[AISWorld] HICSS-54; 2nd CfP: Knowing What We Know: Where to Now? (Organizational Systems and Technology track)

[Dirk Hovorka]

Second CfP

HICSS-54 2021 Mini-track

Knowing What We Know: Where to Now?

(Organizational Systems and Technology track)


This mini-track invites submissions which address the challenge of: knowing what we know, where to now? Broadly, we invite research that pursues approaches, methods and conceptual papers which use what we know to consider “new phenomena, disclose new perspectives on phenomena, and illuminate new research agendas and programs.” (Hovorka et al 2018). Our ability to understand, integrate and synthesize the exponentially growing body of scientific literature in the social sciences is hampered by social, structural, and institutional barriers.  In general, social sciences lack infrastructures and powerful search and integration tools which enable meta-theorization (e.g. metaBUS, the Human Behavior Project, Medline and the Biological Science Database) and critical engagement with the depth and breadth of current knowledge.  Papers in this mini-track address how fields can better know what they know – and identify what can be known and what is worth knowing.



Research over the last decades has emphasized theory development in IS and other social and behavioral science disciplines. The resulting proliferation of theories and constructs has numerous redundancies, which can be revealed through review, meta-theorization/meta-analysis, and interrogation of the theory discourse. Theory ontologies would benefit the disciplines by identifying what we can now research given what we already know. Theory synthesis or integration could inform social and behavioral sciences research across disciplinary boundaries, help organize our theories to be accessible to practice, and identify how our accumulated knowing can be used to address new phenomenon and challenges.



The scope of the papers for the mini-track is broad, including for example, the development of theory ontologies, approaches to theory integration, introducing tools that support cataloging and synthesizing our discipline’s conceptual infrastructure, and meta-analytic/review approaches to building cumulative knowledge. Of particular interest are papers which present findings as springboards to new research perspectives, conceptualizations or approaches to new phenomena. We also welcome approaches to the local contextualization of theory where insight is gained via valuable distinctions.



Toward these ends and with a focus on knowing what we know can help address new phenomena,  topics of interest in this mini-track include:



  1.  Approaches to theory meta-analysis, integration or aggregation of social and behavioral science theories, including tools that support / implement such approaches;
  2.  The theoretical ties between different disciplines (e.g. healthcare and IS, and sustainability science and IS, energy informatics), and the concerns of;
  3.  Research on ontologies, taxonomies, frameworks, and categorizations of constructs and variables used in system science theories;
  4.  The use of natural language processing, data mining, and predictive analytics to better understand and interrogate theories;
  5.  Discussion of the roles of theories used to explain, approaches used to predict (e.g. neural nets and big data), and of theories of understanding;
  6.  Exploration of the boundaries of theory “domains”
  7.  How can academic knowledge connect to research agendas in regard to future liveable worlds?



Prospective authors are advised that the track does not look for topical literature reviews if these are not illustrations of approaches to meta-theoretical integration. Such literature reviews are best submitted to one of the conference’s topical tracks.



This mini-track also has an associated ISWorld website devoted to theories used in IS research (http://istheory.byu.edu/wiki/Main_Page) — which won the 2005 AISWorldNet Challenge Award for the best website based on AISWorldNet user voting. We intend to uphold this high standard and advance the website further by increasing the synergy between mini-track outcomes and website content.



For further conference details, schedules and submission guidelines please see:
http://www.hicss.org/

We hope to see you on Kauai January 2021!

Mahalo!

Mini-track Co-Chairs:

Dirk S. Hovorka

Associate Professor
University of Sydney Business School

University of Sydney
New South Wales, AU
dirk.hovorka at sydney.edu.au<mailto:dirk.hovorka at sydney.edu.au>


Benjamin Mueller

Associate Professor

University of Lausanne

Lausanne, Switzerland

benjamin.mueller at unil.ch<file:///E:\HICSS%202019\benjamin.mueller@unil.ch>