[AISWorld] Call for Chapters on "Advancing IS Theories: Theories and the Process of Theorizing in IS"

[Nik Rushdi Hassan]

Dear colleagues,
Following up from a very successful SIGPHIL at ICIS workshop on "Advancing IS
Theories" last December, Leslie Willcocks and I are collecting chapters for
a multi-volume Springer series on the same topic. We already have
commitment from authors for chapters in these volumes and looking for more.
Please read details below for content and schedule deadlines.

Theories and the Process of theorizing in IS schedule
Submit first draft                                               April 30,
2019
Submit final draft after review                           May 31, 2019
Expected published by:                                     Aug 31, 2019

Sincerely
Nik R. Hassan and Leslie Willcocks

Edited Series: Advancing Information Systems Theories

The title of this planned Springer series of volumes on information systems
(IS): “Advancing Information Systems Theories” is phrased in such way to
emphasize its intended goal. The focus of this series of volumes is on
“information systems (IS) theories” not just “theories in IS.” In the
context of the IS field, the phrasing implies significant differences. It
is well known that the IS field has been debating the nature and role of
theories for some time with intense debates regarding whether or not a
theoretical core is necessary (King & Lyytinen, 2004; Lyytinen & King,
2004; Lyytinen & King, 2006; Weber, 2006), disagreements concerning whether
or not the field can speak of native theories (Grover, et al., 2012;
Straub, 2012), and what constitutes IS theory and the role of theories in
IS (Avison & Malaurent, 2014; Bichler, et al., 2016; Gregor, 2014;
Holmström & Truex, 2011; Lee, 2014; Markus, 2014). What is not up for
debate is how the field undertakes its research using theories from its
“reference disciplines.” By borrowing from these reference disciplines “the
theories and methods of these disciplines serve to set the standards by
which the quality and maturity of IS research should be measured”
(Baskerville & Myers, 2002, p. 1). Whether it is the theory of reasoned
action (TRA) or its derivative, the theory of planned behavior, from social
psychology, resource based view (RBV) and absorptive capacity theory from
strategic management, game theory and transaction cost theory (TCT) from
Economics, innovation diffusion theory (IDT) from communications, or social
cognitive theory and activity theory from psychology, the IS field has
consistently borrowed (Lim, et al., 2013), often uncritically (Hassan,
2011; Markus & Saunders, 2007) to legitimize its research. The goal of this
series of volume is to advance IS research beyond this form of borrowed
legitimization and derivative research towards fresh and original research
that naturally comes from its own theories – information system theories.
It is inconceivable for a field so relevant to the era of the
hyper-connected society, disruptive technologies, Big Data, social media
and "fake news" to not be brimming with its own theories.

To move the field forward, the foundations surrounding theory have to be
unambiguously clear, for how can theory be advanced if theory itself is
misunderstood? Any advancement of theory has to begin with some form of
agreement with regard to IS theories from thought leaders of the IS
community. Although much progress has been made (Gregor, 2006; Gregor &
Jones, 2007; Hassan, 2014; Hassan & Lowry, 2015; Mueller & Urbach, 2013;
Weber, 2012), many questions remain unanswered. The major questions that
will be addressed include: What can we agree on with regard to theories?
What constitutes theories and what doesn’t? Why do we need theories? Why
bother with theories? How can one go about developing theories? What does
an IS theory look like? The answers to these kinds of questions will be
discussed in this series of volumes on “Advancing IS Theories.”

For purely demonstrative purposes, a tentative list of chapters and topics
are provided below along with the names of authors who have either
submitted abstracts to the editors or had presented at the Special Interest
Group on Philosophy of IS (SIGPHIL at ICIS) workshop on “Advancing IS
Theories” in San Francisco, on December 13-14, 2018. These authors have yet
to submit their full chapters, which will in turn be reviewed, and we
expect more chapters to be reviewed and added to all three volumes. We
expect these works to trigger other works of even higher quality that will
eventually find their way into our top journals and help advance the field
forward.

*Advancing Information Systems Theories-Theories and the Process of
theorizing in IS*
The first volume addresses what theories are and why bother with theories.
Included in this volume is the process of theorizing itself because the
process cannot be divorced from the product of that process. As Weick
(1995) argues, the process of theorizing is what will help illuminate what
theories are.

