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Exploring the Implications of Emergence for Artifact Mutability in Design Theory
Abstract
Information Systems researchers have paid increasing attention to design theorizing, i.e. to theorize design-oriented knowledge more thoroughly. We contribute to the development of design theories by exploring the implications that the concept of 'emergence' has for the development of design theories. Specifically, we focus on linking this concept to 'artifact mutability' as one core component of design theories following the accepted anatomy by Gregor and Jones (2007). We enrich the conceptualization of artifact mutability with the differentiation of three types of emergence following Hovorka and Germonprez (2013) and provide actionable advice on how to make corresponding statements on artifact mutability in design theories. With our conceptual analysis, we provide a basis for the systematic inquiry into the relationship between design, artifact mutability and emergence in design science research. Moreover, we identify a set of important questions that can be answered more comprehensively by relying on our conceptualization.
... Previous IS literature acknowledged different perspectives of emergence (Hovorka & Germonprez, 2013) and its role for artefact mutability (Wessel et al., 2016). In specific, three different forms of emergence have been distinguished (Hovorka & Germonprez, 2013): ...
... Previous literature argued that emergence is related to artifact mutability in IS design theories (Gregor & Jones, 2007;Wessel et al., 2016). We agree that emergence is an important aspect of a design theory. ...
On April, 21 2020, the Insititut of Advanced Studies of the University of Siegen (“Forschungskolleg Siegen”) hosted a virtual conference on digitization. While hosting a purely digital event is well suited for a conference that seeks to discuss topics at the edges of innovation, it was also triggered by the current Corona pandemic. Therefore, we hosted this conference online to put emphasis on new opportunities of digitalization and to demonstrate that every cloud has a silver lining.
The idea of this conference emerged as a follow-up of the FoKoS future award for scholars which was awarded in 2018. While the price is intended to acknowledge indiviual scholars and their research, the ambition was to put this idea one step further and organize an event from which more colleagues can benefit. For that reason, we decided to put a topic at the core which affects us all: digitization. Digitization is fundamental for several disciplines including philosophy, linguistics, mathematics, economics, architecture, healthcare and many more. Since digitization is fundamental for local acteurs including research institutes such as the University of Siegen and likewise for industry, it seems a perfect common theme for this conference.
The slogan of this conference is “Get together – think together” to highlight the significance to address important questions in inter- and transdisciplinary teams. While this is often proves a challenge in practice, it is all the more important to think beyond boundaries of distinct disciplines. This is particularily relevant when it comes to research areas that investigate the interplay between technology and human behavior. If those questions are not addressed from a holistic perspective, lots of hidden potentials remain uncovered.
Many scholars are already adressing specific questions whitout beeing aware of related research from scholars in other disciplines. In particular, PhD candidates could benefit from additional opportunities to get in touch with other scholars and exchange ideas and initiate collaboration to enhance their research. Since a great amount of academic work necessitates cooperation, e.g. to write proposals, papers and grant applications, this kind of conferences could be an important part of scientific communities.
For this volume, we are happy to include 15 research papers from 27 scholars and 4 different research
institutes across all disciplines. We clustered the contributions in four sections: “Perspectives on Digital Health” (Part A), “Perspectives on Virtual Realities” (Part B), “Perspectives on Technology Use and Adoption” (Part C), and “Future Perspectives” (Part D).
Part A covers four articles that focus on aspects related to digital health. Harder and Chavez (Digital Technology in Health Education? - Opportunities for New Mothers in Mexican Public Healthcare Services) investigate potentials of digital technologies in healthcare with a particular focus on the Mexican system. Knop (Methodological Implications of Research on Technology Use by Healthcare Professionals: A short Introduction to Multidimensional Scaling) illustrates the potential of using multidimensional scaling for scholars doing research in the healthcare domain. Müller (Exploring Emerging Patient Responsibilities in Telemedicine Use: An Empirical Study) explores responsibilities that come with telemedicine, building upon insights from qualitative interviews. Finally, Uhde et al. (Context Factors for Pro-Social Practices in Health Care) reflect on context factors that are relevant when it comes to the healthcare system.
Part B consists of four contributions that are concerned with the role of virtual realitites. Ressing (Combining the Virtual Reality with Biofeedback – State of Research in Nutrition) reflects on potentials of the combination of virtual realities and biofeedback. With a particular emphasis on eye-tracking, Schlechtinger (What Are You Looking At? Using Eye Tracking to Improve Learning in Virtual Environments) discusses opportunities for learning that can be exploited using virtual realities. Weber (Exploring the Potential of Virtual Reality for Learning – A Systematic Literature Review) adds to this debate by providing the results of a systematic literature review on the potentials of virtual realities with regard to learning. Finally, Weigel (A Design Journey: Towards a Virtual Reality Simulation and Training Application) proposes a more practical perspective on VR by outlining a design journey that supports the design and evaluation of a VR setting.
Part C addresses research questions related to technology adoption and use. Oschinsky et al. (Resist, or not to Resist, that is the Question: On the Status Quo Bias of Public Sector Employees When Dealing with Technology) reflect on the status quo bias and how this relates to technology resistance. Syed et al. (From Technology Adoption to Organizational Resilience: A Current Research Perspective) focus on the role of organizational resilience by reflecting on current research perspectives. Finally, Zeuge (The Sweet Escape – A Research Agenda on Escapism in Information Systems Research) suggests escapism as a new concept that can guide future scholars to better understand technology use.
Finally, we have gathered four papers with are more general approach in Part D (“Future Perspectives”).
