Towards a Design for IT Performance Management

This paper provides a report on the first iteration of a design-driven research project for delivering an IT performancemanagement (ITPM) solution. This research is situated in the context of existing IT performance related studies. Designscience research (DSR) is the underpinning research approach for crafting the ensuing ITPM solution. Three challenges in theITPM area are identified and a design to meet the challenges is proposed. This is followed with a recapitulation of what theresearch covered in order to develop and evaluate the design. The evaluation results show that the totality of the design isacceptable. Contrary to the mainstream IS literature, this research takes a design approach to create a solution which goesbeyond only the technical and which is based on commonly neglected stakeholder-oriented theories in ITPM. Implications oftaking the design approach are discussed

Towards a Typology of Relevance

This essay presents a speculative work on making distinctions among different equally valid types of research relevance. The work is innovative not only because it departs from the extant monistic perspectives, where only narrow forms of relevance are acknowledged, towards a pluralist perspective, but also because it recognizes and accounts for the plurality in the perceptions of relevance among different stakeholder groups of the same research. The pluralist perspective draws on the notion of “empowerment,” widely employed in such domains as education and social work, and suggests that relevant research in fact can be understood as empowering research to which different stakeholder groups can relate in one way or another. Two analytical dimensions are identified in relation to the notion of “empowerment,” and are used in order to demonstrate four general types of relevance that can be achieved in IS research

Co-constructing Contextual Theory: An Experience within IS Education Domain

Reviewing the information systems (IS) literature shows the prevalence of studies claiming to exploit the grounded theory (GT) method. However, most of these studies follow an objectivist approach to GT. This manuscript addresses another recognized yet rarely used GT approach in IS: constructivist. The importance of IS constructivist research is briefly explained. This is followed with a recapitulation of strategies pursued in a constructivist research experience within IS doctoral education domain in order to achieve a contextual theory. Procedures for establishing satisfactory levels of trustworthiness and authenticity are described. Finally, implications of taking the constructivist approach as well as some major lessons learned are discussed

THEORIZING WHEN USER REACTION TO IT IMPLEMENTATION IS NEITHER RESISTANCE NOR ACCEPTANCE, BUT CONSTRUCTIVE BEHAVIOR: A CASE STUDY OF HEALTHCARE IT IMPLEMENTATION

The prevailing discourse of “resistance vs. acceptance” in IT implementation research mostly personalizes the issue as “users” versus IT implementers (e.g., managers, CIOs, CMIOs, etc.). This kind of discourse has created an IT-implementer-centric attitude among IS scholars and practitioners. The IT-implementer-centric attitude, while embraces “acceptance” as a desirable reaction almost unconditionally, frequently holds for minimizing or more conservatively suppressing “resistance” to IT implementation. In other words, the mainstream IT implementation research, almost completely, treats “users” as passive recipients whose choices, as they face pre-developed/pre-designed/pre-rolled-out technology being implemented, can only be defined on a spectrum from “acceptance” to “resistance.” The current research study, however, offers an alternative perspective that views the “resistance vs. acceptance” duality “from the other side,” i.e., from the perspective of the supposed “resistors” or “acceptors” themselves. Through a review of the literature, this study first identifies major drawbacks of the extant theories and models of IT implementation research. Next, drawing on an interpretive paradigm of research (more specifically, phenomenological sociology), this study investigates a real world case of healthcare IT implementation. The results of the aforementioned literature review and case investigation subsequently form the basis for the study’s proposed theoretical account, which provides an unprecedented understanding and explanation of how actors representing different stakeholder groups, among which people who are routinely called “users” are but one group, experience IT implementation as they live their everyday lives. The proposed theoretical account is lastly used as a guide for crafting both practical and research prescriptions with respect to managing IT-involved change occasions

