A Rural Tale: A Cautionary Allegory for IS Researchers

We present a fragment of text which describes the introduction of a water delivery system to a rural village that is comprehensively rejected by a group of women. We use the story allegorically, examining the contributions from different research traditions to make sense of the rural tale and apply the lessons to the study of Information Systems. We briefly examine how hermeneutics, management change theories, a more critical approach and information systems studies can individually help us to make sense of the text. This shows that no one research tradition gives any more than a partial view of the events in the text but that some are more insightful than others. We discuss the findings including a sideways look at several IS issues (such as the complexity of success and failure, and escalation of commitment)

Disrupt the Disruptor: Rethinking \u27Disruption\u27 in Digital Innovation

Disruptive innovation has been described in the literature as a force that sweeps aside existing technology and business models. This paper presents a case study that aims to understand the disruptive nature of digital innovation. It questions how and why digital innovation comes to have (or not) a disruptive effect. It describes a case study of App and mobile innovation and offer preliminary findings of the case. It argues that digital innovation based on App and mobile technology development could offer a different model of disruption than has been discussed in traditional literature on disruptive innovation that is largely based on manufacturing

Computer-Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis Software: An Illustration of Limitations and Advantages

Computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS) is a well-known acronym in qualitative research. Nowadays, qualitative researchers are inclined to apply such software for various purposes. Critiques of the use of CAQDAS in qualitative research focus on the term “analysis”, claiming that that the tool does little to analyze data. According to these critiques, some users of CAQDAS advocate a positivist or quantitative approach using CAQDAS as a so-called “devil-tool” for science. In contrast, although the use of CAQDAS can be seen to do the mechanical part of the analysis (i.e. coding), it can never fulfill the conceptual part of the analysis which requires a human-touch. Thus the better use of CAQDAS is for coding, not for analysis. This research paper attempts to illustrate the challenges of manual versus computer assisted coding by identifying events that create gaps during an ISD change process using a grounded theory methodology (GTM)

Where We Stand

We are at a unique moment in global history. Against the backdrop of social and economic upheaval, there is growing awareness that our current systems and lifestyles disempower us and are not sustainable. The world’s resources are finite and inequitably distributed. People throughout the world are embracing their inner activist and demanding the right to shape their own destinies

Competitive Advantage and Enterprise Resource Planning Systems: Some Conflicts in the Value-Chain

Whether an organization gains a competitive advantage (CA) from an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system is a topic of much debate in the literature. However, when we differentiate between the stakeholders in the ERP value-chain and their relative CA positions, the literature is curiously silent. We depict the ERP value-chain as having three stakeholders: an ERP vendor, an ERP partner or re-seller, and the ERP end-users or client. The paper suggests how the interests these stakeholders have in maintaining or improving their CA in their own markets is complex and in some circumstances may hinder the development of future ERPs. This paper formulates a set of propositions to address this gap in our knowledge. We close the paper by proposing eight scenarios and suggesting how these and our propositions may be explored empirically

Punctuated Process Modelling of Information Systems Development: An Illustration from a Mid-Sized Enterprise

Building on previous research, we demonstrate how a punctuated process model can describe and analyze a specific information system development project. In this paper, we focus on an Information Systems (IS) project that was being implemented in a UK retail Small-Medium sized Enterprise (SME) where a new system was being implemented to replace the existing, failing one. Generally, the combination of these IS research models can provide us with a new, practical and valuable way in understanding Information Systems Development (ISD) as a social process. There were several contributions using our punctuated process model. We show how social-technical equilibriums were perturbed by the critical incidents that occurred externally to the project. Furthermore, the ability of the project team in dealing with unexpected events was seen as vital skill in ensuring the stability of a project. In contrast, allowing the project to drift was shown to lead to a degree of chaos. Third, patterns from past project or similar patterns from other system processes, as have been suggested the literature, have significant impacts on current project patterns. However, in practice, we found that the knowledge generated from past project patterns or similar patterns from other systems may be of only limited use: actors in our ISD drama were often reactive, not anticipatory. Despite the limitations and complexity associated with this type of research, our approach demonstrates the possibility of employing the punctuated process model in the study of ISD in a variety of organizations as a descriptive and diagnostic tool. The paper ends with suggestions for scholars in IS research as well as practitioners involved in IS projects

Towards a research framework for a human development-based bottom of the pyramid ICT development strategy in South Africa

The uncertainties of information system development (ISD) provide many routes that end in poor project outcomes. These uncertainties produce opportunities for IS researchers who are continually exploring the complexities of information system development. In this paper, which is a work-inprogress, we are focusing on the implementation of enterprise systems in three universities in Malaysia. We adopt a socio-technical process model which provides us with a vehicle to describe an in-depth analysis of the phenomena under examination. By examining the notions of technology and knowledge transfer in ISD, this paper explores the intricate relationships and interactions between its human and non-human actors in the attempts to construct various network alliances. We end with some suggestions for research and practice