Kelter (New Perspectives on Statistical Data Analysis: Challenges and Possibilities of Digitalization for Hypothesis Testing in Quantitative Research) critically reflects how quantititative research is conducted, highlighting potentials for future research. Klein (Reflective Practice in the Digital Age) discusses how the concept of reflective practice can be applied in the digital age. Klesel and Henseler (Emergence in Design Science Research) suggest how the concept of Emergence can be used to evaluate design artifacts. Finally, Schäfer (Developing a Smart City Strategy by use of St. Gallen Management Model focused in Smart Mobility and Smart Environment) investigates how smart city strategies can be derived from established management models.
This conference was only possible with the support of many. We thank the Institute of Advanced Studies (FoKoS) for their support. In particular we thank Dr. Olaf Gauß, Vanessa Simon, Janine Taplan, Jonas Pees and Nick Brombach for ensuring a smooth conference. An academic conference only comes to life through the contributions of scholars. Therefore, we thank all the authors for submitting and presenting their research and for their active participation in the sessions. We hope that this collection contributes to a better dissemination of digitalization research across displinces and increases its visibility.
This paper aims to extend understanding of the nature of information systems and technology (IS/IT) artifacts and the manner in which information systems design theories address the mutable nature of these artifacts. The term ‘semizoa’ is introduced to refer to IS/IT artifacts as mutable systems that exhibit some of the characteristics of living creatures and that are only in part designable. It is shown that the mutability of semizoa can be both constrained and enabled in IS design theories, using concepts of homeostasis, situated action, autopoiesis, learning, evolution, emergence and redesign. Consideration of the range and nature of these characteristics provides a source of ideas for systems designers in designing for specific IS meta-requirements. In addition, we show that IS design theories should include a reflective structural component dealing with the mutability of not only the system state but also its structure (schema). The paper contributes by addressing the lack of attention to the distinctive characteristics of IS/IT artifacts and by extending current ideas of design theories and theorising.
The paper motivates, presents, demonstrates in use, and evaluates a methodology for conducting design science (DS) research in information systems (IS). DS is of importance in a discipline oriented to the creation of successful artifacts. Several researchers have pioneered DS research in IS, yet over the past 15 years, little DS research has been done within the discipline. The lack of a methodology to serve as a commonly accepted framework for DS research and of a template for its presentation may have contributed to its slow adoption. The design science research methodology (DSRM) presented here incorporates principles, practices, and procedures required to carry out such research and meets three objectives: it is consistent with prior literature, it provides a nominal process model for doing DS research, and it provides a mental model for presenting and evaluating DS research in IS. The DS process includes six steps: problem identification and motivation, definition of the objectives for a solution, design and development, demonstration, evaluation, and communication. We demonstrate and evaluate the methodology by presenting four case studies in terms of the DSRM, including cases that present the design of a database to support health assessment methods, a software reuse measure, an Internet video telephony application, and an IS planning method. The designed methodology effectively satisfies the three objectives and has the potential to help aid the acceptance of DS research in the IS discipline.
In this article, we offer a broadened view of service innovation-one grounded in service-dominant logic-that transcends the tangible-intangible and producer-consumer divides that have plagued extant research in this area. Such a broadened conceptualization of service innovation emphasizes (1) innovation as a collaborative process occurring in an actor-to-actor (A2A) network, (2) service as the application of specialized competences for the benefit of another actor or the self and as the basis of all exchange, (3) the generativity unleashed by increasing resource liquefaction and resource density, and (4) resource integration as the fundamental way to innovate. Building on these core themes, we offer a tripartite framework of service innovation: (1) service ecosystems, as emergent A2A structures actors create and recreate through their effectual actions and which offer an organizing logic for the actors to exchange service and cocreate value; (2) service platforms, which enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of service exchange by liquefying resources and increasing resource density (facilitating easy access to appropriate resource bundles) and thereby serve as the venue for innovation; and (3) value cocreation, which views value as cocreated by the service offer(er) and the service beneficiary (e.g., customer) through resource integration and indicate the need for mechanisms to support the underlying roles and processes. In discussing these components, we consider the role of information technology-both as an operand resource and as an operant resource- and then examine the implications for research and practice in digitally enabled service innovation.
Over the last decade, there has been an increasing focus on service across socioeconomic sectors coupled with transformational developments in information and communication technologies (ICTs). Together these developments are engendering dramatic new opportunities for service innovation, the study of which is both timely and important. Fully understanding these opportunities challenges us to question conventional approaches that construe service as a distinctive form of socioeconomic exchange (i.e., as services) and to reconsider what service means and thus how service innovation may develop. The aim of this special issue, therefore, is to bring together some of the latest scholarship from the Marketing and Information Systems disciplines to advance theoretical developments on service innovation in a digital age.
In the IS discipline, the formulation of design principles is an important vehicle to convey design knowledge that contributes beyond instantiations applicable in a limited context of use. However, their formulation still varies in terms of orientation, clarity, and precision. In this paper, we focus on the design of artifacts that are oriented towards human use, and we identify and analyze three orientations in the formulation of such design principles in IS journals - action oriented, materiality oriented, and both action and materiality oriented. We propose an effective and actionable formulation of design principles that is both clear and precise.
