Qualitative Analysis Software Applied to IS Research - Developing a Coding Strategy

In the past two decades, the IS research community underwent an intensive debate and fought hard to legitimise interpretive and qualitative research paradigms. Now that the war is over it is ironic that despite a knowledge of technology the IS literature has been slow to embrace software in order to support qualitative data analysis. In the broader social science field, a range of software support tools have emerged offering diverse functionality and a developing critical mass of appropriate literature. This paper sets out to consider how IS research can embrace QAS. Qualitative research has three distinct phases, namely data collection, data reduction and data display, with the later pair being most suitable for enhancement by QAS. Coding is central to QAS, but the IS field has been slow to develop rigourous coding schemas. Are there any frameworks within the IS literature that could by applied to such a task? The Qualitative Analysis Software must not be used without consideration for the research philosophy context, as a ‘package-led’ orthodoxy would regress the attempts to encourage quality research. Finally, the logical tests for measuring the quality of research (Yin, 1994) are reviewed and alternative tactics enabled by QAS are proposed

From Intranets to Wrestling Information Infastructures

This study explores intranets as information infrastructure and this conceptualization is supported by evidence from three interpretive case studies. If an intranet is considered as an infrastructure then it does not occur ‘de-nouvo’, it must wrestle with an ‘installed-base’ and over time extends as a new infrastructure. If this is the case what are the social arrangements that are embedded and give visibility to the Information Infrastructure? What are these existing ‘installed bases’ that an Intranet wrestles with? A qualitative analysis strategy exploiting qualitative analysis software enhances this research. This study concludes that web-based information resources are in fact an information infrastructure, which do not occur ‘de-nouvo’. They ‘wrestle’ with and extend the existing non-technical organisational communication structures, taking on their strengths and weaknesses. They also ‘plug’ into other technical infrastructures in a seamless way. Business processes are also inscribed on to the information infrastructure, but in a partial manner rather than full-automation. A model of this nature can help the IS professional to more purposively extend an Intranet to a business critical information infrastructure

Intranet adoption in Irish organisations: a survey analysis

This paper outlines the findings of an eploratory postal survey, investigating the adoption of Intranets within Irish organisations. We initially explore background literature covering the issues of definitions, applications, advantages, predicted impact on organisations ,information nature and new potential roles of infomation providers. It is clear from this literature that there is a lack of empirically backed evidence of Intranet adoption. This study therefore attempts to address this imbalance and is centred on selective findings of a postal survey, which investigated the use of Intranets in the top 1000 Irish organisations. The main questions addressed by this survey incluted How prevalent are Intranets in Organisations ? What way are they being used ? and what is the profile of organisations that claimed to acquire most benefit ?

Inscriptions on Intranets as Information Infastructures - Exposing the Cultivation Chasm

This study explores intranets as information infrastructure and considers critically the stakeholders, who are responsible for updating the intranet, and the associated organisational impact of their activity, in three interpretive case studies. Previous research indicates that web-based information resources are in fact an information infrastructure, which do not occur ‘denouvo’. They ‘wrestle’ with and extend the existing non-technical organisational communication structures, taking on their strengths and weaknesses. As information infrastructures, numerous social arrangements are embedded or inscribed, giving visibility to the Information Infrastructure. This paper explores the nature of these inscriptions and considers either the influence of the IS function (topdown) versus the end-user (bottom-up) contributions. A number of authors propose cultivation as the desirable middleground between top down and bottom-up lead implementations. The findings are discussed from a critical theory perspective by considering the emancipation of the end-user versus domination via the top-down paradigm

HUMAN-CENTRED DESIGN: EXISTING APPROACHES AND A FUTURE RESEARCH AGENDA

This paper presents an analysis of Human-Centred Design (HCD), using a metatriangulation of scientific literature. This metatriangulation comprises a systematic overview of recent HCD research, in which literature is categorised and analysed using both engineering lens and cognitive science paradigmatic lenses. The study reveals that the most popular HCD approaches do not accommodate software aimed at a broad or anonymous user-base. This shortcoming can be attributed, at least in part, to the popularity of HCD approaches focusing on highly-conscious user cognition based on conceptual models. These forms of cognition rely upon learned conventions and accumulated understanding and, as a result, design approaches focusing upon them are fundamentally limited to catering for a specific subset of the human population. We identify an emerging HCD approach, which we label \u27Foundational Design\u27. This approach focuses on cognitive regularities which exist in less-conscious processing, independent of culture or individual experience, and thus possibly offers a solution to the dilemma described above. Thus a future research agenda focused on the Foundational Design approach and the emerging NeuroIS research stream is proposed and discussed

