Social Mechanisms for Causal Explanation in Social Theory Based IS Research

In this paper, I argue for the development of explanatory theory in IS research. I critically examine ways of explaining IS phenomena, identify alternative epistemological approaches used in the social sciences, and point out the significance attributed to causality. I focus in particular on the development of explanation in process IS research that draws from social theory. I introduce the notion of social mechanism and suggest that tracing social mechanisms in research that draws from social theories of action and technology can lead to more complete and novel causal explanations of IS phenomena.

[1]  P. Hedström,et al.  Social mechanisms : an analytical approach to social theory , 1999 .

[2]  J. Kallinikos.  Farewell to constructivism: technology and context-embedded action , 2004 .

[3]  P. Machamer,et al.  Thinking about Mechanisms , 2000, Philosophy of Science.

[4]  P. Hedström,et al.  Social Mechanisms: Social mechanisms: An introductory essay , 1998 .

[5]  Rajiv Kohli,et al.  Performance Impacts of Information Technology: Is Actual Usage the Missing Link? , 2003, Manag. Sci..

[6]  Allen S. Lee.  Retrospect and prospect: information systems research in the last and next 25 years , 2010, J. Inf. Technol..

[7]  Fred D. Davis.  Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use, and User Acceptance of Information Technology , 1989, MIS Q..

[8]  H. Tsoukas,et al.  Grasping the logic of practice: Theorizing through practical rationality , 2011 .

[9]  Ron Weber,et al.  Evaluating and Developing Theories in the Information Systems Discipline , 2012, J. Assoc. Inf. Syst..

[10]  Ian Shapiro,et al.  The Flight from Reality in the Human Sciences , 2005 .

[11]  Mario Bunge,et al.  How Does It Work? , 2004 .

[12]  Margaret S. Archer,et al.  Rational Choice Theory: Resisting Colonisation , 2013 .

[13]  Rob Kling,et al.  The Web of Computing: Computer Technology as Social Organization , 1982, Adv. Comput..

[14]  Richard Baskerville,et al.  Generalizing Generalizability in Information Systems Research , 2003, Inf. Syst. Res..

[15]  Pierre Bourdieu,et al.  Outline of a Theory of Practice , 2020, On Violence.

[16]  Daniel Little,et al.  Causal Explanation in the Social Sciences , 1996 .

[17]  Ali Tafti,et al.  Information Technology and Firm Profitability: Mechanisms and Empirical Evidence , 2012, MIS Q..

[18]  Eva Boxenbaum,et al.  New Knowledge Products As Bricolage: Metaphors and Scripts in Organizational Theory , 2011 .

[19]  Marshall Scott Poole,et al.  Response to Jones and Karsten, Giddens's structuration theory and information systems research , 2009 .

[20]  Jörgen Sandberg.  GRASPING THE LOGIC OF PRACTICE : THEORIZING THROUGH PRACTICAL RATIONALITY , 2011 .

[21]  D. Steel.  Social Mechanisms and Causal Inference , 2004 .

[22]  Samer Faraj,et al.  Why Should I Share? Examining Social Capital and Knowledge Contribution in Electronic Networks of Practice , 2005, MIS Q..

[23]  Ritu Agarwal,et al.  Evolving Work Routines: Adaptive Routinization of Information Technology in Healthcare , 2011, Inf. Syst. Res..

[24]  B. Nardi.  Studying context: a comparison of activity theory, situated action models, and distributed cognition , 1995 .

[25]  Bruce Rowlands,et al.  A social actor understanding of the institutional structures at play in information systems development , 2009, Inf. Technol. People.

[26]  Francesca Polletta,et al.  Dynamics of Contention , 2002 .

[27]  Daniel Robey,et al.  A Social Process Model of User-Analyst Relationships , 1992, MIS Q..

[28]  Wanda J. Orlikowski,et al.  Technological frames: making sense of information technology in organizations , 1994, TOIS.

[29]  R. Bhaskar.  Scientific Realism and Human Emancipation , 1986 .

