Design Science Research: A call for a pragmatic perspective

Information systems design has long been concerned with improving utility, efficiency and effectiveness - a markedly rational functionalist perspective. Applying a broader view of design paradigms reveals that information systems have a generative capacity, which enables reframing and recasting reality to enable human action based and support multiple values. Viewing Design Science Research through the lens of pragmatist philosophy reveals that broadening the ontological foundations for design theory and evaluation can increase our understanding of how people actually interact with technology to achieve ideographic goals. The secondary design of information technologies and community-based Geographic Information Systems are offered as examples for which demonstrates a pragmatic perspective enriches design directives

MOVING BEYOND IS IDENTITY: CONCEPTS AND DISCOURSES

The ongoing debate about the identity of the Information Systems (IS) discipline is examined from a new perspective. Two recent studies are contrasted to demonstrate the limits of retrospective analysis for defining the field of IS. A new model for IS research, based on concepts and discourses is suggested. Latent Semantic Analysis is proposed as an approach to identifying concepts which form transdisciplinary discourses. Conceptual mapping across disciplines may elucidate fruitful areas of research and a transdisciplinary approach to research may improve research salience and intellectual contributions. Such an approach may also weaken or dissolve the discipline as an applied business/organizational field focused on the information technology artifact. This has the long term effect of maintaining intellectual plasticity and relevance, while expanding the range of intellectual contributions available to IS researchers. Moving beyond IS identity will require rethinking institutional structures upon which the identity of IS is currently dependent

Tinkering, Tailoring and Bricolage: Implications for Theories of Design

Current structural specifications for design theory and guidelines for Design Science fall short of creating theories that account for user tinkering, secondary design tailoring, and the interactions of supporting kernel theories. This paper offers an expansion of design theory conceptualization by incorporating aspects of design which occur in everyday technology use. Currently, design theory is focused solely on the artifact while obscuring the teleological information processes for which they are designed. We propose the addition of environments which can organize kernel theories and provide insight regarding interaction and influence of kernel theory in different use contexts. In addition, the modification of information artifacts and processes as users tinker with, and tailor systems is a necessary aspect of design theory specifications

From Practice to Design and Back: Emergence of an Information Service View

A critical part of transforming research to practice is the recognition of the coordination between the research domain and the problem-solving domain. An action research perspective which supports this coordination is useful in the realization of a new information service view of technology. The information service view engenders a shift from the provision of defined and preset services or applications to an environment that enables users to actively select and integrate technology services in the ongoing creation and re-creation of unique information systems in the service of action. In this research, we argue that design practice in the construction and evaluation of the information services view is a necessary complement to the expansion of research to construct a coherent view of this emergent class of IS. We use an exploratory case analysis of practice to construct a unique information service view and suggest that this view of service-oriented information systems can benefit practice and research

Enterprise social software appropriation: A dance of animacy

Information Technology Outsourcing (ITO) is a common business practice to outsource delivery of Information Technology (IT) scopes to external suppliers. During past two decades, ITO has grown significantly and has also become an established field of research. With rapid innovations in IT, information security is an increasing concern as new risks emerge in ITO that have not been explored by earlier studies. This paper highlights the insufficiency of the knowledge on this topic and investigates the need of information security risk management (ISRM) in ITO. It aims at creating an ISRM framework for ITO, which will contribute to knowledge and will help businesses to improve their ITO strategy and resilience against information security risks

IS Sustainability Research: A trans-disciplinary framework for a ‘grand challenge’

To address the “grand challenge” of biosphere sustainability, it is imperative that we examine the assumptions and philosophies underlying Information Systems sustainability research and expand research approaches. Despite calls for trans-disciplinary research and recognition that addressing sustainability will require multiple perspectives, a review of the IS sustainability literature finds that few publications incorporate knowledge or methods from outside traditional business-centric boundaries. Drawing on a diverse range of IS and sustainability literature, we develop a trans-disciplinary framework for IS Sustainability Research (ISSR) based on a view of sustainability that recognizes the environment as a critical stakeholder rather than a collection of resources to be managed and exploited. We identify three broad areas of inquiry and representative research questions which address the connections between human activity, the natural capital of the biosphere, and the societal goals of human-environment interactions through which ISSR can contribute to the grand challenge of biosphere sustainability

Perspectives on Emergence in Information Systems Research

In this research essay we contend that “emergence,” or the formation of complex wholes from parts, is a fundamental concept for comprehending the dynamic relationships between people, technology, and organizations during the ongoing cycles of design, appropriation, and use of information systems. Past research on emergent phenomena use the concept with varying degrees of attention to the structural and functional changes that have occurred to components in the emergent whole or to the implications of the processes by which emergence occurs. Refining our perspectives of emergence will guide researchers in clarifying how the socio-technical whole is greater than the constituent parts and how the whole comes into existence over time. In this article, we define three forms of emergence and provide both research exemplars and a framework for categorizing emergent phenomena to better articulate and refine how we understand emergent phenomena in Information Systems

Towards an Informativity Account of Design Research

In this paper we apply a sociomaterial perspective to the relationships of people, work, and technology to provide further insights into design research. We focus attention on the phenomena, not the artifact, produced through processes of \u27informativity.\u27 This approach challenges the Cartesian dualism upon which design is premised and reveals the emergence of multiple enactments of information and technology by people across time and context. Informativity accounts for the variable processes of information discovery, selection, and support and acts as a source of potential creativity, improvisation, and design

REFRAMING INTERPRETIVISM AND POSITIVISM AS UNDERSTANDING AND EXPLANATION: CONSEQUENCES FOR INFORMATION SYSTEMS RESEARCH

This research offers a new perspective by reframing the positivist-interpretive debate as a distinction between the functional outcomes of research: explanation and understanding. Based on an older and well-established literature in philosophy, this distinction can reinvigorate important differences in research outcomes that have been lost. Understanding or “subjective meaning” is connected to the intentionality, thoughts, and motivations of the human subjects under study. From this perspective, understanding is the type of knowledge gained from determining the meanings, categories, and symbols humans attach to actions, knowledge, and systems. In contrast, explanation is achieved by subsuming individual instantiations of the phenomenon under broad general laws, or identifying causal mechanisms that support antecedent-consequent pairs. Researchers can proactively use the understanding-explanation distinction as a heuristic to create new lines of research questions based on what has not been explained or understood rather than on which ontology or methodology has not been used

Active Collaboration Learning Environments: The Class of Web 2.0

The maturity and increased integration of online collaboration, networking, and research tools offer Information Systems faculty opportunities to provide unique learning environments at multiple levels. A growing ensemble of Web 2.0 technologies provide the background to introduce and explore fundamental aspects of information system development, design, application, and use, while simultaneously providing a functional suite of tools which will aid students in other aspects of their university learning. A selection of these technologies and case studies of their classroom usage is discussed. In addition, an agenda for research in both pedagogy and in information systems phenomena is outlined