Market surveillance systems (MSSs) are information systems that monitor financial markets to combat market abuses. Existing MSSs focus mainly on analyzing trading activities and are often developed through a trial-and-error approach by screening data mining algorithms and features. The void of theoretical direction limits the effectiveness of MSSs and calls for the development of a design theory based on a thorough examination of the meta-requirements of MSSs. Based on the efficient market hypothesis and text understanding theory, this paper argues that market information analysis should be incorporated into MSSs and commonsense knowledge should be employed to connect related events to transactions and provide reference concepts for understanding market context and assessing transaction risk. We show the effectiveness of this proposed design theory through developing and evaluating a prototype system in the context of a real-world stock exchange market. By taking a theory-driven approach, this research shows the possibility and provides guidelines on the use of market information analysis to alleviate the market surveillance problem, which has significant implications for financial markets and the economy given the explosive growth of illegal trading activities worldwide.
This paper applies Simon’s (1996) sciences of the artificial to elaborate a set of structures and processes for developing design theory. Goals, kernel theory, and artifacts inform an inter-related prototyping cycle of design, evaluation, and appropriation/generation to produce strategic design theory. The paper identifies DSR project types to provide signposts for starting and ending the cycle, artifact and evaluation iteration to facilitate the process and provide a chain of evidence, a simplified format for representing design theory iterations, and stopping rules to end the cycle. We use a detailed example to illustrate the ideas, discuss related work, and identify limitations and future research opportunities. © 2015, Association for Information Systems. All rights reserved.
We are approaching the tipping point in the development of technologies that promise to enable an era of smart everything (cities, cars, buildings, etc.). Concurrently, service systems continue to dominate industrialized economies. Naturally, the concepts of smartness and service are starting to fuse, particularly when there is growing interest in overcoming the issues surrounding the effective implementation of smart engineered systems by applying a “service” framework. In terms of adding value to human life, actions executed by smart objects, mediated by technology, can be interpreted as a service to people. Inevitably, a new theoretical framework is needed to describe the interactions of ubiquitous technologies (new smart objects or processes) with the human world. Fundamental scientific principles need to be well understood at the intersection of the sensing and actuating, cognitive/behavioral, communications, and computational fields. This call for a new research avenue is intended to challenge the service engineering research community to think more deeply in the context above and converge with behavioral, cognitive, and computer scientists to develop new or additional principles and theories that help us better predict the behavior of a service system as a function of its design (as a sociotechnical system), with the human at the center.
I n this paper, we examine the challenges around the development and scalability of information infrastructures. We identify two possible solutions proposed in the literature, one emphasizing more top-down control and the need for a clear IT governance framework, and a second arguing for a more flexible approach since absolute control is impossible and only leads to drift and unintended outcomes. We suggest that there is a clear gap in the literature in better understanding how to govern the development of information infrastructures using a bottom-up approach. We build on research that approaches IS development as a collective action problem and focus on how different actors frame the infrastructure as a public and private good, and how the framing process is underpinned by actors' different ideologies. We use our theoretical approach to examine the framing of the development of a regional health information infrastructure in Crete. Our analysis examines how different actors frame the infrastructure as a collective action good and explore their ideological positioning. We explore the struggle around meanings attributed to the good over time as being a public or private one in establishing or sustaining relations of power, and how legitimacy is challenged or reinforced. Finally, we develop contributions on the collective action challenges in infrastructure development and suggest how a polycentric approach to governance might be further developed to promote the ongoing cultivation of information infrastructures from the bottom up.
Design science research (DSR) has staked its rightful ground as an important and legitimate Information Systems (IS) research paradigm. We contend that DSR has yet to attain its full potential impact on the development and use of information systems due to gaps in the understanding and application of DSR concepts and methods. This essay aims to help researchers (1) appreciate the levels of artifact abstractions that may be DSR contributions, (2) identify appropriate ways of consuming and producing knowledge when they are preparing journal articles or other scholarly works, (3) understand and position the knowledge contributions of their research projects, and (4) structure a DSR article so that it emphasizes significant contributions to the knowledge base. Our focal contribution is the DSR knowledge contribution framework with two dimensions based on the existing state of knowledge in both the problem and solution domains for the research opportunity under study. In addition, we propose a DSR communication schema with similarities to more conventional publication patterns, but which substitutes the description of the DSR artifact in place of a traditional results section. We evaluate the DSR contribution framework and the DSR communication schema via examinations of DSR exemplar publications.
Evaluation is a central and essential activity in conducting rigorous Design Science Research (DSR), yet there is surprisingly little guidance about designing the DSR evaluation activity beyond suggesting possible methods that could be used for evaluation. This paper extends the notable exception of the existing framework of Pries-Heje et al [11] to address this problem. The paper proposes an extended DSR evaluation framework together with a DSR evaluation design method that can guide DSR researchers in choosing an appropriate strategy for evaluation of the design artifacts and design theories that form the output from DSR. The extended DSR evaluation framework asks the DSR researcher to consider (as input to the choice of the DSR evaluation strategy) contextual factors of goals, conditions, and constraints on the DSR evaluation, e.g. the type and level of desired rigor, the type of artifact, the need to support formative development of the designed artifacts, the properties of the artifact to be evaluated, and the constraints on resources available, such as time, labor, facilities, expertise, and access to research subjects. The framework and method support matching these in the first instance to one or more DSR evaluation strategies, including the choice of ex ante (prior to artifact construction) versus ex post evaluation (after artifact construction) and naturalistic (e.g., field setting) versus artificial evaluation (e.g., laboratory setting). Based on the recommended evaluation strategy(ies), guidance is provided concerning what methodologies might be appropriate within the chosen strategy(ies).