[30]  B. Reskin.  Including Mechanisms in Our Models of Ascriptive Inequality , 2003, American Sociological Review.

[31]  L. Suchman.  Plans and situated actions , 1987 .

[32]  C. Geertz,et al.  The Interpretation of Cultures , 1973 .

[33]  M. Feldman,et al.  Reconceptualizing Organizational Routines as a Source of Flexibility and Change , 2003 .

[34]  Gordon B. Davis,et al.  User Acceptance of Information Technology: Toward a Unified View , 2003, MIS Q..

[35]  Dorothy E. Leidner,et al.  Studying Knowledge Management in Information Systems Resarch: Discourses and Theoretical Assumptions , 2002, MIS Q..

[36]  Wanda J. Orlikowski,et al.  Knowing in practice: Enacting a collective capability in distributed organizing , 2002, STUDI ORGANIZZATIVI.

[37]  Jiska Engelbert,et al.  Social construction of reality , 2016 .

[38]  A. V. D. Ven,et al.  Explaining Development and Change in Organizations , 1995 .

[39]  Shirley Gregor,et al.  The Nature of Theory in Information Systems , 2006, MIS Q..

[40]  C. Bullard.  Shaping technology/Building society , 1994 .

[41]  Rob Kling,et al.  Computing as Social Action: The Social Dynamics of Computing in Complex Organizations , 1980, Adv. Comput..

[42]  Peter Fleming,et al.  From Borrowing to Blending: Rethinking the Processes of Organizational Theory Building , 2011 .

[43]  Martin Brigham,et al.  Information Technology and Organizations. Strategies, Networks and Integration , 1998 .

[44]  Christopher Marquis,et al.  Special Issue: Frontiers of Organization Science, Part 1 of 2: Prospects for Organization Theory in the Early Twenty-First Century: Institutional Fields and Mechanisms , 2005, Organ. Sci..

[45]  R. Mayntz.  Mechanisms in the Analysis of Social Macro-Phenomena , 2004 .

[46]  K. Weick.  Theory Construction as Disciplined Imagination , 1989 .

[47]  C. Ciborra,et al.  Formative contexts and information technology: Understanding the dynamics of innovation in organizations , 1994 .

[48]  W. Gibb Dyer,et al.  Better Stories, Not Better Constructs, To Generate Better Theory: A Rejoinder to Eisenhardt , 1991 .

[49]  T. Falleti,et al.  Context and Causal Mechanisms in Political Analysis , 2009 .

[50]  James R. Webb,et al.  Forms of Explanation; Rethinking the Questions in Social Theory , 1983 .

[51]  K. Lyytinen,et al.  Information systems : the state of the field , 2006 .

[52]  Viswanath Venkatesh,et al.  Model of Acceptance with Peer Support: A Social Network Perspective to Understand Employees' System Use , 2009, MIS Q..

[53]  Guy Fitzgerald,et al.  Research methods in information systems , 1985 .

[54]  Samuel B. Bacharach,et al.  Organizational Theories: Some Criteria for Evaluation , 1989 .

[55]  M. Lynne Markus,et al.  A Foundation for the Study of IT Effects: A New Look at DeSanctis and Poole's Concepts of Structural Features and Spirit , 2008, J. Assoc. Inf. Syst..

[56]  Chrisanthi Avgerou,et al.  Explaining Trust in IT-Mediated Elections: A Case Study of E-Voting in Brazil , 2013, J. Assoc. Inf. Syst..

[57]  Rob Kling,et al.  Reconceptualizing Users as Social Actors in Information Systems Research , 2003, MIS Q..

[58]  Elisabeth Davenport.  Social informatics and sociotechnical research — a view from the UK , 2008, J. Inf. Sci..

[59]  K. Eisenhardt.  Building theories from case study research , 1989, STUDI ORGANIZZATIVI.

[60]  P. Hedström.  Dissecting the Social: On the Principles of Analytical Sociology , 2005 .

