Taking Industry Seriously In Information Systems Research

1

• Taking Industry Seriously In Information Systems
  Research
• MOIS 508
• Dr. Dina Rateb
• Prepared By
• Karim EL Shazly

2
Authors

• Elizabeth Davidson
• Department of IT Management
• University of Hawaii
• U.S.A.

• Mike W. chiasson
• Haskayne School of Business
• University of Calgary
• CANADA

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Content

• Research Topic
• Examined IS Articles
• Industry Significance
• Industry Effect on IT Artifacts
• Industry and IS Knowledge
• Steps to take Industry Seriously
• Opposing Views
• Conclusion

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Research Topic

• The industry receives little attention in
  information systems research and theory, despite
  its increasingly important influence on
  information systems activities.

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Examined IS Articles

• 272 articles were examined (MIS Quarterly IS
  research 1997- 2004)
• 58 didnt identify an industry for the study
  conducted
• 28 simply mentioned the industry or cited it as
  a study limitations.
• 10 discussed influences of the industry on the
  study findings or analyzed industry issues.
• Only 4 were industry-level studies

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Why Industry has not played an important role in
IS theory?

• IS research focused on general IS management
  technology topics
• IS field has been interested in firm level
  strategy and IT use.
• IS research focused more on profit industries.
• Financial services, manufacturing, retailing
  are the first to use IT
• Sectors such as health care, law, education are
  aligned with university faculties

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Industry Significance

• Government
• Maintain Industry Statistics
• Develop Regulations for some industries
• Formulate legislation to protect other industries
• Firms Form Industry Associations to
• Promote common interests
• Develop shared infrastructure
• Exchange information

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Industry Significance (cont)

• Managers apply industry knowledge within their
  organizations.
• Industry has a great influence on IT artifacts
  and it is greatly associated with IS research.
• Each industry has its own distinctive market
  structures, technologies, and knowledge domain

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Industry effect on IT artifacts

• Design and functionality of most IT applications
  reflect an industrys core technologies.
• Market structure influences the features and
  structures of IT artifacts.

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Industry and IS knowledge

• Industries vary in how information technologies
  are used.
• The same environmental influence are not present
  in all industries.
• The same type of IT application might be applied
  differently across industries.
• Attending to industry would help IS researchers
  to speak the language of practitioners in
  theories and frameworks.

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Steps to take industry seriously

• Researchers should ask themselves the following
  question
• What is the possibility that industry matters in
  the IS activity being studied?
• To answer this question, Researchers should
  detect industry influences which depends upon
• The organizations they choose to study
• The IT Phenomena they choose to examine
• The data they choose to collect

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Counterarguments

• Producing general theory is the job of academic
  researchers, and industry specific knowledge is
  best left to practitioners and consultants.
• Industry-specific publications would fall at the
  outer edges of what is called grey area of
  relevant IS research topics.
• General IS knowledge will grow by testing and
  refining IS theories in different industries and
  through meta analysis (quantitative
  qualitative) of industry-specific findings.

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Conclusion

• Industry represents an increasingly important
  influence on the patterns and meaning of IS
  activities and that more attention to industry in
  IS theory and research is necessary.

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• Questions?