The institutional entrepreneurship implicit in a firm's sponsorship of its technology as a common standard is beset by several challenges. These challenges arise from a standard's property to enable and constrain even as potential competitors agree to cooperate on its creation. Our exploration of Sun Microsystems's sponsorship of its Java technology suggests that standards in the making generate seeds of self-destruction. Our study also identifies the social and political skills that a sponsor deploys to address these challenges.
There are some important issues associated with knowledge and its acquisition which if realized could make quite a shift in our thinking about what constitutes valid research. They have a rich historical tradition and are fundamental to our understanding of nature and society. This paper takes an historical perspective on information systems epistemology; in so doing, it hopes to expose some of the hidden assumptions which lie behind our conception of valid research and valid research methods.
To enable a better understanding of the underlying logic of path dependence, we set forth a theoretical framework explaining how organizations become path dependent. At its core are the dynamics of self-reinforcing mechanisms, which are likely to lead an organization into a lock-in. By drawing on studies of technological paths, we conceptualize the emergent process of path dependence along three distinct stages. We also use the model to explore breakouts from organizational path dependence and discuss implications for managing and researching organizational paths.
Peer review is the engine of scholarship where new knowledge is legitimized. Despite technological advances in publishing and communication, the process of review has not changed since it became prevalent over 100 years ago. This paper describes how information technology can be used to improve the peer review process. Taking a combined design science and natural science approach, we design and test a prototype system based on the principles of structured communication. Through an exploratory study, we find that our proposed system is viewed more favorably by both authors and reviewers across several dimensions, including fairness, convenience, and value.
Technological advancements in mobile computing and wireless networks open up to new applications and new user-groups in the
mobile workforce. However, a considerable part of the mobile workforce, such as e.g. drivers or healthcare staff, is chiefly
performing other tasks than interacting with their computers. As a result, they are not able to pay attention to computer
interaction, making them mainly off computer tasks. The aim of the paper is to develop a design theory to manage off-task
situations in mobile computing. Interviews were performed with developers of an information system comprising mobile devices
for drivers. From the interviews, a design of an artifact and a design theory based on a strategy to automate routine administration
task using place awareness is presented. The eight components of IS design theory by Gregor and Jones is applied as a theoretical
framework.
Tailorable technologies are a class of information systems designed with the intention that users modify and redesign the technology in the context of use. Tailorable technologies support user goals, intentions, metaphor, and use patterns in the selection and integration of technology functions in the creation of new and unique information systems. We propose a theory of tailorable technology design and identify principles necessary for the initial design. Following a Kantian style of inquiry, we identified four definitional characteristics of tailorable technology: a dual design perspective, user engagement, recognizable environments, and component architectures. From these characteristics, we propose nine design principles that will support the phenomenon of tailoring. Through a year-long case study, we refined and evidenced the principles, finding found that designers of tailorable technologies build environments in which users can both interact and engage with the technology, supporting the proposed design principles. The findings highlight a distinction between a reflective environment, where users recognize and imagine uses for the technology, and an active environment in which users tailor the technology in accordance with the imagined uses. This research contributes to the clarification of the role of theory in design science, expands the concept of "possibilities for action" to IS design, and proposes a design theory of a class of information systems for testing and refinement.
The article focuses on the growing systems in emergent organizations. The current frenzied pace of organizational change is being driven by the rapid development of commercial technology, global markets and re-engineered, quality-oriented organizations. This constant need to change gives rise to a recognition that organizations in the present era are no longer stable, but are continuously adapting to their shifting environments. These organizations can be said to be in a state of constantly seeking stability, while never achieving it. Such organizations are said to be emergent, and include many of today's commercial and governmental organizations. When organizations as emergent is referred, it is meant that every feature of social organizations like culture, meaning, social relationships, decision processes and so on are continually emergent, following no predefined pattern. Organizational emergence refers to a theory of social organization that does not assume that stable structures underpin organizations. Organizational form, structure and activity are a result of complex and continuous interactions between organizational members.
This paper addresses the design problem of providing IT support for emerging knowledge processes (EKPs). EKPs are organizational activity patterns that exhibit three characteristics in combination: an emergent process of deliberations with no best structure or sequence; requirements for knowledge that are complex (both general and situational), distributed across people, and evolving dynamically; and an actor set that is unpredictable in terms of job roles or prior knowledge. Examples of EKPs include basic research, new product development, strategic business planning, and organization design. EKPs differ qualitatively from semi-structured decision making processes; therefore, they have unique requirements that are not all thoroughly supported by familiar classes of systems, such as executive information systems, expert systems, electronic communication systems, organizational memory systems, or repositories. Further, the development literature on familiar classes of systems does not provide adequate guidance on how to build systems that support EKPs. Consequently, EKPs require a new IS design theory, as explicated by Walls et al. (1992). We created such a theory while designing and deploying a system for the EKP of organization design. The system was demonstrated through subsequent empirical analysis to be successful in supporting the process. Abstracting from the experience of building this system, we developed an IS design theory for EKP support systems. This new IS design theory is an important theoretical contribution, because it both provides guidance to developers and sets an agenda for academic research. EKP design theory makes the development process more tractable for developers by restricting the range of effective features (or rules for selecting features) and the range of effective development practices to a more manageable set EKP design theory also sets an agenda for academic research by articulating theory-based principles that are subject to empirical, as well as practical, validation.
In this essay, we argue that pervasive digitization gives birth to a new type of product architecture: the layered modular architecture. The layered modular architecture extends the modular architecture of physical products by incorporating four loosely coupled layers of devices, networks, services, and contents created by digital technology. We posit that this new architecture instigates profound changes in the ways that firms organize for innovation in the future. We develop (1) a conceptual framework to describe the emerging organizing logic of digital innovation and (2) an information systems research agenda for digital strategy and the creation and management of corporate information technology infrastructures.
