Structure & story

How to tell the story of your research?

Andy Weeger

Neu-Ulm University of Applied Sciences

January 1, 2022

Prologue

When developing or revising the structure for your own paper, remember that a good option is always to follow as closely as possible the standard paper structure instead of inventing new structures. Innovative structures are not always well received in the academic community because the novel structure makes reading the paper more difficult. Recker (2021b, 178)

Opening remarks

Research types

Regarding you master thesis, there are basically two approaches you can take: behavioral science or design science.

The structure proposed here fits to behavioral science research.

Behavioral science

• Development of a research model or assumptions based on theoretical considerations of literature
• Empirical test of the research model
• Derivation of management recommendations

Design science

• Development of an artifact based on the body of knowledge (practice and theory)
• Empirical test of the artifact
• Refinement and repetition of the empirical test until the artifact is sufficient for management recommendation

Polarities

Following table contrasts the approaches

	Behavioral science	Design science
Ontological temporality	Existing reality	New reality
Basic aim	Truth	Utility
Study focus	Behavior	Designed artifacts
Basic procedure	Data collection	Creation through design
Basic epistemic types	Explanation & description	Prescription through design principles and design theory
Type of conjecture	Causality hypothesis	Design idea & design hypothesis

Table 1: Polarities of behavioral science vs. design science in information systems research (Goldkuhl 2016)

Exercise

Have a look at approx. two handful papers you have read lately.

What commonalities in structure do you see?

Structure

Why structue matters

Science is about new ideas in old formats.

Reviewers and readers are accustomed to certain ways of reading an article—the so-called “script” (Grover and Lyytinen 2015).

Innovative structures are not always well received by scholars because the novel structure makes the paper difficult to read.

An innovative structure distracts from the content, forces readers to focus more on the structure, which gives them less capacity to focus on the content (Recker 2021b).

Thus, a good advice is to follow the script and make only mindful variations.

Generic paper structure (empirical papers)

Section	Content
Introduction	Problem statement, research gap, research question, approach, contributions
Background	Literature on the topic, research gap, general theory
Theory	Assumptions, propositions, hypotheses
Methodology	Sampling, data collection and analysis methods, etc.
Findings	Descriptive results of the data analysis
Discussion	Findings, theoretical and practical contributions, limitations, further research, conclusion
Conclusion	Closing frame

Examples (empirical papers)

Generic structure	Quantitative study: H. Li, Zhang, and Kettinger (2022)	Qualitative study: Wang et al. (2022)	Design Science: Recker (2021a)
Introduction	Introduction	Intro	Introduction
Background	Literature review Theoretical background	Literature review	Research context
Theory	Research model and hypotheses	Theoretical foundation	-
Methodology	Methodology	Research method	Research approach
Findings	Results	Toptech’s digital… Meaning-making…	Analysis Solution objectives Evaluation
Discussion	Discussion	Theoretical integration… Implications Boundary conditions…	Discussion
Conclusion	-	Concluding remarks	Conclusion

Introduction

Function

Capture the reader’s curiosity and set the right frame (Kane 2022).

Here are the reader’s expectations set.

• Answer the questions, “What does the literature get wrong?” and “Why does it matter?”.
• Outline how to correct these inadequacies
• Put the study in the context of previous research, but keep it concise¹.
• Do not include an summary of the paper
• Good introductions are short ²

Motivation

Motivate your research with a hook, not a gap

The gap is usually the argument that something hasn’t been done yet. Necessary, but not sufficient as some things shouldn’t be done (Grant and Pollock 2011).

The hook is a strategy to find a problem that someone cares about (Grant and Pollock 2011).

• It resolves a contradiction in the literature,
• expands the literature to include specific, important phenomena/understandings/contexts (and why)
• resolves a puzzle for practitioners that is important but not yet addressed; and/or
• demonstrates how the existing literature can mislead our thinking

Forumula

Based on Baird (2021) and Recker (2021b) following “script” can be derived:

• Paragraph 1 – Hook
  What is the context of this research? Why is it interesting or why does it matter?
• Paragraph 2 – Background
  Synthesis of research relevant to your area, target audience, and objective.
• Paragrpah 3 - Tension
  What is unresolved? What am I going to get wrong if I don’t read this paper?
• Paragraph 4 – Resolution
  How is this paper going to resolve this issue? (Objective, Theory, and Design)
• Paragraph 5 – Contribution
  What is the expected contribution?
• Paragraph 6 – Outline
  How is the rest of the paper structured?

