[AISWorld] From Influential Papers to Influential Ideas - The Discourse Continues - Part 2

Wed Jul 20 18:32:52 EDT 2016

Dear colleagues,

I assume like many of you, I have been following the debate on this forum with interest and concern. At the same time, I am noting that we have had similar ISworld debates in the past. They tend to be well-known and well-engaged in whilst active but also soon forgotten after, even though many of the topics (such as this one) are persistent, perennial and recurring.

In his last post Samir suggested to start an online portal and perhaps a debate on the measurement of influence.
Our own Communications journal (CAIS) was always intended by Paul and those who followed him (including me) to be an outlet where such free flowing ideas, debates, discussions and conversations and other initiatives can take place. One such example is the aforementioned debate section (http://aisel.aisnet.org/cais/debate.pdf), but we are also happy to explore other options and formats. The benefit I would see is in having a moderated debate that can be made persistent and perhaps even ongoing, much like the topic itself. With an online outlet such as CAIS, this is certainly doable.

If there is some interest in exploring this idea, I will be happy to assist.

Jan
Editor in Chief, Communications of the Association for Information Systems

-----Original Message-----
From: AISWorld [mailto:aisworld-bounces at lists.aisnet.org] On Behalf Of Nik Rushdi Hassan
Sent: Thursday, 21 July 2016 5:41 AM
To: Andrew Urbaczewski <Andrew.Urbaczewski at du.edu>
Cc: AISWorld at lists.aisnet.org
Subject: Re: [AISWorld] From Influential Papers to Influential Ideas - The Discourse Continues - Part 2

Dear IS colleagues,
The issue of the value of IS research keeps cropping up now and again in different guises. I used to wonder if it was just me feeling that way. I don't anymore and the many voices in this thread confirms my suspicions.
The issue is complex, but in defense of the field and the community though, there are pockets of efforts trying their best to transform the field for the better. The Communications of the AIS's inaugural Debate Section (thanks to KarlHeinz Kautz) actually got a few senior scholars to examine this issue ("Value of IS Research: Is there a Crisis?") and I think if everyone supports such efforts, we can start to see the transformation take place. For me, the IS field is uniquely positioned, intellectually, to make great contributions to society and like any other legitimate field of study, there is nothing inherently inferior about IS as an intellectual endeavor. It's just up to us to find our place among the giants out there.
Who knows, we might get a Nobel Prize in information systems some day.

Nik

On Wed, Jul 20, 2016 at 12:32 PM, Andrew Urbaczewski < Andrew.Urbaczewski at du.edu> wrote:

> Dear Colleagues:
>
> Early in my academic career, I noted some of the preening going on one 
> of our conferences in the field. Noticing it, a senior scholar with 
> whom I was having a private conversation dismissed it and said 
> something like “These guys all need to remember that we’re not curing 
> cancer here - get a grip on yourselves”.  I then found it interesting 
> to watch that same senior scholar doing that same preening not even a 
> half-hour later, but academics have never been accused of having small egos.
>
> I too have gotten very discouraged and turned off by the way the 
> research of this field has gone the last 15 years.  Models are 
> published not for the usefulness or because any practitioner actually 
> cares, but for their complexity and number of Greek symbols and 
> partial derivatives.  In the last couple of years I’ve had to ask 
> myself several times, “what would I rather spend my limited hours 
> working on? Spending the next year working on and publishing some 
> abstract math piece that /maybe/ 200 other people in the world will 
> actually read (and far fewer will actually use), or helping some 
> bachelor’s or master’s student from a bad situation get a job or 
> finish a capstone project for a non-profit or governmental 
> organization that couldn’t afford the project but will actually use it?”  To me, the answer is obvious.
>
> It is not our job to train practitioners in our language.  
> Practitioners are the ones with real problems to solve and real jobs 
> to lose and real companies that shut down if things go wrong with 
> their processes.  If we screw up, the worst that happens is a paper 
> doesn’t get published or one of our grad students takes an extra 
> quarter to graduate.  We are the ones that need to keep up with the 
> times, and stay current in the real field as Murray Jennex stated in his posts on this matter.
>
> Maybe a better question now is “Why aren’t we curing cancer?”  This is 
> in the abstract of course and a response to the original question in 
> the first paragraph, but there are real, important, useful questions 
> that we can work on. As university professors, we have a privileged 
> place in society to research the questions we find interesting and to 
> work on the problems with people we choose to work with for the best 
> ends as we determine them.  P&T and Deans and FT-45 of course shape 
> these things for our junior faculty, and shame on us for allowing that to happen.
>
> So maybe we can have a journal called “Journal of IS Stuff that Matters”?
> or “Proceedings of Using Data to Solve Real Problems” or “IS research 
> your grandmother can and will read"?  Interfaces is probably as close 
> as I’ve seen to this out there, with MISQE approaching it.  But then 
> to have it valued and publicized is another matter.  Until then, when 
> faced with the choice on how to spend my limited hours in the day, I 
> know how I will spend them.
>
> And funny enough, as I was finishing this email I had a student come 
> by who was modeling a problem for our public transit system and I was 
> happy to help him, knowing that his project may well make public 
> transportation more efficient in Denver later.  It’s not curing 
> cancer, but it may help that cancer patient enter and exit the bus 
> system more efficiently.  I can be proud of that hour I spent.
>
> With my best to all of you,
> Andrew
>
> ----------------------------------------
> Andrew Urbaczewski, Ph.D.
> Chair, Department of Business Information and Analytics Daniels 
> College of Business University of Denver
> 2101 S. University Blvd
> Denver, CO 80208-8931
> +1 303 871.4802
>
> SKYPE me at aurbaczewski
>
> > On 19 Jul, 2016, at 23:34 , Samir Chatterjee <profsamir1 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >
> > Dear IS Colleagues:
> >
> > My simple query on ISWorld has generated passionate debates on all sides.
> > It is clear to me that like myself, many scholars (seniors and 
> > juniors)
> are
> > concerned about the status quo when it comes to IS research. I have 
> > received many direct responses sent only to me and many of you have 
> > said your comments publicly. A number of different (but related) 
> > issues have come up. I don’t think my intention was to address all 
> > of them. In fact while I appreciate the public discourse, I am a man 
> > of action and would like to make progress.
> >
> >
> > I will briefly share a comment that a colleague has made privately to me.
> >
> >
> > “It takes a lot of conviction to point out that the emperor has no
> clothes.
> > This should have been done a long time ago, many thanks for doing 
> > it. I have seen even people with technical training dive into 
> > behavioral work
> as
> > if that's where the gold lies.” If IS research has had low value and 
> > contribution to society let us address that and may be take steps to 
> > rectify the situation so that our next generation scholars can be 
> > proud
> of
> > our legacy.
> >
> >
> > I know that we publish for mutual admiration, we all want to pat our
> backs,
> > and we have created an academic culture where research is evaluated 
> > by
> bean
> > counting, that is, how many hits we have in an obscure basket. Of 
> > course there are promotion and tenure issues and business schools in 
> > particular are obsessed with rankings. However, we all should take 
> > note of the fact that our research should provide value and hopefully societal benefits.
> >
> >
> > That brings me to a question that has been raised: “How do we 
> > measure influence or impact?”
> >
> >
> > I can think of numerous variables that can be combined to create a 
> > score for influence. Some obvious variables would include citation 
> > count, patents, funding from national agencies, commercialization, 
> > actual end-users testimony etc etc. I do not want to come up with a 
> > formulae
> here.