This paper defines an information system design theory (ISDT) to be
a prescriptive theory which integrates normative and descriptive
theories into design paths intended to produce more effective information
systems. The nature of ISDTs is articulated using Dubin's concept
of theory building and Simon's idea of a science of the artificial.
An example of an ISDT is presented in the context of Executive Information
Systems (EIS). Despite the increasing awareness of the potential
of EIS for enhancing executive strategic decision-making effectiveness,
there exists little theoretical work which directly guides EIS design.
We contend that the underlying theoretical basis of EIS can be addressed
through a design theory of vigilant information systems. Vigilance
denotes the ability of an information system to help an executive
remain alertly watchful for weak signals and discontinuities in the
organizational environment relevant to emerging strategic threats
and opportunities. Research on managerial information scanning and
emerging issue tracking as well as theories of open loop control
are synthesized to generate vigilant information system design theory
propositions. Transformation of the propositions into testable empirical
hypotheses is discussed.
Two problems continually arise in the sciences and humanities, according to Mario Bunge: parts and wholes and the origin of novelty. In Emergence and Convergence, he works to address these problems, as well as that of systems and their emergent properties, as exemplified by the synthesis of molecules, the creation of ideas, and social inventions. Along the way, Bunge examines further topical problems, such as the search for the mechanisms underlying observable facts, the limitations of both individualism and holism, the reach of reduction, the abuses of Darwinism, the rational Choice-Hermeneutics feud, the modularity of the brain vs. the unity of the mind, the cluster of concepts around ‘maybe,’ the uselessness of Many-Worlds metaphysics and semantics, the hazards posed by Bayesianism, the nature of partial truth, the obstacles to correct medical diagnosis, and the formal conditions for the emergence of a Cross-Discipline. Bunge is not interested in idle fantasies, but about many of the problems that occur in any discipline that studies reality or ways to control it. His work is about the merger of initially independent lines of inquiry, such as developmental evolutionary biology, cognitive neuroscience, and Socio-Economics. Bunge proposes a clear definition of the concept of emergence to replace that of supervenience and clarifies the notions of system, real possibility, inverse problem, interdiscipline, and partial truth that occur in all fields.
The Proper Name between noun and pronoun as defined by discourse. Discussion with data from Malay texts.
In this research essay we contend that "emergence," or the formation of complex wholes from parts, is a fundamental concept for comprehending the dynamic relationships between people, technology, and organizations during the ongoing cycles of design, appropriation, and use of information systems. Past research on emergent phenomena use the concept with varying degrees of attention to the structural and functional changes that have occurred to components in the emergent whole or to the implications of the processes by which emergence occurs. Refining our perspectives of emergence will guide researchers in clarifying how the socio-technical whole is greater than the constituent parts and how the whole comes into existence over time. In this article, we define three forms of emergence and provide both research exemplars and a framework for categorizing emergent phenomena to better articulate and refine how we understand emergent phenomena in Information Systems.
Path constitution theory has emerged as a promising combination of two contrasting perspectives on technological innovation: path dependence, which focuses on historically embedded, contingent processes that are more or less beyond the control of actors, and path creation, which emphasizes mindful contributions from powerful actors. However, the current path constitution literature focuses on macro- and multi-level inquiry without addressing the specific processes, opportunities, and challenges related to organizational (micro-level) technological innovation. Against this backdrop, we draw on the innovation and path literature as well as a case study of telehealth innovation in a public health organization to theorize how technological innovation paths constitute in organizational contexts. The proposed theory distinguishes between innovation path status and innovation path trajectory to help researchers understand and explain how organizations transform and reinforce path constitution patterns, how innovation paths may merge with or separate from other paths, and how organizations may arrive at a lock-in that challenges them to break out from dominant and seemingly irreversible action patterns.
Much of the BPM literature views business process design and implementation as a top-down process that is built on strategic alignment and managerial control. While this view has enabled the design of many IT artifacts for business processes, it is inconsistent with the observation that information infrastructures, including a company's business process infrastructure, are at drift, a term that refers to the lack of top-down management control. The paper contributes to resolving this inconsistency by developing a meta-framework that conceptualizes business processes as emergent organizational routines that are represented, enabled, and constrained by IT artifacts. IT artifacts are developed in processes of functional-hierarchical decomposition and social design processes. Organizational routines have ostensive and performative aspects, forming a mutually constitutive duality. A literature review demonstrates that the propositions offered by the meta-framework have been insufficiently considered in the BPM field. The paper concludes with an outlook to applying the meta-framework to theorize about the interplay of design projects with the subsequent emergence of business processes in organizations.
The context in which service is delivered and experienced has, in many respects, fundamentally changed. For instance, advances in technology, especially information technology, are leading to a proliferation of revolutionary services and changing how customers serve themselves before, during, and after purchase. To understand this changing landscape, the authors engaged in an international and interdisciplinary research effort to identify research priorities that have the potential to advance the service field and benefit customers, organizations, and society. The priority-setting process was informed by roundtable discussions with researchers affiliated with service research centers and networks located around the world and resulted in the following 12 service research priorities:
The digital age has seen the rise of service systems involving highly distributed, heterogeneous, and resourceintegrating actors whose relationships are governed by shared institutional logics, standards, and digital technology. The cocreation of service within these service systems takes place in the context of a paradoxical tension between the logic of generative and democratic innovations and the logic of infrastructural control. Boundary resources play a critical role in managing the tension as a firm that owns the infrastructure can secure its control over the service system while independent firms can participate in the service system. In this study, we explore the evolution of boundary resources. Drawing on Pickering's (1993) and Barrett et al.'s (2012) conceptualizations of tuning, the paper seeks to forward our understanding of how heterogeneous actors engage in the tuning of boundary resources within Apple's iOS service system. We conduct an embedded case study of Apple's iOS service system with an in-depth analysis of 4,664 blog articles concerned with 30 boundary resources covering 6 distinct themes. Our analysis reveals that boundary resources of service systems enabled by digital technology are shaped and reshaped through distributed tuning, which involves cascading actions of accommodations and rejections of a network of heterogeneous actors and artifacts. Our study also shows the dualistic role of power in the distributed tuning process.
