When Data Replace Norms: Platformisation of Knowledge Production

2021 | Americas Conference on Information Systems | Citations: 0

Authors: Ma, Lai

Abstract: Little attention has been paid to the research infrastructure that is tracing, ... Expand

Abstract: Little attention has been paid to the research infrastructure that is tracing, tracking, monitoring and benchmarking individuals' and groups' performance and their implications for epistemic cultures and knowledge production. This paper discusses how the use of evaluative metrics and the dominence of data analytics can lead to platformisation of knowledge production by examining the normative view of science and epistemic cultures and the current development of research infrastructure such as vertical integration of research products. This paper argues that the dominance of commercial platformisation can decimate the negotiation powers of those who produce and review scientific outputs because researchers are acculturated to chase after funding, metrics, and data-driven economic and societal impacts. It is the objective of this paper to open up critical examination of the platformisation of knowledge production. Collapse

Topics: analytical information system societal evaluation criteria

Theories: theory of epistemic cultures

The stickiness of scientific data

2020 | International Conference on Information Systems | Citations: 5

Authors: Priego, Laia Pujol; Wareham, Jonathan

Abstract: Researchers are generating unprecedented volumes of data. As the expectations of ... Expand

Abstract: Researchers are generating unprecedented volumes of data. As the expectations of big scientific data grow, the expectations on the potential of sharing it grow as well. Government-funding entities have placed data sharing at the crux of scientific policy. Yet, considering the apparent barriers to its wide adoption, we lack a recent overview of whether researchers share their data, how and what mechanisms enable research data sharing (why). Our study engages in a mixed-method design by combining survey data collected in 2016 and 2018; and qualitative data from two case studies sequentially sampled within two scientific communities: high-energy physics and molecular biology. As a lens to understand the factors behind data sharing practices, we draw upon the notion of epistemic cultures and the collective action theory perspective to shed light on the incentives and deterrents that scientists confront when considering contributions to the collective goods of data sharing. Collapse

Topics: information technology infrastructure blog website knowledge sharing database system

Methods: survey case study qualitative interview mixed method personal interview

Theories: theory of epistemic cultures action theory

The mediating role of artifacts in position practice at work: Examples from a project-based context

2019 | Information & Management | Citations: 0

Authors: Awazu, Yukika; Mariano, Stefania; Newell, Sue

Abstract: Drawing on examples from a case study of a global product technology company, we ... Expand

Abstract: Drawing on examples from a case study of a global product technology company, we discuss the mediating role of artifacts in position practice in project-based contexts. Findings revealed three types of mediation – professionalization, integration, and collaboration – and pointed out the key role of organizational remembering and forgetting in these mediation processes. These findings extend our understandings of how artifacts contribute to organizational practices. We discuss implications for theory and practice, and offer directions for future research. Collapse

Topics: organizational context human resource management organizational memory project management sensemaking

Methods: qualitative interview case study field study longitudinal research triangulation

Theories: social practice theory theory of epistemic cultures

Framing Innovation Opportunities While Staying Committed to an Organizational Epistemic Stance

2016 | Information Systems Research | Citations: 33

Authors: Fayard, Anne-Laure; Gkeredakis, Emmanouil; Levina, Natalia

Abstract: This paper examines how an organization’s culture, and in particular its stance ... Expand

Abstract: This paper examines how an organization’s culture, and in particular its stance toward the pursuit of knowledge and innovation, matters when confronting new digitally enabled practices for generating novel insights. We draw on an in-depth interpretive study of how two innovation consulting firms encountered crowdsourcing for innovation. Our findings suggest that, although both organizations relied on a similar set of organizational arrangements in their daily consulting work, they enacted different positions vis-à-vis crowdsourcing: one firm further experimented with it, whereas the other rejected it altogether. These different positions emerged as organizational actors examined, framed, and evaluated crowdsourcing as an alternative for generating knowledge. To interpret these findings, we draw on philosophy of science and develop the concept of organizational epistemic stance, defined as an attitude that organizational actors collectively enact in pursuing knowledge. Our analysis suggests that when organizational actors encounter and explore information technology-enabled practices, such as crowdsourcing and big data analytics, they are likely to remain committed to their epistemic stance to frame such practices and judge their potential value for pursuing knowledge. This paper contributes to our understanding of encounters with, and adoption and diffusion of, new organizational practices and offers new ways of thinking about crowdsourcing. Collapse

