PhD Course - Designing Qualitative IS Research Projects

Course Title
Designing Qualitative IS Research Projects

Organizer
Oliver Krancher

Lecturer
Jens Dibbern, University of Bern, Switzerland

Dates of the course
Sept 2^nd – Sept 6^th, 2019

Room
2A08

Course description
This course provides an overview of qualitative research methods and their application in the field of Information Systems (IS). The course begins with an introduction to the basic principles and alternatives of conducting qualitative research. It then provides deeper insights into three types of qualitative research, i.e. positivist variance-theoretic, interpretive (and/or grounded theory based), and process theoretic. For each of them, the underlying design principles will be discussed with illustrative examples. The students are required to summarize and discuss particular research papers and to reflect on how the design principles of conducting qualitative research were applied in the respective papers. For particular topics the students will be grouped into teams and will be required to prepare their group work and present it in class. Overall, the course is designed to be interactive. The students learn how to design their own qualitative research study. They are enabled to illustrate the application of the design principles learned in the course.

Programme

September 02, 2019 14.00-18.00: Class (including break)
September 03, 2019 09.00-12.15: Class (including break)
September 04, 2019 Preparation of student group work, supervision
September 05, 2019 14.00-18.00: Class (including break)
September 06, 201909.00-12.15: Class (including break

Prerequisites
None

Exam
The course will be graded as passed/failed based on the completion of the following three inputs:

Contributions of the students to class discussions during the sessions
Group presentation
Written research proposal, which has to be presented in form of a written research-in-progress paper after the course. In this paper, the students are required to elaborate a research proposal in which they show how a topic of their choice (e.g. their dissertation topic) could be examined (either entirely, partly, or complementarily) using (at least) one of the discussed qualitative research approaches and respective design principles. This paper is due two months after the course sessions (November 10, 2019). Details about the proposal, including an example, will be provided at the end of the course. The instructor will provide written feedback on each proposal.

Credits
6 ECTS

Amount of hours the student is expected to use on the course
Participation: 15 hours
Preparation: 150 hours (90 hours for reading, 20 hours for preparing presentations, 40 hours for writing a research proposal)

Participants
The maximum number of participants is 15.

How to sign up
Write an e-mail to Oliver Krancher (olik@itu.dk).

Reading list
(Required readings in bold)

Yin, Robert K. Case study research: design and methods, 4th Edition, 2009
Miles, M.B., and Huberman, M.A. Qualitative Data Analysis: An Expanded Sourcebook. Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA, 1994.
Strauss, A. and J. Corbin. 1998. Basics of Qualitative Research: Techniques and Procedures for Developing Grounded Theory. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Benbasat, I., Goldstein, D. K., and Mead, M. 1987. "The Case Research Strategy in Studies of Information Systems," MIS Quarterly (11:3), pp. 369-386.
Brown, C. 1997. "Examining the Emergence of Hybrid Is Governance Solutions: Evidence from a Single Case," Information Systems Research (8:1), pp. 69-94.
Corbin, J., and Strauss, A. 1990. "Grounded Theory Research: Procedures, Canons, and Evaluative Criteria," Qualitative Sociology, (13:1), pp. 3-21.
Dibbern, J., Winkler, J., and Heinzl, A. 2008. "Explaining Variations in Client Extra Costs between Software Projects Offshored to India," MIS Quarterly (32:2), pp. 333-366.
Dubé, L., and Paré, G. 2003. "Rigor in Information Systems Positivist Case Research: Current Practices, Trends, and Recommendations," MIS Quarterly (27:4), pp. 597-635.
Eisenhardt, K. M. 1989. "Building Theories from Case Study Research," Academy of Management Review (14:4), pp. 532-550.
Huber, T. L., Fischer, T. A., Dibbern, J., and Hirschheim, R. 2013. "A Process Model of Complementarity and Substitution of Contractual and Relational Governance in Is Outsourcing," Journal of Management Information Systems (30:3), pp. 81-114.
Huber, T. L., Kude, T., and Dibbern, J. 2017. "Governance Practices in Platform Ecosystems: Navigating Tensions between Co-Created Value and Governance Costs," Information Systems Research (forthcoming).
Joseph, D., Fong Boh, W., Ang, S., and Slaughter, S. A. 2012. "The Career Paths Less (or More) Traveled: A Sequence Analysis of It Career Histories, Mobility Patterns, and Career Success," MIS Quarterly (36:2), pp. 427-A424.
Klein, H. K., and Myers, M. D. 1999. "A Set of Principles for Conducting and Evaluating Interpretive Field Studies in Information Systems," MIS Quarterly (23:1), pp. 67-93.
Kumar, K., Dissel, H. G. v., and Bielli, P. 1998. "The Merchant of Prato-Revisited: Toward a Third Rationality of Information Systems," MIS Quarterly (22:2), pp. 199-226.
Langley, A. 1999. "Strategies for Theorizing from Process Data," Academy of Management Review (24:4), pp. 691-710.
Lee, A. S. 1989. "A Scientific Methodology for Mis Case Studies," MIS Quarterly (13:1), pp. 33-50.
Leonardi, P. M. 2011. "When Flexible Routines Meet Flexible Technologies: Affordance, Constraint, and the Imbrication of Human and Material Agencies," MIS Quarterly (35:1), pp. 147-168.
Leonardi, P. M. 2013. "When Does Technology Use Enable Network Change in Organizations? A Comparative Study of Feature Use and Shared Affordances," MIS Quarterly (37:3), pp. 749-775.
Markus, M. L. 1983. "Power, Politics, and Mis Implementation," Communications of the ACM (26:6), pp. 430-444.
Markus, M. L., and Robey, D. 1988. "Information Technology and Organizational Change: Causal Structure in Theory and Research," Management Science (34:5), pp. 583-598.
Newman, M., and Robey, D. 1992. "A Social Process Model of User-Analyst Relationships," MIS Quarterly (16), pp. 249-266.
Orlikowski, W. J. 1993. "Case Tools as Organizational Change: Investigating Incremental and Radical Changes in Systems Development," MIS Quarterly (17:3), pp. 309-340.
Orlikowski, W. J. 2000. "Using Technology and Constituting Structures: A Practice Lens for Studying Technology in Organizations," Organization Science (11:4), pp. 404-428.
Orlikowski, W. J., and Baroudi, J. J. 1991. "Studying Information Technology in Organizations: Research Approaches and Assumptions," Information Systems Research (2:1), pp. 1-28.
Riedl, R. 2006. "Erkenntnisfortschritt Durch Forschungsfallstudien: Überlegungen Am Beispiel Der Wirtschaftsinformatik," in Tagungsband Fortschrittskonzepte Und Fortschrittsmessung in Betriebswirtschaftslehre Und Wirtschaftsinformatik, S. Zelewski and N. Akca (eds.). Deutscher Universitäts-Verlag, pp. 113-145.
Riedl, R. 2007. "On the Replication of Positivist Case Study Research," Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Information Systems, H. Österle, J. Schelp and R. Winter (eds.), pp. 1515-1526.
Sabherwal, R., Hirschheim, R., and Goles, T. 2001. "The Dynamics of Alignment: Insights from a Punctuated Equilibrium Model," Organization Science (12:2), pp. 179-197.
Sambamurthy, V., and Zmud, R. W. 1999. "Arrangements for It Governance: A Theory of Multiple Contingencies," MIS Quarterly (23:3), pp. 261-290.