Abstract
This study investigates the process of information services development based on a case study of the experience of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). In this study, we develop theoretical constructs that can inform researchers and practitioners on (1) what the critical domains and interactions associated with the emerging process of information service development at these organizations were, and (2) how information services at NOAA evolved over time? Adopting a coevolutionary view, we identified distinct yet interdependent domains that affected, and were affected by, the information services development process; these were: (1) services choreography, through which service interactions and collaborations are managed; (2) services orchestration, through which service processes are selected and interact; and (3) services instrumentation, by which services are developed and architected. Using the coevolutionary view, we uncovered three adaptive principles that explain the interplay among domains and interactions over time: adaptive tensions, requisite variety, and modular design. We discuss our findings’ implications for research and practice and offer propositions for future research.
Digitally enabled social networks (DESN) are a complex assemblage of engagement, reflection, action, technology, organization and community. DESN create a unique challenge for researchers who aim to understand what social networks are, what they can become and what enablers and constraints underlie trajectories of member engagement. As DESN continually evolve, knowing them as stable and reified representations or as mere technology artefacts provides a limited understanding of their complexity and emergent properties. While DESN are, in part, the technology that supports the necessary actions for engagement, they are also the people and behaviours that constitute its community. Through the presentation of new methodological considerations towards Digg, a large DESN, we observe that social networks entail practices of engagement, change and evolution within a DESN community. We reveal how engagement is a communal endeavour and that the clash of socio-technical trajectories can result in the emergence of new paths of member participation. Our findings demonstrate the potential of netnography and impressionist tales for contributing to the ongoing pluralistic investigations of DESN and also inform research on engagement and community design and change.
The common understanding of design science research in information systems (DSRIS) continues to evolve. Only in the broadest terms has there been consensus: that DSRIS involves, in some way, learning through the act of building. However, what is to be built – the definition of the DSRIS artifact – and how it is to be built – the methodology of DSRIS – has drawn increasing discussion in recent years. The relationship of DSRIS to theory continues to make up a significant part of the discussion: how theory should inform DSRIS and whether or not DSRIS can or should be instrumental in developing and refining theory. In this paper, we present the exegesis of a DSRIS research project in which creating a (prescriptive) design theory through the process of developing and testing an information systems artifact is inextricably bound to the testing and refinement of its kernel theory.
Strategic innovation has been shown to provide significant value for organisations whilst at the same time challenging traditional ways of thinking and working. There is less known, however, as to how organisations collaborate in innovation networks to achieve strategic innovation. In this paper we explore how innovation networks are orchestrated in developing a strategic innovation initiative around the Internet of Things. We show how a hub actor brings together a diverse group of actors to initially create and subsequently orchestrate the strategic innovation network through the employ of three dialogical strategies, namely persuasive projection, reflective development, and definitional control. Further, we illuminate how different types of legitimacy are established through these various dialogical strategies in orchestrating strategic innovation networks.
Two paradigms characterize much of the research in the Information Systems discipline: behavioral science and design science. The behavioral-science paradigm seeks to develop and verify theories that explain or predict human or organizational behavior. The design-science paradigm seeks to extend the boundaries of human and organizational capabilities by creating new and innovative artifacts. Both paradigms are foundational to the IS discipline, positioned as it is at the confluence of people, organizations, and technology. Our objective is to describe the performance of design-science research in Information Systems via a concise conceptual framework and clear guidelines for understanding, executing, and evaluating the research. In the design-science paradigm, knowledge and understanding of a problem domain and its solution are achieved in the building and application of the designed artifact. Three recent exemplars in the research literature are used to demonstrate the application of these guidelines. We conclude with an analysis of the challenges of performing high-quality design-science research in the context of the broader IS community.
The past decade has brought advanced information technologies, which include electronic messaging systems, executive information systems, collaborative systems, group decision support systems, and other technologies that use sophisticated information management to enable multiparty participation in organization activities. Developers and users of these systems hold high hopes for their potential to change organizations for the better, but actual changes often do not occur, or occur inconsistently. We propose adaptive structuration theory (AST) as a viable approach for studying the role of advanced information technologies in organization change. AST examines the change process from two vantage points: (1) the types of structures that are provided by advanced technologies, and (2) the structures that actually emerge in human action as people interact with these technologies. To illustrate the principles of AST, we consider the small group meeting and the use of a group decision support system (GDSS). A GDSS is an interesting technology for study because it can be structured in a myriad of ways, and social interaction unfolds as the GDSS is used. Both the structure of the technology and the emergent structure of social action can be studied. We begin by positioning AST among competing theoretical perspectives of technology and change. Next, we describe the theoretical roots and scope of the theory as it is applied to GDSS use and state the essential assumptions, concepts, and propositions of AST. We outline an analytic strategy for applying AST principles and provide an illustration of how our analytic approach can shed light on the impacts of advanced technologies on organizations. A major strength of AST is that it expounds the nature of social structures within advanced information technologies and the key interaction processes that figure in their use. By capturing these processes and tracing their impacts, we can reveal the complexity of technology-organization relationships. We can attain a better understanding of how to implement technologies, and we may also be able to develop improved designs or educational programs that promote productive adaptations.
