Going back to basics in design science: from the information technology artifact to the information systems artifact

The concept of the ‘information technology (IT) artifact’ plays a central role in the information systems (IS) research community's discourse on design science. We pose the alternative concept of the ‘IS artifact’, unpacking what has been called the IT artifact into a separate ‘information artifact’, ‘technology artifact’ and ‘social artifact’. Technology artifacts (such as hardware and software), information artifacts (such as a message) and social artifacts (such as a charitable act) are different kinds of artifacts that together interact in order to form the IS artifact. We illustrate the knowledge value of the IS artifact concept with material from three cases. The result is to restore the idea that the study of design in IS needs to attend to the design of the entire IS artifact, not just the IT artifact. This result encourages an expansion in the use of design science research methodology to study broader kinds of artifacts.     

A profile of information systems research in the Mediterranean region

Drawing data from the Mediterranean Conference on Information Systems (MCIS), we build a profile of Mediterranean information systems (IS) research and compare the emerging research landscape with recent reviews in European and international contexts. We report on research topics addressed, research methodologies employed, local empirical contexts and the composition of the related community of authors. On the basis of this data, we problematize on the meaningfulness and nature of a regional profile for IS research. Together with the six papers selected for this special issue, we aspire to contribute to the broader discourse on the diversity of IS research orientation, methodologies and agendas across different parts of the world.     

Diversity in information systems action research methods

Discussions of action research in information systems (IS) often proceed as if there were one definitive action research method. This paper describes and analyses the different frameworks, assumptions and goals that characterise the diverse forms of action research. A more inclusive action research paradigm is delineated that offers a basis for validating a wider range of IS research. Acceptance of the full range of the diverse forms of action research may enable the IS field to be more explicit about its research methodology, thereby enabling criteria to be improved and applied to a broader range of IS research.     

Towards an information systems perspective and research agenda on crowdsourcing for innovation

Recent years have seen an increasing emphasis on open innovation by firms to keep pace with the growing intricacy of products and services and the ever changing needs of the markets. Much has been written about open innovation and its manifestation in the form of crowdsourcing. Unfortunately, most management research has taken the information system (IS) as a given. In this essay we contend that IS is not just an enabler but rather can be a shaper that optimizes open innovation in general and crowdsourcing in particular. This essay is intended to frame crowdsourcing for innovation in a manner that makes more apparent the issues that require research from an IS perspective. In doing so, we delineate the contributions that the IS field can make to the field of crowdsourcing.     

Innovation research in information systems: A commentary on contemporary trends and issues

There is a need to unify the different strands of innovation research in information systems (IS) literature. We analyze 113 articles published over the past 15 years in top 10 IS journals. We classify the literature by (a) using the overall process spectrum of conceptualization from its innovation to its diffusion and (b) using the various theories of innovation referred to and validated in the articles. We identify that innovation diffusion theory is the most popular theory used by researchers. We conclude that future research must focus on the conceptualization and the generation phase of innovation through exploratory or empirical studies.     

Disruptive information system innovation: the case of internet computing

Abstract. Information system (IS) innovation can be defined as a novel organizational application of digital computer and information communication technologies (ICT). This paper discusses how modalities of applying ICT technologies in their form and scope exhibit radical breaks, which are introduced herein as ‘disruptive IS innovations’. This notion of disruptive IS innovation is developed by drawing upon and extending Swanson's (1994) theory of IS innovation as well as the concept of radical innovation. Disruptive innovations strongly influence the future trajectory of the adoption and use of ICT in organizational contexts and make the trajectory deviate from its expected course. In doing so, these disruptive innovations distinctly define what an IS is and how it is deployed in order to address current and future organizational and managerial prerogatives. Such changes are triggered breakthroughs in the capability of ICT that lead to the revision and expansion of associated cognitive models (frames) of computing. Disruptive IS innovations are those that lead to changes in the application of ICT that are both pervasive and radical. The pervasive nature implies that innovative activity spans all innovation subsets of the quad‐core model of IS innovation introduced herein. Innovation types include: IS use and development processes; application architecture and capability; and base technologies. Radical in nature, disruptive is innovations depart in significant ways from existing alternatives and lead to deviation from expected use and diffusion trajectory. This paper demonstrates the importance of a concept of disruptive IS innovation by investigating how changes triggered by internet computing (Lyytinen et al., 1998) meet the conditions of a disruptive IS innovation defined herein. The analysis also affirms both the pervasive and radical nature of internet computing and explains how internet computing has fundamentally transformed the application portfolio, development practices and IS services over time. The analysis demonstrates that, with the concept of disruptive IS innovation, we can fruitfully analyse ‘long’ waves of ICT evolution – an issue that has largely been overlooked in the IS community. On a theoretical plane, the paper advocates the view that we need to look beyond linear, unidirectional, and atomistic concepts of the diffusion of IS innovations where innovative activity takes places in a linear fashion by oscillating between small technological innovations and small organizational innovations. In contrast, IS innovation can exhibit fundamental discontinuity; we need to theoretically grasp such disruptive moments. The recent influx of innovation, spurred by internet‐based technology, offers one such moment.     