Topics: innovation management crowdsourcing big data green IS user requirement

Methods: qualitative interview design artifact theory development personal interview cross sectional research

Theories: theory of epistemic cultures

IT affordances and reconciling alternative modes of evidence giving in cyberinfrastructure: the case of Climate Change Research

2015 | International Conference on Information Systems | Citations: 0

Authors: McElroy, Charles; Lyytinen, Kalle; Boland, Richard

Abstract: This qualitative study was conducted to examine how multi-disciplinary environme ... Expand

Abstract: This qualitative study was conducted to examine how multi-disciplinary environmental science teams utilize cyber-infrastructure to generate and assess evidence as part of their boundary spanning research. We find that this interdisciplinary research is difficult due to the divergent institutional logics of the team members (represented by the tenets of their communities of practices, dominant epistemological frameworks and dispositions towards data) which force researchers to synthesize incommensurate forms of data and warrants into their scientific arguments. We examine how the affordances enacted in the cyber-infrastructure enabled one environmental science team to ameliorate these challenges. This study contributes to the nascent literature on the new forms of evidence giving within scientific fields by building a theoretical framework to account for how affordances enacted within cyber-infrastructure can assist researchers as they negotiate the conflicting institutional logics associated with diverse fields. We conclude by discussing how these issues impact the effectiveness of interdisciplinary inquiry. Collapse

Topics: affordance sensemaking decision support system communities of practice video conference

Methods: qualitative interview case study qualitative coding field study simulation

Theories: theory of affordance theory of epistemic cultures

Understanding knowledge management software-organisation misalignments from an institutional perspective: A case study of a global IT-management consultancy firm

2014 | International Journal of Information Management | Citations: 0

Authors: Khuong, Le-Nguyen; Harindranath, G.; Dyerson, Romano

Abstract: a b s t r a c tInspired by the proposition that "Enterprise IS configurations c ... Expand

Abstract: a b s t r a c tInspired by the proposition that "Enterprise IS configurations chosen by the organisations will encode institutionalised principles into these systems" (Gosain, 2004, p. 169), this study seeks to draw attention to potential sources of misalignment between knowledge management (KM) software and the implementing organisation from an institutional theory perspective. Using a case of a global consultancy firm, the study elucidates such misalignments as the consequence of different institutional contexts where technology developers and adopters operate. This study demonstrates how institutional forces affect the implementation project and provides some lessons learned for organisations that are rich in high-value text-based knowledge for making decisions. Collapse

Topics: knowledge work systems implementation social identity technology adoption knowledge creation

Methods: qualitative interview case study experimental group personal interview literature study

Theories: institutional theory theory of epistemic cultures

Digital Science and Knowledge Boundaries in Complex Innovation

2012 | Organization Science | Citations: 60

Authors: Dougherty, Deborah; Dunne, Danielle D.

Abstract: Drug discovery is a complex innovation process in which scientists need to make ... Expand

Abstract: Drug discovery is a complex innovation process in which scientists need to make sense of ambiguous findings and grapple with numerous unpredictable interdependencies over many years of product development. Digitalization has combined with expanding science to address this complexity, creating new ways to measure, analyze, and model chemical compounds, diseases, and human biology. We interviewed 85 scientists and managers working on drug discovery to understand how they deal with complexity. We find a major knowledge fault line between digital scientists, who use computers as laboratories and manipulate signs, and therapy scientists, who use conventional laboratories and manipulate physical material. We build on research on epistemic cultures and knowing in practice to develop empirically grounded theory for the role of digital science in complex innovation. We propose that digitalization creates a new form of knowledge that provides essential complementary insights for complex innovation that cannot exist otherwise. However, digitalization also creates new knowledge boundaries that concern central activities of innovation. These boundaries highlight challenges of complex innovation that digital sciences can help address, but only if the innovation activities are transformed so that digital and therapy sciences can integrate their complementary knowledge. Collapse

Topics: innovation management value creation IT work systems implementation IT skill

Methods: qualitative interview grounded theory cross sectional research ethnography

Theories: boundary objects theory theory of epistemic cultures

Strategy and PowerPoint: An Inquiry into the Epistemic Culture and Machinery of Strategy Making

2011 | Organization Science | Citations: 56

Authors: Kaplan, Sarah

Abstract: PowerPoint has come to dominate organizational life in general and strategy maki ... Expand

