Catálogo de publicaciones - libros

So opens Feyerabend’s (1993) seminal essay . The epigraph is apt for this commencement too, given the Conference theme which calls for diversification, in theory, method, and empirical contexts. The following amalgam of extracts gives the gist of Feyerabend’s thesis:

This keynote address takes up the conference theme and argues for greater diversification and innovation—in method and topic—in Information Systems research and curricula design. Basing my arguments on my own—and others’—recent critiques of calls for a narrowing of our focus on the information technology artefact and IS design, I will highlight the expanding boundary of the field of Information Systems and what this means for the IS academy in terms of innovation and diversification in our research and teaching.

This paper focuses on the ways that innovative applications of digital technologies are being developed in Manchester (in the North West of England) and in the UK’s largest urban regeneration area, East Manchester, with the aim of tackling the “digital divide,” reengaging citizens in civic life, and transforming the delivery of public services in the context of urban regeneration. The paper suggests that sustainable regeneration requires a much more holistic approach to urban development than has been the case in previous strategies and policies and can benefit from using digital technologies. In order to turn the digital divide into a “digital dividend,” more emphasis needs to be placed on citizen engagement, empowerment and capacity building. This case study aims to provide examples of how a multi-agency partnership approach is working to tackle these challenges through the “ONE-Manchester” initiative (Open Network E-Manchester).

The debate between protagonists of different theoretical approaches continues in the Information Systems field, with little prospect of resolution. The debate is typically characterized by tendentious arguments as advocates from each approach offer a somewhat one-sided condemnation of other approaches. A recent debate in the Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems (SJIS) illustrates the manner in which IS researchers are polarized into opposing camps, each tending to view the other as inferior. Ironically further polarization is occurring in the manner various groups of IS scholars are simultaneously calling for order, discipline and clearer notions of the “core of the discipline” while other scholars call for greater research diversity. In order to overcome this polarization we advocate a strategy recommended by Weick (1996): Drop your tools, hold your concepts lightly and update them frequently. Three reasons for dropping our theoretical tools are suggested as a means for moving forward, both for individual researchers as well as for the research community as a whole.

Universities and public research institutions (PROs) are increasingly required to address strategic needs defined by industrial sectors both from the education and research standpoint and contribute more intensively to the absorption of advanced technologies. Many countries rely on the reform of traditional structures of universities and PROs by creating specific centers of excellence to ensure long-term partnerships with industry. The need for stable university-industry partnerships focuses on the evolution from short-term instruments to long-term instruments for cooperation in the wider context of technology transfer (TT) embedded in technology development processes. Within this context, governments are looking for adequate policy instruments to offer more attractive funding conditions to increase institutional involvement in TT as a pre-requirement to increase the long-term stability of public-private partnerships.

The specific situation in the European Union is addressed where steps toward fostering open innovation have been taken to overcome structural, institutional, and cultural rigidities. The analysis is focused on the short and long term instruments provided by the European Framework Program and other European initiatives. Specialized technology transfer structures, especially those targeting the creation of joint research centers, are among the most common approaches in the EU in order to facilitate the exchange of tacit and explicit knowledge and accelerate innovation.

The rationale behind the concept of open innovation applied to technology transfer and diffusion activities is addressed. Interest is focused on the identification of trends, drivers, and limits in the models used today for TT and their impact on the design of policy. From this analysis, new open models emerge for immature technologies where research and TT cannot be isolated.

Finally, although these elements can be found in any science and technology domain, information technologies offer a set of special features making it even more important to address TT activities in a cooperative way where universities facilitate the transference of immature technologies. Experiences on the deployment of grid services will be outlined in this context. This case illustrates the benefits of a close open cooperation amongst all stakeholders (industry, academia, and governments) to support TT and to speed up grid services deployment.