50 Years of business computing: LEO to Linux

The "LEO story" is a remarkable example of innovation by users in computing technology (defined here to include both computer hardware and software). Indeed, the development of LEO I and the subsequent history of the LEO product line illustrate a number of important themes that have characterized much of the history of computing technology and innovation since the 1940s. The LEO story highlights other important characteristics of the history of innovation in computing technology, including the complex roles of government funding and university research; the frequent failure of technically advanced products to enjoy commercial success; the importance for commercial success in business computing of firm-level capabilities in related technologies; and the interaction between organizational and technological change in the adoption of business computing systems. This paper surveys these themes as they appear in the history of LEO's development and commercialization and as they have influenced the broader history of computing.     

New frontiers for information systems research: computer art as an information system

This paper proposes extending the frontiers of information systems (IS) research by seeing computer art as a kind of information system. It explores some research questions that arise if we take such a view. A new agenda for IS research is developed, based upon six themes in computer art and related work in previous IS research. The link between IS and computer art is bi-directional: our theories of information systems could inform the study of computer art, and computer art could inform our information systems theories, possibly leading to modification or even abandonment of them. Twelve research questions are suggested, and potential barriers to IS researchers studying computer art are also discussed. The paper offers possibilities, not solutions, and makes an important contribution by suggesting new opportunities for innovative research in IS and by signposting some of the topics which could be addressed.     

Crowdsourcing of information systems research

This paper addresses how technology-mediated mass collaboration offers a dramatically innovative alternative for producing IS research. We refer to this emerging genre as the crowdsourced research genre and develop a framework to structure discourse on how it may affect the production of IS research. After systematically traversing the alternative genre’s landscape using the framework, we propose a research agenda of the most substantial and imminent issues for the successful development of the genre, including contributor incentives, scholarly contribution assessment, anonymity, governance, intellectual property ownership, and value propositions. In addressing this research agenda, we reflect on what might be learned from other areas in which crowdsourcing has been established with success.     

Twenty years of the European information systems academy at ECIS: emergent trends and research topics

While the information systems (IS) community is increasingly international, it is reasonable to expect that different regions might display different research approaches, interests and publication orientations. This paper contributes to the growing number of historical accounts in the IS field by further developing the profile of European IS research that was reported on in EJIS following the first 10 years of the European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS). On the basis of an analysis of all papers published in ECIS proceedings during the 10-year period 2003–2012, the paper highlights three key characteristics of the developing European IS research profile: (1) continuation of the traditional European IS research profile as developed in the first decade; (2) convergence with aspects of the North American tradition and (3) development of a distinct approach to design science. We place these observed characteristics within broader historical and contextual features such as the changing European academic landscape, with increasing pressures to ‘publish or perish’ in order to be internationally competitive. Our contribution lies in providing a contemporaneous account of the dominant contextual factors influencing the European IS academy in recent years as well as our interpretation of the developing research profile, thus informing future understanding of European IS research and the choices facing individual IS researchers.     

Beyond synthesis: re-presenting heterogeneous research literature

This article examines the nature, role and function of the literature review in academic discourse. Researchers in information systems (IS) are often advised to espouse a neutral viewpoint and adapt the goal of synthesising previous literature when conducting a literature review. However, since research literature in many areas of IS is diverse and heterogeneous, this synthesis is not value neutral, but is a construction of the researchers. We suggest that other goals and viewpoints for reviewing and presenting previous literature are possible, and in some cases, desirable. Using the example of service quality literature, we use a lens of historical discourse, and techniques of soft systems analysis and rich pictures, to present previous research literature on ServQual-related research in IS and electronic commerce. We identify seven ‘stories’ from service quality research literature and analyse the clients, actors, transformations, world-view (weltanschauung), owners and environment in each story. We conclude that alternative presentations of research literature can offer fresh insights, especially in areas where the research literature is diffuse, contradictory and heterogeneous.     

