains about SLR in Indonesia is hard to find. This paper resumes SLR stages from various papers published in high quality journals. This paper includes: four stages of conducting SLR (identifying the SLR objectives, searching strategies dan pilot searching, coding and analysing, and presenting the findings), things to be considered to evaluate SLR quality, and critics to SLR

Mechanistic Explanations and Deliberate Misrepresentations

The philosophy of mechanisms has developed rapidly during the last 30 years. As mechanisms-based explanations (MBEs) are often seen as an alternative to nomological, law-based explanations, MBEs could be relevant in IS. We begin by offering a short history of mechanistic philosophy and set out to clarify the contemporary landscape. We then suggest that mechanistic models provide an alternative to variance and process models in IS. Finally, we highlight how MBEs typically contain deliberate misrepresentations. Although MBEs have recently been advocated as critical realist (CR) accounts in IS, idealizations (deliberate misrepresentations) seem to violate some fundamental tenets of CR and research method principles for CR. Idealizations in MBEs, therefore, may risk being regarded as flawed in IS. If it turns out that CR cannot account for idealizations, naturalism can, and it does so without extra-philosophical baggage

Disciplined autonomy: How business analytics complements customer involvement for digital innovation

The rise of big data and the fluid boundaries of digital products are driving companies to use business analytics (BA) to power their customer involvement. The complementarity view offers unique competence to generate value from BA because capability complementarity is less likely to be replicated or imitated. Unlike prior studies on BA-enabled value realization, our research investigates the interactions of BA and customer involvement capabilities using the complementarity view. We tested our model using data collected from 317 IT companies in China. Our results suggest that BA value realization requires both a top-down mechanism in which BA skills provide global guidance for alignment with a company’s goals and a bottom-up mechanism in which BA culture empowers local autonomy for adaptation to ever-changing needs. Our BA-complemented mechanisms provide research and practice with a way to concurrently use BA and customer involvement capabilities to address the duality of digital innovation. We further suggest that BA skills are necessary but insufficient for digital innovation because BA culture demonstrates a stronger effect in complementing organizations’ existing capabilities than BA skills do

A protocol for a critical realist synthesis of school mindfulness interventions designed to promote pupils' mental wellbeing

The research is funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (GB) (NIHR 133712) using UK aid from the UK Government to support global health research. The funders did not and will not have a role in study design, data collection and analysis, the decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The funders did not and will not have a role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Peer reviewe

A protocol for a critical realist synthesis of school mindfulness interventions designed to promote pupils' mental wellbeing

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This research was funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR 133712) using UK aid from the UK Government to support global health research.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Dialectical Inquiry in Information Systems Research: A Synthesis of Principles

Although dialectical inquiry has been sporadically and selectively applied in the Information Systems (IS) discipline, and premier IS journals increasingly welcome dialectical inquiries, we lack methodological guidance on its application and evaluation, hindering its adoption as an important and valid IS research method. In response, we present a critical analysis of general dialectics literature and 63 extant IS dialectical inquiry publications in 18 journals spanning three decades, revealing that there is a growing and sizeable community of IS researchers using dialectical inquiry explicitly or implicitly to examine how sociotechnical phenomena change. Based on this analysis, we synthesize six principles for dialectical inquiry that are firmly rooted in dialectical philosophy, evidenced in IS publications, clearly distinct from each other, and together comprehensive. As such, our contribution can help IS researchers, reviewers, and editors to extend and solidify their methodological repertoire