[AISWorld] JAIS Special Issue "Advances in Qualitative IS Research Methodologies” | Final Call for Papers

[Daniel Schlagwein]

*Journal of the Association of Information Systems*
*Call for Papers for Special Issue: **Advances in Qualitative IS Research
Methodologies*

Guest co-editors:

Dubravka Cecez-Kecmanovic, UNSW, Australia
Robert Davison, The City University of Hong Kong, China
Walter Fernandez, UNSW, Australia
Patrick Finnegan, UNSW, Australia
Shan Pan, UNSW, Australia
Suprateek Sarker, University of Virginia, USA

Background:

Research methodologies have been of central importance to the Information
Systems (IS) field since its inception. Epistemological and methodological
concerns in IS have spawned insightful debates among the community of
scholars about legitimate research topics and objects, the nature of
knowledge and acceptable ways and forms of knowledge production, as well as
relevance for practice. The limitations of dominant research methods and
the lack of relevance of IS research have been debated in the last three
decades with repeated calls for new approaches and methodological advances
(e.g. Hirschheim, 1985; Orlikowski and Baroudi, 1991; Hirschheim and Klein,
1992; Walsham, 1995; Galliers, 2001; Mingers, 2003; Chen and Hirschheim,
2004; Niehaves, 2005; Ramiller and Pentland, 2009).
Questions regarding research methodology are becoming even more critical in
the digital era wherein IS research phenomena are being found to be
increasingly ubiquitous, dynamic, and complex and for which the existing
dominant modes of knowledge production are too limiting, and sometimes even
obsolete. Being at the epicenter of the digital revolution IS researchers
have the opportunity, and indeed an obligation, to lead inquiries into the
emerging territories of digital transformations taking place in old and new
forms of working and organizing, both locally and globally, in private,
public or third sector, and more broadly in societies. These ongoing
digital transformations challenge IS researchers to develop new,
innovative, and imaginative research methodologies and related methods.

The purpose of the Special Issue is to foster and contribute to
methodological advances in qualitative research including new philosophical
approaches and innovative research designs and methods that enable more
profound, critically engaged, practically relevant and reflexive insights
into IS and organizing in the digital era. We invite IS scholars to think
differently about these emerging and increasingly intertwined social and
technological phenomena and explore bold vision and methodological
innovations in conducting IS inquiries.

Building on the rich tradition of epistemological and methodological
debates in IS and social sciences more broadly, this Special Issue aims to:

1)    Provide an unconventional forum for a critical reflection and
wide-open debate on fundamental issues in IS research: paradigmatic and
philosophical foundations, epistemological and methodologies choices, and
implications for knowledge production, justification, and relevance;
2)    Stimulate epistemic developments above and beyond the well-trodden
methodological paths to encourage and equip IS researchers to grapple with
the complex and emerging IS phenomena of the digital age; and
3)    Advance IS research by proposing, developing, and show-casing new,
visionary and innovative qualitative research methodologies and
methods/techniques, and illustrating their contributions to knowledge
creation.

We encourage scholars to submit works that contribute to these key aims.
Papers of a methodological and conceptual nature, as well as those that are
empirical, are welcome.  While contributing to any of the three aims, the
papers may focus on, but are not restricted to, the following:

General themes:

•    epistemological concerns, methodological concerns and concerns with
methods – reviews and critical reflections on IS research practices;
tensions and challenges of aligning epistemology to methodology and then to
method(s)
•    methodological questions of adopting new philosophies/approaches in IS
research (e.g. sociomateriality, practice theory, process theorizing);
•    alternative modes of IS inquiry - innovative approaches,
methodologies, and methods; new forms and challenges of knowledge
production; technologically enabled and assisted IS inquires;
•    revisiting generalizability in IS research – past debates vs future
challenges;
•    new and emerging IS phenomena/objects/foci/domains in the digital era,
such as: digitization processes in private, public and third sector; social
networking; virtual(izing) reality; openness phenomena (open innovation,
value co-creation); global sourcing and crowdsourcing; new
technology-enabled modes of working and organizing; electronic markets;
vertical and horizontal transformation of industries; enterprise systems,
globalization and transformation of organizations;
•    qualitative research and methodological challenges in the era of Big
Data;
•    new answers to old questions: does IS research matter in practice (and
for whom) and why should we care?
•    new strategies and genres for representing qualitative research in
electronic journals such as the Journal of the AIS.

These themes can be explored on their own and also as part of the following
tracks:

a) Methodological advances in case study research including new
perspectives/ approaches in case study research of emerging IS phenomena;
methodological challenges in multiple cases research; theorizing from cases
– new methods and challenges;
b) Methodological advances in field/ethnography/virtual ethnography
research including: new ways of doing field work underpinned by novel
approaches; field work in new digital environments (virtual, global,
distributed, algorithmic worlds); unleashing discovery and learning from
field work;
c) Methodological advances in action research including different
ontological and epistemological assumptions and their implications in
conducting Action Research; integration or comparison of the variants of
Action Research; innovative ways of approaching and doing Action Research
and advancing theoretical and practical contributions of Action Research;
d) Methodological advances in Grounded Theory approaches to knowledge
production and theory building including: innovative ways of grounded
theory development; challenges of grounded approaches in case study and
field study inquiries, and technological assistance in grounded knowledge
production and theory building.

