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

[Prashant Palvia]

The overreliance on or the "fetish" for theories in the IS discipline is
doing more harm than good to the IS discipline. I will put the blame where
it belongs. It is on the top journals in the field. Everyone knows what
they are and I don't need to name these journals. Sadly, other journals are
beginning to copy them. The focus should always be on "knowledge" creation
and there are multiple ways of doing it.

I know I will be attacked. But someone has to speak up. I hope others will
join my call to bring the focus back on knowledge creation and move away
from any single paradigm.

With best wishes for the holiday season,

Prashant

*Prashant Palvia, Ph.D.*

*Joe Rosenthal Excellence Professor*


On Sun, Dec 12, 2021 at 8:35 PM Varun Grover <VGrover at walton.uark.edu>
wrote:

> I agree with Nik and Kalle.  Good theories explain and predict (not only
> predict) -- and the question of retrofitting theories from outside the
> field to explain IS phenomena as we have done for many years vs. expending
> more energy in developing unique insight about our idiosyncratic digital
> phenomena is a reasonable one.  Perhaps for our socio-technical bridging
> there is a place for both -- but I suspect that we are going through
> critical phase that demands deeper thinking - frameworks, models, theories
> about digital....  I'm encouraged by the way the field is responding.
> Varun
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: AISWorld <aisworld-bounces at lists.aisnet.org> On Behalf Of Nik
> Rushdi Hassan
> Sent: Sunday, December 12, 2021 6:24 PM
> To: Kalle Lyytinen <kjl13 at case.edu>
> Cc: AISWorld <aisworld at lists.aisnet.org>
> Subject: Re: [AISWorld] [External] Re: "IS not capable of coming up with
> native theories" says its senior scholar
>
> Dear all,
> Interesting discussions folks. Quite revealing!
> My two cents (even cheaper than Kalle's 5 cents) opinion revolves around
> the notion of "native" theory, which is the same thing as saying "original"
> theories from the IS field, as opposed to derivative, borrowed theories
> that are rather prevalent. We want native theories because we think we have
> the unique training and capabilities to bridge the technical and the social
> (see Supra's sociotechnical axes of cohesion article in MISQ) and therefore
> offer solutions (Mikko's empirical successes) that other disciplines might
> not be able to address. The division of labor of expertise has always
> worked that way since time immemorial. The question is, if we are in an
> interdisciplinary team with other disciplines, how do we articulate what we
> bring to the plate by way of expertise? That's where native theories come
> into picture.
> Nik
>
> On Sun, Dec 12, 2021 at 2:59 PM Kalle Lyytinen <kjl13 at case.edu> wrote:
>
> > Hi
> >
> > My five cents on this which we have elaborated in our 2015 piece with
> > Varun and forthcoming piece in JIT. The reason for ‘inviting’ native
> > theory is not the reason to have just one ( though you can make
> > institutional and political claims why this matters) but that they
> > have poor accuracy in explaining and or predicting Digital phenomena.
> > Whether we call them IS specific is secondary- most of the argument
> > about native theory is not so much about owning it but explain
> > understand and predict new types of digital phenomena.
> >
> > — Kalle
> >
> > Sent from my iPhone
> >
> > > On Dec 12, 2021, at 2:49 PM, Jeet Gupta <guptaj at uah.edu> wrote:
> > >
> > > 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
> > > 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
> > > 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:
> >
>
> --
> 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:
> https://nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.d.umn.edu%2F~nhassan&data=04%7C01%7CVGrover%40walton.uark.edu%7Cd89375457d0947302e4008d9bdcf2127%7C79c742c4e61c4fa5be89a3cb566a80d1%7C0%7C0%7C637749519581850014%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=DeE3MW7mqaPWy2XFAiHJZkAixh5EoIHvxmzTZ2KTt3c%3D&reserved=0
> Email: nhassan at d.umn.edu
> LinkedIn:
> https://nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.linkedin.com%2Fin%2Fnikrushdi%2F&data=04%7C01%7CVGrover%40walton.uark.edu%7Cd89375457d0947302e4008d9bdcf2127%7C79c742c4e61c4fa5be89a3cb566a80d1%7C0%7C0%7C637749519581850014%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=OOjAZ3CqrAB4CG3hwoOI9YHb0y8cZi2cn6ej3X60VKs%3D&reserved=0
> _______________________________________________
> AISWorld mailing list
> AISWorld at lists.aisnet.org
> _______________________________________________
> AISWorld mailing list
> AISWorld at lists.aisnet.org
>