This article introduces four basic theories that may serve as building blocks for explaining processes of change in organizations: life cycle, teleology, dialectics, and evolution. These four theories represent different sequences of change events that are driven by different conceptual motors and operate at different organizational levels. This article identifies the circumstances when each theory applies and proposes how interplay among the theories produces a wide variety of more complex theories of change and development in organizational life.
In this paper, I outline a perspective on organizational transformation which proposes change as endemic to the practice of organizing and hence as enacted through the situated practices of organizational actors as they improvise, innovate, and adjust their work routines over time. I ground this perspective in an empirical study which examined the use of a new information technology within one organization over a two-year period. In this organization, a series of subtle but nonetheless significant changes were enacted over time as organizational actors appropriated the new technology into their work practices, and then experimented with local innovations, responded to unanticipated breakdowns and contingencies, initiated opportunistic shifts in structure and coordination mechanisms, and improvised various procedural, cognitive, and normative variations to accommodate their evolving use of the technology. These findings provide the empirical basis for a practice-based perspective on organizational transformation. Because it is grounded in the micro-level changes that actors enact over time as they make sense of and act in the world, a practice lens can avoid the strong assumptions of rationality, determinism, or discontinuity characterizing existing change perspectives. A situated change perspective may offer a particularly useful strategy for analyzing change in organizations turning increasingly away from patterns of stability, bureaucracy, and control to those of flexibility, self-organizing, and learning.
Despite its current popularity, “emergence” is a concept with a venerable history and an elusive, ambiguous standing in contemporary
evolutionary theory. This paper briefly recounts the history of the term and details some of its current usages. Not only
are there radically varying interpretations about how to define emergence but “reductionist” and “holistic” theorists hold
very different views about the issue of causation. However, these two seemingly polar positions are not irreconcilable. Reductionism,
or detailed analysis of the parts and their interactions, is essential for answering the “how” question in evolution—how does
a complex living system work? But holism is equally necessary for answering the “why” question—why did a particular arrangement
of parts evolve? In order to answer the “why” question, a broader, multi-leveled paradigm is required. The reductionist approach
to explaining emergent complexity has entailed a search for underlying “laws of emergence.” In contrast, the “Synergism Hypothesis”
focuses on the “economics”—the functional effects produced by emergent wholes and their selective consequences in evolutionary
change. This paper also argues that emergent phenomena represent, in effect, a subset of a larger universe of cooperative,
synergistic effects in the natural world.
KeywordsEmergence–Evolution–Synergy
This paper contributes a deeper understanding of the concept of methodical information systems development. The method concept is an assumption underlying much of the research into systems analysis, design and implementation. A postmodern deconstruction technique is used to discover a deferred concept: amethodical systems development. The methodical and amethodical views are developed in terms of their assumptions and their ideal characteristics. Our understanding of these two opposing views of systems development is important as a means to refocus our aims in research, practice and education in information systems development.
Using the example of a failed software implementation, we discuss the role of artifacts in shaping organizational routines. We argue that artifact-centered assumptions about design are not well suited to designing organizational routines, which are generative systems that produce recognizable, repetitive patterns of interdependent actions, carried out by multiple actors. Artifact-centered assumptions about design not only reinforce a widespread misunderstanding of routines as things, they implicitly embody a rather strong form of technological determinism. As an alternative perspective, we discuss the use of narrative networks as a way to conceptualize the role of human and non-human actants, and to represent the variable patterns of action that are characteristic of “live” routines. Using this perspective, we conclude with some suggestions on how to design organizational routines that are more consistent with their nature as generative systems.
Design, design research, and design science have received increasing attention lately. This has led to a more scientific focus on design that then has made it timely to reconsider our definitions of the design theory concept. Many scholars in Information Systems assume a design theory requires a complex and elaborate structure. While this structure has appeal for its completeness and complexity, it has led scholars to criticize simplicity and elegance in design science theories that fail to demonstrate the “required” elements. Such criticisms lead to questions about whether design theory can be considered theory at all.
Based on a study of notable design writing in architecture, finance, management, cognitive psychology, computer science as well as information systems and the philosophy of science, the authors demonstrate that design theory consists of two parts: a design practice theory and an explanatory design theory. An explanatory design theory provides a functional explanation as to why a solution has certain components in terms of the requirements stated in the design. For explanatory design theory, only two elements are essentially necessary for a complete design theory: requirements and solution components. The argument is logical as well as empirical; the authors give examples of design theory drawing from IS as well as other design-related fields show how design theory can be both simple and complete. The paper concludes with a proposal for explanatory design theory.
As user interactions have become more central to specific classes of information systems, design theorizing must expand to support the processes of interaction and the evolution of information systems. This theorizing goes beyond user-aided, participatory design to consider users as designers in their own right during the ongoing creation and recreation of information systems. Recent theorizing about an emerging class of tailorable systems proposes that such systems undergo an initial, primary design process where features are built in prior to general release. Following implementation, people engage in a secondary design process where functions and content emerge during interaction, modification, and embodiment of the system in use. This case study reveals that people are engaged designers, framed by dualities in behaviors including planned and emergent behaviors, and participatory and reifying behaviors. We contribute to design science research by extending work on tailorable systems, investigating processes of secondary design in a highly interactive system suited to support user engagement. We also contribute more broadly to design science research by explicitly extending behavioral aspects associated with the use of information system artifacts.