Affordances and Information Systems Research: Taking Stock and Moving Forward

The term affordance appears with increasing frequency in the Information Systems (IS) literature. Nevertheless, those who study information technologies/information systems (IT/IS) via the affordance lens often have different views about its origin, meaning, and appropriate application in IS research. In turn, not spelling out the related assumptions and boundaries inherent in these diverse views may have hindered a wider and more cumulative adoption of the affordance lens in IS research. This paper offers a potential solution by (1) synthesizing the ecological psychology literature to suggest five key modules of the affordance concept relevant to IS research and (2) taking stock of IS research that has employed the affordance concept and classifying it according to its focus on three key affordance elements: IT artifact, user, and context. Finally, this paper presents a set of challenges, opportunities, and recommendations regarding how IS researchers can advance affordance-based research in the field

Conflating Relevance with Practical Significance and Other Issues: Commentary on Sen, Smith, and Van Note’s “Statistical Significance Versus Practical Importance in Information Systems Research”

Expanding on the current debate on the issues of statistical and practical significance in information systems research, where the article by Sen, Smith, and Van Note is a recent contribution, this commentary cautions against conflating relevance with practical significance. We emphasize that relevance is 1) about the real-world usefulness of research findings rather than their impressiveness for the researcher audience, 2) an essential quality of research spanning beyond its findings and not merely limited to statistical studies, and 3) determined by nonacademics rather than academics. We also comment on other aspects of the article by Sen et al., such as the term “practical importance,” the treatment of effect size measures, and the presentation of “marginal effects.

Towards Ethical Big Data Artifacts: A Conceptual Design

Although Big Data generates many benefits for individuals, organizations and society, significant ethical issues are forcing governments to review their regulations so that citizens’ rights are protected. Given these ethical issues and a gradual increase of awareness about them, individuals are in need of new technical solutions to engage with organizations that extract value from Big Data. Currently, available solutions do not adequately accommodate the conflicting interests of individuals and organizations. In this paper, we propose a conceptual design for an artifact that will raise awareness amongst individuals about Big Data ethical issues and help to restore the power balance between individuals and organizations. Furthermore, we set forward a design agenda outlining future activities towards building and evaluating our proposed artifact. Our work is grounded in discourse ethics and stakeholder theory and intertwined with the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR

Linking Relevance to Practical Significance

Researchers in academic disciplines, including but not limited to information systems, have long been aware of, but have not linked, two research issues: one issue is the lack of relevance, despite the plethora of rigor, in their research, the other issue is the distinction between statistical significance and practical significance, where the latter is no less important than the former. In this essay, we link the two issues by examining and revealing the practical significance of the research reported in a well known, published article and stating the questions that this examination raises

Three Roles for Statistical Significance and the Validity Frontier in Theory Testing

This study offers a method for empirically testing theories operationalized in the form of multivariate statistical models. An innovation of the method is that it distinguishes testing into three separate forms, “effect testing,” “prediction testing,” and “theory testing,” where statistical significance plays a separate role in each one. In another innovation, the researcher specifies not only his or her desired level of statistical significance, but also his or her desired level of practical significance. Statistical significance and practical significance each serve as a dimension in a two-dimensional table that specifies the rejection region – the region where the researcher can justify the decision to reject the theory being tested. The boundary of the rejection region is the “validity frontier,” which ongoing research may advance so as to reduce the size of the rejection region

When Statistical Significance Is Not Enough: Investigating Relevance, Practical Significance, and Statistical Significance

The notions of significance and relevance have provoked much controversy and confusion among those who conduct and those who are intended to be informed by quantitative research in the information systems (IS) field. The history of quantitative research in the IS field and beyond reveals not only disputes over the adequacy of statistical significance to warrant the scientific merits of research, but also pleas for drawing attention to practical significance, as well as a lack of distinction between relevance and practical significance. This essay offers a remedial, overarching account. We establish the position that statistical significance, practical significance, and relevance are distinct qualities, where the latter two transcend mere statistical concerns and respectively refer to the distinct matters of research impressiveness and real-world usefulness. Furthermore, we draw attention to the importance of proper communication of quantitative/statistical analyses through a detailed examination of published IS research. Our examination gives rise to three major issues. The three issues are concerned with the proper communication of (1) research rigor, (2) practical significance, and (3) research relevance. We express our opinions with respect to the three issues and provide a number of recommendations