New Words and Old Books: Challenging Conventional Discourses about Domain and Theory in Information Systems Research

In this panel, we address the question: “How does information systems (IS) research in nonbusiness domains push the IS field forward? ” We pursue this question by focusing on the contemporary intellectual discourse of our community regarding appropriate domains, the sources of theory, and the common levels of analysis in IS research. The commentary of the panelists is focused on expanding the discourse by discussing our empirical work in a wide range of sectors and at different levels of analysis. We expand the scholarly discourse on the value of theories by acknowledging that, while various theories (generally social theories) are typically drawn into the IS community, there is an increasing effort to extend these theories to better account for the effects of using ICT and IS. Increasingly, IS scholars are developing theories directly out of their empirical work on the uses of ICT and IS.