[AISWorld] Call for Papers HICSS-51 (2018): Practice-based IS Research mini track

[Leidner, Dorothy]

Call for Papers: Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS-51)

Minitrack: Practice-based IS Research
Track:  Organizational Systems and Technology
Submission Deadline:  June 15, 2017
Conference Date: January 3-6, 2018| Hilton Waikoloa Village

Website: www.hicss.hawaii.edu<http://www.hicss.hawaii.edu>

 The debate over rigor and relevance has extended many decades with rigor leading the way in the overwhelming majority of our academic journals where theory contribution and methodological excellence transcend any practical implication the research may have. In its first decade, MIS Quarterly had a special section devoted to practice-based research called “Application”. Over the years, this section produced highly sighted and highly relevant work that often paved the way for a new research area based upon developments in practice, such as Watson, Rainer, and Koh’s 1991 article on EIS that largely introduced a new research stream to our academic journals, or that introduced to the academic reader current state of the art practices in industry, such as Kettinger, Teng, and Guha’s 1997 description of business process chance techniques, or that provided practical guidance to organizations on highly relevant IS issues, such as Watson, Pitt and Kavan’s 1998 article on measuring and sustaining information systems quality in organizations. Unfortunately, the application section was discontinued after 1999. Today one can publish essays, opinions, idea, and method pieces in our top journals, but not exploratory or descriptive field studies on emerging topics.
This mini-track seeks to encourage practice-based research on new and emerging IS issues in organizations. Practice-based research aspires to bridge the gap between academic theory and practice; it aspires both to introduce researchers to state of the art practices and issues from industry as well as introduce managers to research that makes sense of and brings coherence to the issues they face. The methods used in practice-based research are often exploratory, field-based studies involving interviews, observations, and/or descriptive surveys. The intense pressure to achieve methodological distinction and theoretical contribution often results in very current practice-based topics being eschewed by researchers, because the topics themselves are not mature enough in practice to achieve desirable samples or sample sizes, nor are they conducive to theorizing since so little is known. These are precisely the reasons that exploratory, practice-based research can play a tremendous role in helping establish and lay the foundations of a research domain while providing insights into an emerging topic.
The objective of this minitrack is to encourage practice-based research in information systems and to disseminate the results of that research in a manner that makes its relevance and utility readily apparent.  This minitrack invites authors to submit in-depth research that provides rich stories, unique insights, and useful conceptual frameworks for information systems practice. Papers might be based upon single cases, multiple case, field interviews, or, less commonly, literature itself.  Experimental research and survey research are less likely to achieve the goal of providing rich insight for practice.  While it is assumed that researchers are guided by theory, it is not expected that the submissions to this minitrack make distinct or novel theoretical contributions.  The contributions should focus on distinct and unique lessons for practice.  The minitrack chairs coordinates with MIS Quarterly Executive in selecting papers for fast-tracking to an issue of MISQE.
Please email Bill Kettinger (wjkttngr at memphis.edu) or Dorothy Leidner (Dorothy_Leidner at baylor.edu) if you have any questions.