Abstract: PowerPoint has come to dominate organizational life in general and strategy making in particular. The technology is lauded by its proponents as a powerful tool for communication and excoriated by its critics as dangerously simplifying. This study takes a deeper look into how PowerPoint is mobilized in strategy making through an ethnographic study inside one organization. It treats PowerPoint as a technology embedded in the discursive practices of strategic knowledge production and suggests that these practices make up the epistemic or knowledge culture of the organization. Conceptualizing culture as composed of practices foregrounds the “machineries” of knowing. Results from a genre analysis of PowerPoint use suggest that it should not be characterized simply as effective or ineffective, as current PowerPoint controversies do. Instead, I show how the affordances of PowerPoint enabled the difficult task of collaborating to negotiate meaning in an uncertain environment, creating spaces for discussion, making recombinations possible, allowing for adjustments as ideas evolved, and providing access to a wide range of actors. These affordances also facilitated cartographic efforts to draw boundaries around the scope of a strategy by certifying certain ideas and allowing document owners to include or exclude certain slides or participants. These discursive practices—collaboration and cartography—are part of the “epistemic machinery” of strategy culture. This analysis demonstrates that strategy making is not only about analysis of industry structure, competitive positioning, or resources, as assumed in content-based strategy research, but it is also about how the production and use of PowerPoint documents that shape these ideas. Collapse

Topics: organizational change anonymity business process management electronic mail

Methods: field study qualitative coding qualitative interview ethnography qualitative content analysis

Theories: theory of epistemic cultures theory of affordance

Open to Negotiation: Phenomenological Assumptions and Knowledge Dissemination

2010 | Organization Science | Citations: 0

Authors: Bendersky, Corinne; McGinn, Kathleen L.

Abstract: Phenomenological assumptions-assumptions about the fundamental qualities of the ... Expand

Abstract: Phenomenological assumptions-assumptions about the fundamental qualities of the phenomenon being studied and how it relates to the environment in which it occurs-affect the dissemination of knowledge from subfields to the broader field of study. Micro-process research in organizational studies rests on implicit phenomenological assumptions that vary in the extent to which micro-processes are viewed as parts of larger systems. We suggest that phenomenological assumptions linking micro-processes to organizational contexts highlight the relevance of micro-process research findings to broader organizational questions and therefore increase the likelihood that the findings will disseminate to the larger field of organizational research. We test this assertion by analyzing studies of negotiation published in top peer-reviewed management, psychology, sociology, and industrial relations journals from 1990 to 2005. Our findings reveal a continuum of open systems to closed systems phenomenological assumptions in negotiation research. Analysis of the citation rates of the articles in our data set by non-negotiation organizational research indicates that more open systems assumptions increase the likelihood that a negotiation article will be cited in organizational studies, after controlling for other, previously identified effects on citation rates. Our findings suggest that subfields can increase the impact they have on the broader intellectual discourse by situating their phenomena in rich contexts that illuminate the connections between their findings and questions of interest to the broader field. Collapse

Topics: negotiation support system database system knowledge creation website decision making

Methods: literature sample experiment theory development co-citation analysis laboratory experiment

Theories: organizational behavior theory theory of epistemic cultures

The Legacy of "Power and Politics" in Disciplinary Discourse: A Citation Analysis

2006 | International Conference on Information Systems | Citations: 0

Authors: Hansen, Sean; Lyytinen, Kalle; Markus, M Lynne

Abstract: Within Information Systems (IS), as with all other scientific communities, the p ... Expand

Abstract: Within Information Systems (IS), as with all other scientific communities, the publication of original research is the primary mode of communication. One characteristic of such communication is the use of references. Yet, scientific communities differ in the ways their members use citations to position their own contribution. In this paper, we examine the following questions: What can we learn about the discursive practices within IS by investigating ways in which the community has drawn upon one of its classics? How can such an analysis inform us as authors, reviewers, and active members of the discipline? To address these questions, we analyze over 300 citations extending over two decades to one of the most widely-cited works in the field –Markus’s “Power, Politics, and MIS Implementation”. We apply a wide range of citation analysis techniques to understand how IS researchers have used the article to support or to frame their contribution. Our analysis reveals the impact of social construction in shaping our discursive practices. This observation has several implications for improving IS research. Collapse

Topics: accounting systems implementation IS discipline health information system IS management

Methods: co-citation analysis qualitative content analysis case study personal interview time series analysis

Theories: theory of epistemic cultures technology acceptance model structuration theory adaptive structuration theory media richness theory