计算机技术的创新过程探讨

当今社会计算机技术的快速发展,为人们的生产与生活带来了很大的方便。计算机技术从问世之日起到现在时间不长,从其发展的态势来看,技术创新能力很强。分析了计算机技术的创新过程,重点从目前计算机技术的创新发展情况、未来计算机技术的创新趋势进行研究,以期提升对计算机技术创新过程的了解水平。     

Tomorrow’s ethics and today’s response: An investigation into the ways information systems professionals perceive and address emerging ethical issues

This paper explores the question of how foresight and futures research can identify and address ethical issues in the field of Information Systems (IS). Starting from the premise that such IS are part of socio-technical systems, the interaction between technology and human actors raise ethical concerns. Early recognition of these concerns can address ethical issues and improve the use of the technology for a range of social and organisational goals. This paper discusses research conducted in two futures research projects. Both projects investigated emerging information and communication technologies (ICTs) and ethics. The first project established approaches for identifying future technologies and their related ethical concerns. This led to the identification of 11 emerging ICTs and their associated ethical concerns. The second project took these general ethical concerns and focused on their role in IS. Specifically, how IS professionals view future emerging technologies, their associated ethical concerns, and how they think these concerns could be addressed. The key findings are that IS professionals are primarily interested in the job at hand and less so in the ethical concerns that the job might bring; ethics is a concern that is best left for others to deal with. This paper considers the implications of research on ethics in emerging ICTs and draws general conclusions about the relevance of future technologies research in IS.     

An extension of the tri-core model of information systems innovation: strategic and technological moderators

There has been significant empirical work on information systems (IS) innovation. With the advent of a myriad of new and diverse technologies being introduced into contemporary organizations this work is only going to increase in its importance. Unfortunately, results of prior empirical work have been fragmented. Many of these studies treat IS innovations as homogeneous entities and do not effectively integrate notions of IS innovation with general organizational innovation. Swanson (1994) proposes a tri-core model and theory of IS innovation that can help integrate the isolated studies in this area, and can form the foundation on which future study of IS innovation can be based. This paper, in the spirit of a cumulative research tradition, presents and builds on Swanson's framework by incorporating contingencies that might affect the model. Specifically, notions of strategy (strategic push) and technology impact are discussed in the context of the framework. We hope that continued inquiry into this area will facilitate formulation of rich theory that will enable focused inquiry on IS innovation.     

The scholarly influence of Heinz Klein: ideational and social measures of his impact on IS research and IS scholars

Heinz Klein was a fine scholar and mentor whose work and life have inspired us to explore the notion of ‘scholarly influence’ which we cast as ‘ideational’ and ‘social influence’. We adopt a portfolio of measures approach, using the Hirsch family of statistics to assess ideational influence and Social Network Analysis centrality measures for social influence to profile Heinz Klein's contribution to information systems (IS) research. The results show that Heinz was highly influential in both ideational terms (a significant body of citations) and social terms (he is close to the heart of the IS research community). Reflecting on the major research themes and scholarly values espoused by Klein we define a ‘Kleinian view of IS research’, grounded in Habermas’ Theory of Communicative Action, and use that to frame four affirmative propositions to address what we observe to be a distortion and attenuation of the academic discourse on the evaluation of scholarly production. This paper argues that focus should be shifted from the venue of publication of the research to the uptake of the ideas contained in it, thus increasing the openness of the discourse, participation in the discourse, truthfulness, and reduction of the inequities in power distribution within academia.     

The concept of mindfulness in information systems research: a multi-dimensional analysis

The concept of mindfulness has garnered increasing attention during the last decade. Initially proposed within the scope of information systems (IS) research as a means of creating a deeper knowledge foundation for decision making regarding information technology (IT) innovations, it soon became broadly applied throughout IS research. To gain a better understanding of the evolved diversity of this concept, this paper reviews and analyzes extant IS research by means of (a) the investigated IS themes, (b) the purpose of using the concept, (c) the level of application of the concept, and (d) the tendency to focus either on mindfulness, mindlessness, or both. By synthesizing research findings, we derive a high-level IS mindfulness theory. We then propose future research opportunities, such as the explanation of the relationships between different levels of mindfulness, applying mindfulness to bridge the different phases of the software development process, and the identification of guidelines for designing information systems that facilitate mindfulness. As the first review on the application of mindfulness in IS research, we contribute to the overall understanding of mindfulness and address the four abovementioned dimensions from which mindfulness emerges in order to demonstrate that mindfulness provides a meaningful platform for generating knowledge.     

The ethical nature of critical research in information systems

Abstract.  Critical research in information systems is based on and inspired by ethics and morality. In order to support this proposition, this paper will suggest a way of classifying critical research that differs from definitions common IS research. According to the current definition, research is critical when it is motivated by the intention to change social realities and promote emancipation. Based on this critical intention, critical research is furthermore characterized by critical topics, critical theories, and critical methodologies. Using these criteria of critical research, the paper argues that critical research is ethical in nature. To support this view, the paper introduces the concepts of ethics and morality by analysing two traditions of moral philosophy, here called the 'German tradition' and the 'French tradition'. Using three examples of current critical research in information systems, the paper will show that ethics and morality strongly influence critical intention, topics and theories. Having thus established the ethical nature of critical research, the paper concludes by discussing the weaknesses of critical research from the point of view of ethics and morality.