Over the last three decades, a methodological pluralism has developed within information systems (IS) research. Various disciplines and many research communities as well, contribute to this discussion. However, working on the same research topic or studying the same phenomenon does not necessarily ensure mutual understanding. Especially within this multidisciplinary and international context, the epistemological assumptions made by different researchers may vary fundamentally. These assumptions exert a substantial impact on how concepts like validity, reliability, quality and rigour of research are understood. Thus, the extensive publication of epistemological assumptions is, in effect, almost mandatory. Hence, the aim of this paper is to develop an epistemological framework which can be used for systematically analysing the epistemological assumptions in IS research. Rather than attempting to identify and classify IS research paradigms, this research aims at a comprehensive discussion of epistemology within the context of IS. It seeks to contribute to building the basis for identifying similarities as well as differences between distinct IS approaches and methods. In order to demonstrate the epistemological framework, the consensus-oriented interpretivist approach to conceptual modelling is used as an example.
The linguistic conceptual distinction between deep and surface structures offers an interesting metaphor for developing new theories of information systems. However, the deep structure notion is both richer and more strongly contested in the linguistic field than can be communicated in published articles about new theories of information systems. This article explores the deep structure notion more fully, how faithful information system (IS)-related articles adhere to the original concept and the implication of alternative linguistic theories for the IS field.
The aim of this research essay is to examine the structural nature of theory in information systems. Despite the importance of theory, questions relating to its form and structure are neglected in comparison with questions relating to epistemology. The essay addresses issues of causality, explanation, prediction, and generalization that underlie an understanding of theory. A taxonomy is proposed that classifies information systems theories with respect to the manner in which four central goals are addressed: analysis, explanation, prediction, and prescription. Five interrelated types of theory are distinguished: (1) theory for analyzing, (2) theory for explaining, (3) theory for predicting, (4) theory for explaining and predicting, and (5) theory for design and action. Examples illustrate the nature of each theory type. The applicability of the taxonomy is demonstrated by classifying a sample of journal articles. The paper contributes by showing that multiple views of theory exist and by exposing the assumptions underlying different viewpoints. In addition, it is suggested that the type of theory under development can influence the choice of an epistemological approach. Support is given for the legitimacy and value of each theory type. The building of integrated bodies of theory that encompass all theory types is advocated.
Employees in many contemporary organizations work with flexible routines and flexible technologies. When those employees find that they are unable to achieve their goals in the current environment, how do they decide whether they should change the composition of their routines or the materiality of the technologies with which they work? The perspective advanced in this paper suggests that the answer to this question depends on how human and material agencies – the basic building blocks common to both routines and technologies – are imbricated. Imbrication of human and material agencies creates infrastructure in the form of routines and technologies that people use to carry out their work. Routine or technological infrastructure used at any given moment is the result of previous imbrications of human and material agencies. People draw on this infrastructure to construct a perception that a technology either constrains their ability to achieve their goals, or that the technology affords the possibility of achieving new goals. The case of a computer simulation technology for automotive design is used to illustrate this framework suggests that perceptions of constraint leads people to change their technologies while perceptions of affordance lead people to change their routines. I use this imbrication metaphor to suggest how a human agency approach to technology can usefully incorporate notions of material agency into its explanations of organizational change.
Design work and design knowledge in Information Systems (IS) is important
for both research and practice. Yet there has been comparatively
little critical attention paid to the problem of specifying design
theory so that it can be communicated, justified, and developed cumulatively.
In this essay we focus on the structural components or anatomy of
design theories in IS as a special class of theory. In doing so,
we aim to extend the work of Walls, Widemeyer and El Sawy (1992)
on the specification of information systems design theories (ISDT),
drawing on other streams of thought on design research and theory
to provide a basis for a more systematic and useable formulation
of these theories. We identify eight separate components of design
theories: (1) purpose and scope, (2) constructs, (3) principles of
form and function, (4) artifact mutability, (5) testable propositions,
(6) justificatory knowledge (kernel theories), (7) principles of
implementation, and (8) an expository instantiation. This specification
includes components missing in the Walls et al. adaptation of Dubin
(1978) and Simon (1969) and also addresses explicitly problems associated
with the role of instantiations and the specification of design theories
for methodologies and interventions as well as for products and applications.
The essay is significant as the unambiguous establishment of design
knowledge as theory gives a sounder base for arguments for the rigor
and legitimacy of IS as an applied discipline and for its continuing
progress. A craft can proceed with the copying of one example of
a design artifact by one artisan after another. A discipline cannot.
A high-level phenomenon is strongly emergent with respect to a lowlevel domain when the high-level phenomenon arises from the low-level domain, but truths concerning that phenomenon are not deducible even in principle from truths in the low-level domain. Strong emergence is the notion of emergence that is most common in philosophical discussions of emergence, and is the notion invoked by the British emergentists of the 1920s. A high-level phenomenon is weakly emergent with respect to a lowlevel domain when the high-level phenomenon arises from the low-level domain, but truths concerning that phenomenon are unexpected given the principles governing the low-level domain. Weak emergence is the notion of emergence that is most common in recent scientific discussions of emergence, and is the notion that is typically invoked by proponents of emergence in complex systems theory. In a way, the philosophical morals of strong emergence and weak emergence are diametrically opposed.