Capturing multi-stakeholder needs in Customer-Centric Cloud Service Design

Cloud computing applications and services go hand in hand, yet there is no clear mechanism for ensuring that the cloud applications are designed from a customer’s perspective. Likewise services can require adaptation for multiple customers of stakeholders, which require differing user experience outcomes. This paper describes the initial design and development of a predictive analytics cloud service application, which uses historic customer data to predict the existing customers that are most likely to churn. Service blueprinting, a service innovation method, was used as the underlying design model for developing an initial shared understanding of the required service. Personas were used in the requirements analysis to develop insights into multi-stakeholder needs. Using the design science paradigm an extended cloud service design theory is proposed, as an outcome of the ongoing development of this analytics platform

Procedurally Transparent Design Science Research: A Design Process Model

This paper presents a process model for Information Systems (IS) scholars conducting Design Science Research (DSR). The paper argues that the impact of DSR on the IS discipline has been inhibited by perceived limitations in the rigor of DSR studies, and that such perceptions are often due to a lack of procedural transparency surrounding the development process in DSR studies. To help address this issue, the paper presents the Process Model for increased Procedural Transparency (PMPT). A range of design literature is analyzed to identify and characterize the distinct stages of design-oriented research. These stages are laid out in a process model, which is then bound in a recursive instantiation, and demonstrated through an application. The paper concludes with a discussion of the contribution of PMPT, as well as opportunities for future research

The dynamics of a spatial data infrastructure– a national case study

It widely cited that 80% of government data is spatial in nature and the accessibility of this data is a critical aspect of E-government. Many countries are developing standardised infrastructures, which will allow sharing and reuse of spatial data. This paper presents the findings of a national level case study of the Spatial Data Infrastructure implementation in Ireland. The study draws on concepts from Corporate Information Infrastructure (CII), most notably the power of the installed base, role of standardisation, multiple actors and top-down versus bottom-up tensions. A significant outcome of this paper is the application of the CII concepts to a national level case study

Towards a Stage Model for GIS and SDI Deployment in Local Government

This paper focuses on the deployment of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI) within local government in Thai Provinces. GIS has been used extensively within local government and many countries have undertaken SDI initiatives, but these tend to focus at the national level, failing to address the local deployment issues. By their nature as infrastructures, an SDI displays different diffusion patterns to GIS, as they exhibit network externalities and extend an 'installed base'. Having described the GIS and SDI concepts, the authors subsequently turn to the Stage Model literature, which has been applied to generic Information Systems and GIS. An assimilation of this literature is presented and an extended model is proposed, which can be applied in a prescribed manner, aiding in the deployment of GIS and SDI within local government

ENTREPRENEURIAL TEACHING AND RESEARCH IN IS

This panel primarily focusses on entrepreneurship in the context of IS, including the teaching and researching of entrepreneurship and the implications for Information Systems. The Information Systems literature has acknowledged the role of technologically led innovation, with particular emphasis on diffusion of innovation and technology adoption. IS has embraced emerging technologies that have come about due to entrepreneurial endeavours such as Social Media using Facebook. Yet IS research is not involved in driving new emerging technologies or if IS students are doing this, we are not highlighting or publishing research about this. The panel will cover entrepreneurship best practice, teaching style and also the implications for IS research. Entrepreneurial focussed Information Systems teaching and research is a natural progression for the IS discipline, which has made the transition from a socio-technical organisational behaviour research paradigm to embracing the role of the IT artefact through the adoption of Design Science Research (Gregor & Hevner, 2013). This panel recommends making the next step towards developing novel and innovative IT artefacts that can drive new products and services