Introduction: Why theories? (Hassan, Gregor & Willcocks)
              1
Theoretical and practical contributions in IS (Agerfalk)
                     20
Causality in IS theorizing (Markus and Rowe)
                      40
Causal mechanisms in theory building (Volkoff and Urquhart)
            60
The art of crafting theory (Rivard)
                                80
IS theorizing as discursive practice (Hassan, Mathiassen & Lowry)
          100
Philosophical and methodological approaches to concept analysis (Wynn)
    120
Theorizing design science (Sjöström)
                           140
IS theorizing in strategy (Galliers, Moeini, Simeonova, Wilson)
              160
Pluralist theory building (Mathiassen)
                           180
......

*Advancing Information Systems Theories-The Products of Theorizing in IS*
The second volume concerns efforts that approach theories – what Weick
(1995) calls “interim struggles.” This volume comes out of the realization
that the process of theorizing can be long and arduous and like all great
things, will not be built in a day, much less in an edited volume. So,
although they may not be called theories with a capital “T,” they
nevertheless approximate theory and should not be dismissed. They may be
called “principles,” “propositions,” “models,” “paradigms,” “concepts,”
“frameworks” or what have you. They are the products of theorizing and are
precursors to strong theory, and as long as they are fresh and original,
they go a long way in advancing IS theories.

Introduction: The products of IS theorizing (Hassan, Mathiassen & Lowry)
        1
Against paradigms? Reevaluating IS paradigms (Hassan & Mingers)
        20
Theories and kernel philosophies (Haj-Bolouri)
                      40
Design principles in design science (Gregor and Hevner)
                60
IS Concepts: Declaring IS to the world
                           80
Mapping an IS research framework
                         100
Models and contexts of discovery in IS
                          120
IS constructs and variables
                               140
A collection of IS propositions
                               160
........

*Advancing Information System Theories: Information Systems Theories*
The third volume intends to showcase the IS theories themselves and what
they might look like if one were to stumble upon them in the dark.
Discussions on advancing existing IS theories such as media richness theory
(MRT), media synchronicity theory (MST) and other theories developed within
the IS field can be included in this volume. Purely based on the name of
the field of study – Information Systems – and its history and origins, one
would expect that some form of information theory or systems theory would
qualify as an IS theory. Or, since systems relate to technology, some kind
of theory of technology would be an imperative for the IS field. Or, the
combination of information in the form of signs and with human cognitive
processing as in semiotics, would qualify as an IS theory. We expect to see
some of these theories in this volume. Thus far, theories related to
information, systems, or technology have not made headlines within the IS
field, and reference discipline theories from psychology, social
psychology, communications, management and economics dominate and consume
most of the energy of our best and brightest. If the struggles in existing
journals are any indication, this third volume may be the riskiest of the
three. However, that is the point pushing this effort in the form of a
multi-volume book so as to collect as many works that even if they appear
to be speculative, they represent original thinking at the highest quality
of scholarship.

The shape of IS theories (Hassan, Gregor & Willcocks)
                 1
Indigenous IS theories (Grover & Lyytinen)
                        20
Against theory? A history of IS theories (Hirschheim and Hassan)
             40
System theory foundations for IS theories
                       60
IS theories of technology
                                80
IS theories in sociomateriality (Cecez-Kecmanovic)
                    100
IS theories and semiotics (Mingers & Willcocks)
                     120
The shape of IS process theories (Niederman)
                     140
Mertonian middle-range theories in IS (Hassan and Lowry)
              160
Information theories in the IS field (McKinney)
                      180
Systemic Complexity theory (Hassan)
                        200
.........
Publishing Schedule and DeadlinesThis multi-volume text will be published
on a rolling schedule. Each volume will be given its own submission, review
and publishing schedule. To start, the schedule below refers only to the
first volume. However, authors can submit earlier for later volumes to
allow for simultaneous review and enable the editors to organize the
submitted chapters into appropriate volumes based on their content. Please
submit all full chapter drafts to both Nik R. Hassan (nhassan at d.umn.edu)
and Leslie Willcocks (willcockslp at aol.com) before the date specified below.
Authors may be asked to review chapters from other authors in their
requested volume or other volumes. We also welcome abstracts, suggestions
and expressions of interest for chapters in all volumes.