[61]  P. Berger,et al.  Social Construction of Reality , 1991, The SAGE International Encyclopedia of Mass Media and Society.

[62]  John Mingers,et al.  Re-Establishing the Real: Critical Realism and Information Systems , 2004 .

[63]  R. Suddaby.  From the Editors: What Grounded Theory is Not , 2006 .

[64]  G. Walsham.  Actor-network theory and IS research: current status and future prospects , 1997 .

[65]  Rajiv Sabherwal,et al.  Reconciling Variance and Process Strategies for Studying Information System Development , 1995, Inf. Syst. Res..

[66]  M. Markus,et al.  Information technology and organizational change: causal structure in theory and research , 1988 .

[67]  N. L. Chervany,et al.  Initial Trust Formation in New Organizational Relationships , 1998 .

[68]  Martha S. Feldman,et al.  Narrative Networks: Patterns of Technology and Organization , 2007, Organ. Sci..

[69]  Karen Ruhleder,et al.  Steps Toward an Ecology of Infrastructure: Design and Access for Large Information Spaces , 1996, Inf. Syst. Res..

[70]  Andrew B. Whinston,et al.  Discovery and Representation of Causal Relationships in MIS Research: A Methodological Framework , 1997, MIS Q..

[71]  Wanda J. Orlikowski,et al.  Improvising Organizational Transformation Over Time: A Situated Change Perspective , 1996, Inf. Syst. Res..

[72]  Geoff Walsham,et al.  The Emergence of Interpretivism in IS Research , 1995, Inf. Syst. Res..

[73]  Suzanne Rivard,et al.  Positioning the institutional perspective in information systems research , 2009, J. Inf. Technol..

[74]  Wesley C. Salmon,et al.  Causality and Explanation , 1998 .

[75]  Michael Scriven,et al.  Causation as Explanation , 1975 .

[76]  Paul A. Swatman,et al.  Structured-case: a methodological framework for building theory in information systems research , 2000, ECIS.

[77]  Gunnar Ellingsen,et al.  Mechanisms for producing a working knowledge: Enacting, orchestrating and organizing , 2003, Inf. Organ..

[78]  P. Abell.  Narrative Explanation: An Alternative to Variable-Centered Explanation? , 2004 .

[79]  Helena Karsten,et al.  Divided by a common language? a response to Marshall Scott Poole , 2009 .

[80]  Wanda J. Orlikowski,et al.  Studying Information Technology in Organizations: Research Approaches and Assumptions , 1991, Inf. Syst. Res..

[81]  A. Langley.  Strategies for Theorizing from Process Data , 1999 .

[82]  Robert N. Brandon,et al.  Adaptation and Environment , 1995 .

[83]  Ian Wilkinson,et al.  Using narrative sequence methods to advance international entrepreneurship theory , 2007 .

[84]  L. Quéré.  Cognition in Practice , 1996 .

[85]  Geoff Walsham,et al.  Doing interpretive research , 2006, Eur. J. Inf. Syst..

[86]  Gerardine DeSanctis,et al.  Capturing the Complexity in Advanced Technology Use: Adaptive Structuration Theory , 1994 .

[87]  France Bélanger,et al.  Communication Media Repertoires: Dealing with the Multiplicity of Media Choices , 2007, MIS Q..

[88]  Neil Gross.  A Pragmatist Theory of Social Mechanisms , 2009 .

[89]  S. Gherardi.  Practice-Based Theorizing on Learning and Knowing in Organizations , 2000 .

[90]  Wanda J. Orlikowski,et al.  Using Technology and Constituting Structures: A Practice Lens for Studying Technology in Organizations , 2000, Theory in CSCW.

[91]  D. Mcadam,et al.  Methods for Measuring Mechanisms of Contention , 2008 .

[92]  Deidra L. Fryer,et al.  The Social Study of Information and Communication Technology: Innovation, Actors and Contexts , 2005 .