The key characteristics of manuscripts that the Special Issue seeks to
publish are:

•    Novelty/innovativeness of methodological ideas, ability to transform
our view of existing methodologies, or introducing new methodological
approaches and methods relevant to studying Information Systems today and
in the future;
•    Bold ideas, imaginative perspectives, sound argumentation and, when
applicable, empirical illustration of ideas;
•    In case of a manuscript that is empirically-focused, the potential to
serve as an exemplar for a particular methodology (say, virtual
ethnography, grounded theory development using big data, discourse
analysis)
•    The potential for being found useful in the IS discipline and beyond.

Of course, the editors recognize that all of the above criteria are not
necessarily relevant to each and every manuscript. Researchers are invited
to submit their paper that addresses one of the nominated themes/tracks and
clearly contributes to the Special Issue aims.

Important dates:

*01 April 2017 – deadline for submission of papers to the Special Issue*
20 April 2017 –  authors advised regarding paper acceptance for review
10 June 2017 – first round of reviews completed and authors advised
regarding review outcomes
10 Aug 2017 – deadline for revised papers
01 Oct 2017 – second round of reviews completed and authors advised
regarding review outcomes
15 Nov 2017 – deadline for revised papers
01 Dec 2017 – final editorial decision on papers acceptance for the SI
15 Dec 2017 – Special Issue papers submitted to JAIS for publications

All papers will be peer reviewed and must follow the standard guidelines
for manuscript preparation and submission posted on JAIS website (
http://aisel.aisnet.org/jais).

The papers presented at previous Special Issue related workshops and those
submitted to the Special Issue will be also considered for publication in
an edited volume. In such a way there will be an opportunity to publish a
larger number of papers. More information about the planned edited volume
will be provided at a later stage.

Associate Editors/Editorial Review Board:

David Avison (ESSEC Business School)
Michel Avital (Copenhagen Business School)
Jenine Beekhuyzen (Griffith University)
Sebastian Boell (University of Sydney)
Tom Butler (University College Cork, Ireland)
Michael Cahalane (UNSW)
John Campbell (University of Canberra)
Andrea Carugatti (Aarhus University)
Suranjan Chakraborty (Towson University)
Mike Chiasson (University of British Columbia)
Bill Doolin (Auckland University of Technology)
Riitta Hekkala (Aalto University)
Nik Hassan (University of Minnesota)
Ola Henfridsson (University of Warwick)
Dirk Hovorka (University of Sydney)
Tina Blegind Jensen (Copenhagen Business School)
Mathew Jones (University of Cambridge)
Julia Kotlarsky (Aston University)
Eleni Lamprou (ALBA Graduate School of Business)
Magnus Mähring (Stockholm School of Economics)
Michael Myers (University of Auckland)
Olivera Marjanovic (University of Sydney)
Kathy McGrath (Brunel University)
Nathalie Mitev (London School of Economics)
Ilan Oshri (University of Loughborough)
Carsten Østerlund (Syracuse University)
Nancy Pouloudi (Athens University of Economics and Business)
Kai Riemer (University of Sydney)
Daniel Schlagwein (UNSW)
Ulrike Schultze (Sothern Methodist University)
Leiser Silva (University of Houston)
Carsten Sorensen (London School of Economics)
Barney Tan (University of Sydney)
Lisa Von Hellens (Griffith University)
Geoff Walsham (University of Cambridge)
Edgar Whitley (London School of Economics)

References:

Chen, W.S. and Hirschheim, R. (2004) A Paradigmatic and Methodological
Examination of Information Systems Research from 1991 to 2001. Information
Systems Journal, 14 (3), 197-235.
Davison, R.M., Martinsons, M.G. and Ou, C.X.J. (2012) The Roles of Theory
in Canonical Action Research, Management Information Systems Quarterly, 36,
3, 763-786.
Davison, R.M., Martinsons, M.G. and Kock, N. (2004) Principles of Canonical
Action Research, Information Systems Journal, 14, 1, 65-86.
Galliers, R.D. (1991) Choosing Appropriate Information Systems Research
Approaches: A Revised Taxonomy. In: H.-E., Nissen, H.K. Klein, & R.
Hirschheim, (Eds), Information Systems Research: Contemporary Approaches
and Emergent Traditions, pp. 327–345. Elsevier Science Publishers, North
Holland.
Hirschheim, R. (1985). Information Systems Epistemology: A Historical
Perspective. In: E. Mumford, G. Fitzgerald, R. Hirschheim, and A.T.
Wood-Harper (Eds.), Research Methods in Information Systems, pp. 9-33,
Elsevier Science, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Hirschheim, R. and Klein, H.K. (1992) Paradigmatic Influences on
Information Systems Development Methodologies: Evolution and Conceptual
Advances. Advances in Computers, 34, 293–392.
Niehaves, B. (2005). Epistemological Perspectives on Multi-Method
Information Systems Research. European Conference on Information Systems,
ECIS2005, (pp. 1584-1595), Regensburg, Germany.
Orlikowski, W.J. and Baroudi, J.J. (1991). Studying Information Technology
in Organizations: Research Approaches and Assumptions. Information Systems
Research, 2(1), 1-28.
Ramiller, N.C. and Pentland, B.T. (2009) Management Implications in
Information Systems Research: The Untold Story. Journal of the AIS, 10, 6,
447-494.
Sarker, S., Xiao, X., and Beaulieu, T. “Qualitative Studies in Information
Systems: A Critical Review and Some Guiding Principles,” MIS Quarterly,
Vol. 37, No. 4, December 2013, pp. iii-xviii
Walsham, G. (1995) The Emergence of Interpretivism in IS research.
Information Systems Research, 6, 376–394.


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*Dr. Daniel Schlagwein* | Senior Lecturer | Academic Board
School of Information Systems and Technology Management
UNSW Business School | UNSW Sydney
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