Theories and the Process of theorizing in IS schedule
Submit first draft                                               April 30,
2019
Submit final draft after review                           May 31, 2019
Expected published by:                                     Aug 31, 2019

References
Avison, D., & Malaurent, J. (2014). Is theory king?: Questioning the theory
fetish in information systems. Journal of Information Technology, 29(4),
327-336.
Baskerville, R. L., & Myers, M. D. (2002). Information systems as a
reference discipline. MIS Quarterly, 26(1), 1-14.
Bichler, M., Frank, U., Avison, D., Malaurent, J., Fettke, P., Hovorka, D.,
. . . Thalheim, B. (2016). Theories in Business and Information Systems
Engineering. Business Information Systems Engineering, 58(4), 291-319.
Gregor, S. (2006). The nature of theory in information systems. MIS
Quarterly, 30(3), 611-642.
Gregor, S. (2014). Theory – Still king but needing a revolution! Journal of
Information Technology, 29(4), 337-340.
Gregor, S., & Jones, D. (2007). The anatomy of a design theory. Journal of
the AIS, 8(5), 312-335.
Grover, V., Lyytinen, K., & Weber, R. (2012). Panel on Native IS Theories.
Paper presented at the Special Interest Group on Philosophy and
Epistemology in IS (SIGPHIL) Workshop on IS Theory: State of the Art,
Orlando, FL, Dec 16-19.
Hassan, N. R. (2011). Is information systems a discipline? Foucauldian and
Toulminian insights. European Journal of Information Systems, 20(4),
456-476.
Hassan, N. R. (2014). Useful Products in Theorizing for Information
Systems. Paper presented at the International Conference for Information
Systems (ICIS), Dec 14-17, Auckland, NZ.
Hassan, N. R., & Lowry, P. B. (2015). Seeking Middle-Range Theories in
Information Systems Research. Paper presented at the International
Conference for Information Systems (ICIS), Dec 13-16, Fort Worth, TX.
Holmström, J., & Truex, D. (2011). Dropping your tools: Exploring when and
how theories can serve as blinders in IS research. Communications of the
Association for Information Systems, 28(1), 283-294, Article 219.
King, J. L., & Lyytinen, K. (2004). Reach and grasp. MIS Quarterly, 28(4),
539-552.
Lee, A. S. (2014). Theory is king? But first, what is theory? Journal of
Information Technology, 29(4), 350-352.
Lim, S., Saldanha, T. J. V., Malladi, S., & Melville, N. P. (2013).
Theories used in information systems research: Insights from complex
network analysis. Journal of Information Technology Theory and Application,
14(2), 5-46.
Lyytinen, K., & King, J. L. (2004). Nothing at the center? Academic
legitimacy in the information systems field. Journal of the Association for
Information Systems, 5(6), 220-246.
Lyytinen, K., & King, J. L. (2006). The theoretical core and academic
legitimacy: A response to professor Weber. Journal of the Association for
Information Systems, 7(11), 714-721.
Markus, M. L. (2014). Maybe not the king, but an invaluable subordinate: a
commentary on Avison and Malaurent’s advocacy of ‘theory light’ IS
research. Journal of Information Technology, 29(4), 341-345.
Markus, M. L., & Saunders, C. S. (2007). Editorial comments: Looking for a
few good concepts...and theories...for the information systems field. MIS
Quarterly, 31(1), iii-vi.
Mueller, B., & Urbach, N. (2013). The why, what, and how of theories in IS
research. Paper presented at the International Conference on Information
Systems (ICIS 2013), Dec 15-18, Milan, Italy.
Straub, D. (2012). Editorial: Does MIS have native theories. MIS Quarterly,
36(2), iii-xii.
Weber, R. (2006). Reach and grasp in the debate over the IS core: an empty
hand? Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 7(10), 703-713.
Weber, R. (2012). Evaluating and developing theories in the information
systems discipline. Journal of the AIS, 13(1), 1-30.
Weick, K. E. (1995). What theory is not, theorizing Is. Administrative
Science Quarterly, 40(3), 385-390.



-- 
Nik Rushdi Hassan, PhD and Assoc. Professor of MIS
Head, Dept of Management Studies
Labovitz School of Business and Economics
University of Minnesota Duluth
1318 Kirby Drive, LSBE 385A
Duluth MN 55812
Office Phone: (218) 726-7453
Fax: (218) 726-7578
Home Page: www.d.umn.edu/~nhassan
Email: nhassan at d.umn.edu
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/nikrushdi/