[93]  Michael D. Myers,et al.  A Set of Principles for Conducting and Evaluating Interpretive Field Studies in Information Systems , 1999, MIS Q..

[94]  Ross Morrow,et al.  Rational Choice Theory: Resisting Colonization , 2002 .

[95]  Matthew R. Jones,et al.  Giddens's Structuration Theory and Information Systems Research , 2008, MIS Q..

[96]  Geoffrey C. Bowker,et al.  Lest we remember: Organizational forgetting and the production of knowledge , 1997 .

[97]  A. George,et al.  Case Studies and Theory Development in the Social Sciences , 2005 .

[98]  Joseph S. Valacich,et al.  An Alternative to Methodological Individualism: A Non-Reductionist Approach to Studying Technology Adoption by Groups , 2010, MIS Q..

[99]  F DavisGerald,et al.  Prospects for Organization Theory in the Early Twenty-First Century , 2005 .

[100]  Emmanuelle Vaast,et al.  The Emergence of Boundary Spanning Competence in Practice: Implications for Implementation and Use of Information Systems , 2005, MIS Q..

[101]  A. Kellerman,et al.  The Constitution of Society : Outline of the Theory of Structuration , 2015 .

[102]  Wanda J. Orlikowski,et al.  Information Technology and the Structuring of Organizations , 2011 .

[103]  Adam LeBrocq.  Style Guide for the Journal of the Association for Information Systems , 2022 .

[104]  A. Pettigrew.  WHAT IS A PROCESSUAL ANALYSIS. , 1997 .

[105]  Viswanath Venkatesh,et al.  Why Don't Men Ever Stop to Ask for Directions? Gender, Social Influence, and Their Role in Technology Acceptance and Usage Behavior , 2000, MIS Q..

[106]  Elizabeth J. Davidson,et al.  Technology Frames and Framing: A Socio-Cognitive Investigation of Requirements Determination , 2002, MIS Q..

[107]  C. Mills,et al.  The Sociological Imagination , 1960 .

[108]  T. Good,et al.  The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy. , 1971 .

[109]  D. Edge,et al.  The social shaping of technology , 1988 .

[110]  W. Dutton.  The Web of Technology and People: Challenges for Economic and Social Research , 1999 .

[111]  Etienne Wenger,et al.  Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation , 1991 .

[112]  Enid Mumford,et al.  The story of socio‐technical design: reflections on its successes, failures and potential , 2006, Inf. Syst. J..

[113]  Varun Grover,et al.  Contributing to Rigorous and Forward Thinking Explanatory Theory , 2008, J. Assoc. Inf. Syst..

[114]  W. Orlikowski.  The Duality of Technology: Rethinking the Concept of Technology in Organizations , 2014 .

[115]  Andrew Abbott,et al.  Time Matters: On Theory and Method , 2001 .

[116]  Mark Keil,et al.  Theorizing in information systems research: A reflexive analysis of the adaptation of theory in information systems research , 2006, J. Assoc. Inf. Syst..

[117]  R.W. Seidel,et al.  Knowing Machines: Essays on Technical Change , 1997, IEEE Annals of the History of Computing.

[118]  MithasSunil,et al.  Information technology and firm profitability , 2012 .

[119]  J. Law.  A Sociology of monsters: Essays on power, technology, and domination , 1991 .

[120]  Emmanuelle Vaast,et al.  Innovating or Doing as Told? Status Differences and Overlapping Boundaries in Offshore Collaboration , 2008, MIS Q..

[121]  Geoff Walsham,et al.  Trans-Situated Learning: Supporting a Network of Practice with an Information Infrastructure , 2009, Inf. Syst. Res..

[122]  J. Brown,et al.  Knowledge and Organization: A Social-Practice Perspective , 2001 .

[123]  B. Pentland.  Building Process Theory with Narrative: from Description to Explanation , 1999 .

[124]  A. Strauss,et al.  The discovery of grounded theory: strategies for qualitative research aldine de gruyter , 1968 .