Exercise

Read the introduction of a paper you like or of Strich, Mayer, and Fiedler (2021) (search for it at Google Scholar) and decompose it.

Does it follow the “script”? Is the introduction persuasive? Why?

Background

Function

This section provides everything needed to understand your research processes and results.

Here you lay the foundation of your theory

The background is not a recapitulation, listing, or critique of all other work in this area, nor is it a list of concepts, it introduces and synthesizes the theoretical underpinnings you will rely on (Baird 2021):

• relevant prior theory, assumptions and tensions,
• concepts that you need; and
• previous methods, algorithms, findings, and arguments on which your work is based.

Tips for writing the theory section

• Organize the section according to topics, not as a list of studies.
• Discuss related work, rather than just listing it.
• Explain how your work complements others’ work.
• Explain how your work contradicts previous work.
• Highlight areas in which your work builds on others’ work. Keep it concise.’
• In the last section, briefly summarize everything by highlighting what is known, but also what is either not known or assumed and needs to be revised (in this paper).

Exercise

Read the background section of a paper you like or of Strich, Mayer, and Fiedler (2021) and decompose it.

• Does the background provide everything that is needed to understand the research (until here)?
• Is something missing?
• Seems something to be irrelevant?

Theory

Function

This is not where existing theory is discussed, but where the magic happens (Recker 2021b):

Here you develop new theory.

• Provide an overview of the conceptual or research model that is being developed and strong argument for the hypotheses (i.e., constructs and their relationships)
• Keep your hypotheses simple but precise
• In an exploratory research (mainly qualitative), outline your theoretical sensibility and possibly initial assumptions that guide the research.

Tips for writing (Recker 2021b)

• Start with an overview of conceptual or research model being developed.
• Discuss components of the model in paragraphs with relevant subheadings that reflect the model.
• Follow a disciplined structure that moves from concepts to associations to laws to boundaries.
• Each hypothesis must be preceded by a strong argument as to why it should hold.
• Explain concepts or constructs in tables
• Differentiate between conceptual level (abstact) and empirical level (operationalization)
• When developing hypotheses, do not use words like “prove” but use words like “suggest” or “support.”

Exercise

Have a look at the theory section of a quantitative paper you like or of Wang et al. (2022) and read it.

• Analyze the hypotheses developed and check if they stick to the recommendations outlined here.
• Is the justification strong enough to stand up to your critical eye?
• How is the research model visualized?

Methods

Function

This section provides the first part of your resolution.

Here you show how the research was carried out.

• Outline and justify your research strategy;
• provide materials, case sites, scope of survey, appropriate samples, participant selection and all other decisions related to the research design;
• describe the measurements (quantitative) or data collection techniques (qualitative) used; and
• exhibit the data analysis techniques used in your research.

Established scripts fopr the method section (Recker 2021b)

• Experiment paper: experimental design, variables and measures, materials, tasks, procedures, and participants.
• Quantitative paper: design, measures, sampling strategy, procedures, and validation of measures.
• Qualitative paper: empirical setting, modes of data collection, and processes and techniques employed in data analysis.
• Design science papers: overview, meta-requirements or design principles, artefact description, and evaluation.

Findings

Function

This section describes the second part of the resolution—the evidence gathered (Baird 2021).

Here you show what you found out.

• Offer a description of findings (factual result reporting, past tense)
  Exclude data do which the discussion will not refer and vice versa
• Include appropriate statistical tests or other analyses
  Keep writing, statistics, and graphs should as simply as possible
  
• Stick to the facts—do not include a discussion or interpretation of the findings

This section is easy to write and quite methodical—check published papers that use similar methods

Discussion

Function

This section is all about the contributions and implications.

Here the paper becomes most interesting

• It usually starts with a summary of the main findings.
• Then proceeds with their interpretation (sensemaking, present tense):
  What do they actually mean? Why did you get the results that you obtained?
• Explain results: why did you find what you found?
• Abstract the results to concepts: what does it mean in a larger view?
• Theorize the results: what do they tell us about the existing/new theory?

