Theorizing about new technologies? No problem! (29 September 2021)

Description

Jan received an invite to join a paper about a new technology he has no clue about. Of course, he joins the research project. Jan and Nick use the occasion to discuss a few questions: How do we actually theorize about new technologies? Why is this so important to us in comparison to other fields? And should we principally fill gaps or solve problems?

Episode Reading List

  • Berente, N., Gu, B., Recker, J., & Santhanam, R. (2021). Managing Artificial Intelligence. MIS Quarterly, 45(3), 1433-1450.
  • Sturm, T., Gerlach, J. P., Pumplun, L., Mesbah, N., Peters, F., Tauchert, C., Nan, N., & Buxmann, P. (2021). Coordinating Human and Machine Learning for Effective Organizational Learning. MIS Quarterly, 45(3), 1581-1602.
  • Weber, R. (2006). Like Ships Passing in the Night: The Debate on the Core of the Information Systems Discipline. In J. L. King & K. Lyytinen (Eds.), Information Systems: The State of the Field (pp. 292-299). John Wiley & Sons.
  • Wade, M. R., & Hulland, J. (2004). The Resource-Based View and Information Systems Research: Review, Extension, and Suggestions for Future Research. MIS Quarterly, 28(1), 107-142.
  • Markus, M. L., & Silver, M. S. (2008). A Foundation for the Study of IT Effects: A New Look at DeSanctis and Poole’s Concepts of Structural Features and Spirit. Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 9(10), 609-632.
  • Leonardi, P. M., & Barley, S. R. (2008). Materiality and Change: Challenges to Building Better Theory about Technology and Organizing. Information and Organization, 18(3), 159-176.
  • Seidel, S., Recker, J., & vom Brocke, J. (2013). Sensemaking and Sustainable Practicing: Functional Affordances of Information Systems in Green Transformations. MIS Quarterly, 37(4), 1275-1299.
  • Thomson, P. (2021). The problem with the ‘gap in the literature’. LSE Blog Post July 16, 2021.
  • Alvesson, M., & Sandberg, J. (2011). Generating Research Questions Through Problematization. Academy of Management Review, 36(2), 247-271.
  • Chatterjee, S., & Davison, R. M. (2021). The Need for Compelling Problematisation in Research: The Prevalence of the Gap‐spotting Approach and its Limitations. Information Systems Journal, 31(2), 227-230.
  • Grant, A. M., & Pollock, T. G. (2011). Publishing in AMJ—Part 3: Setting the Hook. Academy of Management Journal, 54(5), 873-879.
  • Lee, J., & Berente, N. (2012). Digital Innovation and the Division of Innovative Labor: Digital Controls in the Automotive Industry. Organization Science, 23(5), 1428-1447.
  • Vaast, E., & Pinsonneault, A. (2021). When Digital Technologies Enable and Threaten Occupational Identity: The Delicate Balancing Act of Data Scientists. MIS Quarterly, 45(3), 1087-1112.

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