We build on previous research to demonstrate how, with a combination of a socio-technical change model, a social process model, and punctuated equilibrium theory, we can describe and analyze a specific information system development project. In this paper, we focus on an information systems project that was being implemented in a UK retail organization where a new system was being implemented to replace the existing, failing one. Generally, the combination of these IS research models can provide us with a new, practical, and valuable way of understanding information systems development (ISD) as a social process. Despite the limitations associated with this type of research, this study attempts to contribute to the further understanding of process research into ISD.

Through our case study exemplar, several findings were generated. First of all, the project implementation context, including organizational context and external environmental context, was shown to play a significant role in the project implementation process. We show how social-technical equilibria can be perturbed by the critical incidents that occurred externally to the project. Furthermore, the ability of the project team in dealing with unexpected events was seen as a vital skill in ensuring the stability of a project. In contrast, drift is shown to lead to a degree of chaos. Third, the past project patterns or similar patterns from other system processes, as suggested the literature, have significant impacts on current project patterns. Finally, when it comes to critical events that occur totally unexpectedly, we found that the knowledge generated from past project patterns or similar patterns from other systems may be of only limited use. Actors in our ISD drama were often reactive, not anticipatory.

Our approach illustrates the utility of the contextual process model in the study of ISD and, in particular, the distinction between project and work processes. The paper ends with suggestions which may be helpful to scholars in IS research as well as practitioners involved in IS projects.

This paper explains the development of a skills-focused approach which can assist organizations to better anticipate hurdles to successful information systems adoption. This approach is utilized in an interpretive field study in an Australian information technology company. From a perspective that views information systems as tools, the approach is used to analyze the management control skills required to use a specific management information system. A skills match between the set of management control skills assumed by the tool maker and the skills possessed by the tool user shows why a group of users with a high degree of match adopted the tool, while another one with a low degree of match did not. The study demonstrates that the skills-focused approach is a valid and effective way of determining the appropriateness of an information system.

Can subjective replication generate valid and worthwhile knowledge? A theory of multimedia systems development (MSD) generated using a content analysis method is tested using a grounded theory method. The theory—that two distinct communities of software engineers and graphic designers exist within MSD—is confirmed. In fact, the test finds more differences and less commonalities. This finding has implications for the development of MSD methodologies, and for the education and training of MSD practitioners. The conclusion is that subjective replication is worthwhile but must be done carefully because of problems with the application of methods in this relatively unexplored information systems research space.

This paper addresses the themes of work practices and organizational culture as situated actions and the implications for information systems innovation uptake. It reports on research being conducted in Tanzania that brings an ethnographic research approach to understanding relations between local health care practices and health information systems (HIS) development, by asking how health workers’ practices and everyday actions are influenced by the context of their specific situation. The research is being conducted in the context of a globally distributed open source software project to introduce and enhance health information systems (HIS) in developing countries. Drawing on cultural historical activity theory, the study highlights the need for understanding each information system user’s and each organization’s specific and detailed work processes and how situational and organizational factors may come together with the HIS innovation processes in meeting the challenges discussed. In order to establish fully the potential of activity theory to HIS innovation processes, situatedness of work practices focusing on the organization context is emphasized.

So called “knowledge work” is seen as integral to post-industrial society and, for some, information and communications technologies (ICTs) are critical enablers of the associated practices. Many still propose the technologically deterministic route of rolling out ICTs and expecting that users will, and indeed can, “download” what they know into a system that can then be used in a number of ways. This approach is usually underpinned by the predominant assumption that the system will be developed by one group (developers) and used by another group (users). In this paper, we report on an exploratory case study of the enactment of ICT supported knowledge work in a human resources contact center which illustrates the negotiable boundary between the developer and user in local level innovation processes. Drawing upon ideas from the social shaping of technology, we examine how discussions regarding producer-user relations in innovation processes require a degree of greater sophistication as we show how users often develop (or produce) technologies and work practices in situ—in this case, to enable knowledge work practices and contribute to the project of constructing the knowledge component of professional identity. Much has been made of contextualizing the user; further work is required to contextualize the developer as a user and understand the social actors in ICT innovation environments who straddle both domains.