Note: Some readers tend to skim papers, read the intro, take a glimpse on figures and tables and then devote their attention mostly to this section.

Formula

Start with reminding the reader of the area of focus and the tension (Baird 2021).

Implications for research (theoretical contributions)

• Start with the primary finding, explain how it relates to prior research, and the implications.
• Add secondary findings, as well as how they extend research, and implications.

Questions that could guide your identification of theoretical contributions:

• What did we find that can guide future research?
• What opportunities for future research arise from the study described?
• What new questions arise from the way the research question was answered in the paper?

Implications for practice (practical contributions)

• How might your primary finding be applied by practitioners?
• How about your secondary findings?

Limitations and future research

• Reiterate strengths and identify limitations (to validity, generalizability, etc.)
• Show opportunities for future research

Visualization

Implications should be visualized to enhance understanding and make them catchy.

Figure 1: Visualizing theoretical implications in X. Li, Hsieh, and Rai (2013)

Exercise

Have a look at the discussion section of one of the papers analyzed so far and mark the summary, explanations, abstractions, theorizing, and implications (if applicable)

Conclusion

Function

This section is optional and provides the closing frame to a paper (Recker 2021b).

Here you synthesize what you set out to do and accomplished

• The conclusion is often not much more than an abstract statement;
• it briefly summarizes the main contributions of the paper (no details) and
• reflects on the research findings presented in the paper.

Homework

Please read the hypothetical AoM micro submission “Responses to Transformational Leadership: Are Some Followers Immune?” and reflect on the quality of this submission based on your learings in IS research and this module.

Q&A

Literature

Baird, Aaron. 2021. “On Writing Research Articles Well: A Guide for Writing IS Papers.” Journal of the Association for Information Systems 22 (5): 1197–1211.

Goldkuhl, Göran. 2016. “Separation or Unity? Behavioral Science Vs. Design Science.” In Proceedings of the 37th International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), 1–13.

Grant, Adam M, and Timothy G Pollock. 2011. “Publishing in AMJ—Part 3: Setting the Hook.” Academy of Management Journal. Academy of Management Briarcliff Manor, NY.

Grover, Varun, and Kalle Lyytinen. 2015. “New State of Play in Information Systems Research.” MIS Quarterly 39 (2): 271–96.

Kane, Gerald C. 2022. “How to Write an ‘a’ Paper.” Journal of the Association for Information Systems 23 (5): 1071–79.

Li, He, Chen Zhang, and William J Kettinger. 2022. “Digital Platform Ecosystem Dynamics: The Roles of Product Scope, Innovation, and Collaborative Network Centrality.” Management Information Systems Quarterly 46 (2): 739–70.

Li, Xixi, JJ Po-An Hsieh, and Arun Rai. 2013. “Motivational Differences Across Post-Acceptance Information System Usage Behaviors: An Investigation in the Business Intelligence Systems Context.” Information Systems Research 24 (3): 659–82.

Recker, Jan. 2021a. “Improving the State-Tracking Ability of Corona Dashboards.” European Journal of Information Systems 30 (5): 476–95.

———. 2021b. Scientific Research in Information Systems: A Beginner’s Guide. Springer Nature.

Strich, Franz, Anne-Sophie Mayer, and Marina Fiedler. 2021. “What Do i Do in a World of Artificial Intelligence? Investigating the Impact of Substitutive Decision-Making AI Systems on Employees’ Professional Role Identity.” Journal of the Association for Information Systems 22 (2): 9.

Tams, Stefan, and Varun Grover. 2010. “The Effect of an IS Article’s Structure on Its Impact.” Communications of the Association for Information Systems 27 (1): 10.

Wang, Gongtai, Ola Henfridsson, Joe Nandhakumar, and Youngjin Yoo. 2022. “Product Meaning in Digital Product Innovation.” Management Information Systems Quarterly 46 (2): 947–76.

Footnotes

1. Say only what the reader needs to know to understand the work at hand

2. Introductions in articles should be no longer than 2.5 pages (Baird 2021)