Against Theory: With Apologies to Feyerabend

This essay explores the fixation the field of information systems has with “theory” and my frustration with this focus, examining where this theory focus came from, why it has been so widely adopted, and how it has led to dysfunction. It also offers some recommended action items that the field can take to redirect its efforts in order to become more relevant, resilient, and resourceful. These actions include, broadening the aperture of what legitimate IS research should include, imploring journal editors to change the way “applied” research is handled, bringing back books as an accepted and valued publication outlet, and moving the field in the direction of engagement

Introduction to the Special Issue on “Quo Vadis TAM – Issues and Reflections on Technology Acceptance Research”

IS Research Perspectives aims to introduce and provoke discussion about critical issues in the IS field, from an academic perspective. The articles published in this section are expected to create excitement about how the IS field needs to change (or maintain its status quo) in order to thrive as an intellectual enterprise. As such, we welcome innovative and provocative contributions taking a specific conceptual, theoretical, methodological, or thematic viewpoint of a particular area of interest to the field. This Special Issue, entitled: Quo Vadis TAM - Issues and Reflections on Technology Acceptance Research, is a critical appraisal of Technology Acceptance Model research and its directions. Such an exploration is long overdue given its central place in the past intellectual discourse within the IS field

Strategic Alignment In Mergers And Acquisitions: Theorizing IS Integration Decision making.

This paper focuses on IS integration decisions made during mergers and acquisitions from a strategic-alignment lens. The objectives of this study are to: (1) examine business-IS alignment as reflected in IS integration decisions in a merger context and (2) identify factors that shape IS integration decisions in a merger context. We study these issues in three oil and gas mergers from pre-merger announcement to three to four years after merger announcement. Our contributions are three-fold. We show that firms are somewhat misaligned in the early post-merger period, and come into alignment only two to three years after the merger. We find that business-IS alignment was a minor concern for the new organizations in pre-merger and early post-merger phases. Other factors such as acquirer-target power struggles, prior merger experience, and overarching synergy goals drove much of the initial integration decision making. Only late in the post-merger do the merged organizations revisit their systems to bring them into alignment with the business needs

REMOVING THE POSITIVIST STRAIGHT JACKET FROM INFORMATION SYSTEMS DESIGN SCIENCE RESEARCH

Information Systems Design Science (ISDS) as a research community is limited by a small number of research frameworks with considerable influence. The small triad of influential ISDS research, consisting of Walls, et al (1992), March and Smith (1995), and Hevner et al (2004) have primarily limited ISDS research to the positivist paradigm and the IT artefact. In contrast, Herbert Simon\u27s intentions for design science never had such restrictions and intended a broader perspective. This essay explores Simon?s intentions for design science, the Simonian stream of thought that includes The Sciences of the Artificial, as well as much of his most notable research, and offers an informed view of design science in the tradition of Rortyian neopragmatism

Online Sourcing: Investigations from Service Clients’ Perspective

In this paper we empirically examine a new global phenomenon - online sourcing – with a quantitative research method. Therise of online sourcing not only boosts the emergence of several new business models in current digitalized economy, but alsowill fundamentally change the way work is done. Thus, gaining a deep understanding of the adoption of online sourcingbecomes particularly important. Drawing upon theories of firms including transaction cost theory, we propose an integrativetheoretical framework for the understanding of online sourcing decisions from the service clients’ perspective. The researchmodel is examined with the data collected from an online sourcing platform. Our findings suggest integrative theoreticalframework rather than single perspective in understanding online sourcing decisions. Moreover, the study discloses howdifferent theories are interrelated within an integrative theoretical framework under online sourcing context, as well as therelative importance of each theoretical perspective

What is Yours is “Mine”! A Model to Examine Consumers’ Value Co-Creation in Accommodation Sharing

In this study, we conceptualize a research model in the context of accommodation sharing platforms to examine the antecedents of consumers (guests) value co-creation behaviours using the theoretical lens of psychological ownership (PO). We theorize that the mechanisms of perceived control, intimate knowledge and social interactions moderated by platform mediated communications can induce the development of PO towards target accommodations. We conceptualize the outcome of PO as positive value co-creation behaviours (feedback, advocacy, helping and tolerance) that can be valuable for sustaining participation in accommodation sharing. We plan to collect data from Airbnb users and use SEM to test our research model. Theoretically, our research has the potential to contribute to the emerging phenomenon of sharing economy and value co-creation enabled by online platforms. Also, practitioners can use the conceptual framework to leverage value co-creation behaviours for sustaining participation in accommodation sharing