Association for Information Systems Conference, August 7 - 9, 2014

Details

Track Chairs:

Chris Street, University of Regina,  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it." target="_blank">
Kerry Ward, University of Nebraska-Omaha, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it." target="_blank">

Track Description:

The IS field continues to mature and has embraced a wide range of quantitative and qualitative research methods. However, methods continue to evolve both in concept and application. This track focuses on the processes and procedures by which discovery and creation of new knowledge pertaining to information systems is conducted. The track is particularly interested in examples of innovative application of methodological techniques as well as discourse and description of particular methodological improvements.  Suggested topics include, but are not limited to, use of multiple methods in coordinated research streams or in a single study; examining whether problems that have been historicallyexamined through particular approaches, such as experiments or surveys, could be re-envisioned using other techniques; best, contingent, or recommended approaches to specific qualitative methods or  quantitative methods;  what IS research can learn from the recently developed methods used in reference disciplines and what can it contribute to these and other disciplines;  role of theory, ethical considerations, the use of software tools for data analysis, and related strategies;  and methodological and ethical considerations for the creation, sharing and reuse of large datasets from data available in the public domain.

Mini Tracks:

Set-Theoretic Methods: Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) for IS Research

YoungKi Park, University of Akron, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Information and digital technologies have become tightly interconnected with organizational and environmental elements. This ‘fusion’ has created a complex system that often exhibits nonlinear, discontinuous change such that a small adjustment in one element can trigger drastic changes in other elements, and eventually the whole system can change radically and stabilize at a new equilibrium. In such complex dynamics, the role of information technologies can be better understood as a part of the whole system instead of as a separate independent variable.
 
Recently, qualitative comparative analysis (QCA), a set-theoretic configurational method, is drawing increasing attention of researchers to its capability to investigate the holistic aspects of complex phenomena. QCA developed by Charles Ragin (1987) integrates the strengths of both case-oriented qualitative methods and variable-oriented quantitative methods. This minitrack will foster discussion about how QCA can help IS researchers build novel, richer theories.