[AISWorld] [External] Re: "IS not capable of coming up with native theories" says its senior scholar

Sun Dec 12 15:48:20 EST 2021

Hello Mikko and Nik:

Are you suggesting that empirical success cannot be "native" theory?
Consider for example, some of the work of the early philosophers whose
concepts and theories were based on empirical observations.  Would their
theories won't be considered "native"?  Even Newton's theory of gravitation
was based on his empirical observation of the falling apple from a tree.

Thus, I think we do need to think about these aspects.  Of course it still
is an open question if the IS discipline is ready for a formal theory,
native or not; but to success that empirical theory building cannot be based
on or lead to "native" theories seems far fetched.

Best regards,

Jatinder (Jeet) N. D. Gupta, PhD, CFPIM
Director, Integrated Enterprise Lab
Eminent Scholar and Professor
College of Business
The University of Alabama in Huntsville
301 Sparkman Drive
Huntsville, AL 35899
Phone: 256-824-6593 (office)
           256-520-0175 (cell)
FAX:    256-824-6328
E-mail: guptaj at uah.edu

-----Original Message-----
From: AISWorld <aisworld-bounces at lists.aisnet.org> On Behalf Of Siponen,
Mikko
Sent: Sunday, December 12, 2021 2:23 PM
To: Nik Rushdi Hassan <nhassan at d.umn.edu>
Cc: AISWorld <aisworld at lists.aisnet.org>
Subject: [External] Re: [AISWorld] "IS not capable of coming up with native
theories" says its senior scholar

Hi Nik

Thank you for asking. To quickly make a long story very short:

1) The role of “native” theories is overplayed in Organizational and
Management Research as well as in IS.  The philosophy of science does not
suggest that the success of sciences or disciplines (in general) is related
to the “native” theories. Lets give a simple example familiar with most
people:
- e.g. for Covid vaccines: Which one of you asked, when taking the vaccine,
if it was based on a “native theory”? I bet you did not ask this.

For Covid vaccines, the issue is not to ask "did anyone develop a ‘native’”
theory, but to ask the degree of EMPIRICAL SUCCESS, i.e., how successfully
are these vaccines. In this specific case, you may want to have high Average
Treatment Effect (ATF; usually presented as statistical generalisation of
the predictive effect, e.g., 60% effect), minimal side effects, long time
effect window, etc. Further, you would like to know the empirical success of
each vaccine against different virus variants. These matters - not whether
there was (or was not) a “native theory”.

2) usually (in the philosophy of science) fundamental scientific goals
relate to “understanding”, OR “explanation” OR “prediction”. E.g. again, we
want to know the empirical success of a CoVid vaccine as illustrated above,
which is predictive success. IF e.g. predictive success is the fundamental
scientific goal, as it is often the case in applied sciences, then (to
simplify) this is what matters. If a “non-native” theory offers a better
track record of EMPIRICAL SUCCESS for some phenomenon, then we go with it.

By and large, e.g. medical research did not became successful by developing
native theories, but with a track record of empirical success.

IS community has a lot of competence. But is the search for “native
 theories” the best way to use this competence? If IS is an applied field,
perhaps we should put our key focus on empirical success. Later we will see
if “native” theories offer better empirical success in different IS cases
than non-native theory.

This is the short story, from a less senior IS scholar....

Mikko Siponen
D. Soc. Sc., Ph.D.
Member of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters Professor of
Information Systems University of Jyväskylä Tel. +358 505588128

On 12. Dec 2021, at 17.43, Nik Rushdi Hassan
<nhassan at d.umn.edu<mailto:nhassan at d.umn.edu>> wrote:

Dear colleagues,
A very distinguished senior IS scholar who has a long string of
accomplishments including chief editorship of top IS journals shared with me
that "I have been doubtful that the IS discipline can come up with Native
Theories. I believe that the IS discipline is simply not ready, not yet
sufficiently developed to come up with Native Theories."
Today, the SIGPHIL at ICIS workshop
<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fsigphil.wordpress.com%2F9th-concurrent-sigphilicis-workshop-on-products-of-theorizing-towards-native-theories-of-emerging-information-technology-dec-12-13-austin-texas%2F&data=04%7C01%7C%7C2e8d3b74f0bf4df9ddfd08d9bd86c218%7Ce9662d58caa44bc1b138c8b1acab5a11%7C1%7C0%7C637749208760285797%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=FzsoRIUMMAxtbPtz5GG0Zz6s%2BYJp0HRoq7I%2BPVPOKAY%3D&reserved=0>
that starts at 1pm CST virtually on Zoom addresses that claim, one way or
another. Will the list of work-in-progress papers, mostly by younger
researchers, vying for a place in the Journal of Information Technology
Special Issue on Products of Theorizing: Towards Native Theories of Emerging
IT
<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fjournals.sagepub.com%2Fpb-assets%2FJIT%2520CFP%2520SI%2520Theory%25202022-1638784677553.pdf&data=04%7C01%7C%7C2e8d3b74f0bf4df9ddfd08d9bd86c218%7Ce9662d58caa44bc1b138c8b1acab5a11%7C1%7C0%7C637749208760295794%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=3H9cgscte%2BtI%2FX1eWBhn60lWoXGB6h6XFyqS%2FeOV77c%3D&reserved=0>,
show that we just don't have what it takes?

What do you think?

--
Nik Rushdi Hassan, PhD and Assoc. Professor of MIS 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:
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Email: nhassan at d.umn.edu<mailto:nhassan at d.umn.edu>
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