> > But I definitely feel that a panel on this topic should be held at 
> > ICIS
> or
> > some other major AIS conference where we can hear from many scholars 
> > worldwide.
> >
> > A colleague mentioned: “Quite how they will measure impact remains 
> > to be seen, but I suspect that mere citations will be insufficient. 
> > Instead,
> they
> > will look for (even if not find) evidence that the said research has
> made a
> > difference. This has been the call from Geoff Walsham (2012) for 
> > some
> time
> > - to use IS to make the world a better place. Studies of Green IS, 
> > where the real beneficiary is the Planet Earth, should be framed by 
> > this ambit, for instance.
> >
> > Walsham, G. (2012). Are we making a better world with ICTs? 
> > Reflections
> on
> > a future agenda for the IS field. *Journal of Information 
> > Technology*,
> *27*(2),
> > 87-93.”
> >
> > I also agree that collectively as an academic community we should 
> > not
> worry
> > about what journal the paper is in.  But we must list highly 
> > influential and cited papers regardless of the journal. The problem 
> > with FT-45 or if you consider IS from an economics or social science 
> > perspective is that
> you
> > leave out some of the very best people who work on the border e.g.
> software
> > engineering or data analytics. We are increasingly noting that when 
> > new position openings are announced, institutions want people who 
> > can teach programming, do low-level systems development, but are 
> > supposed to have a track record in (and only in) behavioristic 
> > journals. These are
> conflicting
> > demands.
> >
> >
> > The language we use in our IS research, the fact that we are 
> > publishing "more and more about less and less" – and as others have 
> > observed, that
> the
> > publish-or-perish dynamic has gone out of control are all relevant 
> > issues but I don’t think we should lump them into the effort to 
> > create a set of influential papers or ideas list.
> >
> >
> > I agree with Juhani that individual papers may not be the right unit 
> > when one considers the practical relevance of research. Perhaps we 
> > should
> focus
> > on ideas (innovations) and their histories.
> >
> >
> > Identifying innovations that can clearly be attributed to IS 
> > research is challenging because of the heavy dominance of "the 
> > behavioral science research" orientation of mainstream IS research during the last 30 years.
> >
> >
> > The acceptance of Design Science as a research methodology was a 
> > welcome change in the community. But many of us now agree that we 
> > are still
> talking
> > about the philosophy of DSR rather than doing it. The reason is that 
> > top journals keep rejecting relevant and interesting papers sighting 
> > lack of theory contribution. The world is changing but our editors 
> > are not. The more we do that, the less likely we are going to have 
> > an impact or influence to society.
> >
> > Lastly I want to mention that I am very cognizant that research has 
> > two
> > ends: basic (deep knowledge which is foundational) and applied (one 
> > that industry excels in by creating applications). But let us not 
> > kid
> ourselves
> > into believing that IS is a fundamental science field. It is highly
> applied
> > and we should be proud of it.
> >
> >
> > In conclusion I would mention that while many people responded, I 
> > hardly received any papers that one could argue has had influence 
> > and was originated by IS community.
> >
> > One colleague brought out a paper. “To my knowledge one of the most 
> > influential contributions from IS research has been the business 
> > model canvas, presented in the Business Model Generation book by 
> > Osterwalder & Pigneur (2010). This relatively simple yet effective 
> > idea has been
> adopted
> > in start-up business circles everywhere. Osterwalder & Pigneur 
> > published their research in CAIS in 2005, and in JAIS in 2013.
> >
> > Osterwalder, A., & Pigneur, Y. (2013). Designing Business Models and 
> > Similar Strategic Objects: The Contribution of IS. Journal of the 
> > Association for Information Systems, 14(5), 237-244.
> > Osterwalder, A., Pigneur, Y., & Tucci, C. L. (2005). Clarifying 
> > Business
> > Models: Origins, Present, and Future of the Concept. Communications 
> > of
> the
> > Association for Information Systems, 16.”
> >
> >
> > I am going to start a Wiki Page with some important IS 
> > contributions. We may have to debate how we measure influence. I am willing to participate.
> > Are you?
> >
> > Samir
> >
> > --
> > Dr. Samir Chatterjee
> > Professor
> > School of Information Systems & Technology Claremont Graduate 
> > University
> > 130 East 9th Street, Claremont, CA 91711
> > (P) 909-607-4651; (cell) 909-730-8898 profsamir1 at gmail.com 
> > http://sites.cgu.edu/chatterjees/ Director, *Innovations Design 
> > Empowerment Applications Laboratory* (IDEA
> > Labs) http://www.idea-labs.net/
> > Associate Editor: Health Systems, IJBDCN Editorial Board: Journal of 
> > AIS
> > Member: IEEE (senior), ACM (senior), AIS, AMIA
> > Author: http://designscienceresearch.wordpress.com/about/
> > 2015 Lifetime Achievement Award Winner for Contributions to Design
> Science
> > (by AIS DSR community)
> > _______________________________________________
> > AISWorld mailing list
> > AISWorld at lists.aisnet.org
>
> _______________________________________________
> AISWorld mailing list
> AISWorld at lists.aisnet.org

--
Nik Rushdi Hassan, PhD
Assoc. Professor, Finance & MIS Dept.
Labovitz School of Business and Economics University of Minnesota Duluth
1318 Kirby Drive, LSBE 335Q
Duluth MN 55812
Office Phone: (218) 726-7453
Fax: (218) 726-7516
Home Page: www.d.umn.edu/~nhassan
Email: nhassan at d.umn.edu
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/nikrushdi/ _______________________________________________
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