Administrivia 🧐

SIM & AIDA Information Systems Research (ISR)

Andy Weeger

Neu-Ulm University of Applied Sciences

August 28, 2024

Motivation

Research aims to advance understanding of reality before providing advice on how to change it.

This course is designed to teach you the fundamentals of information systems (IS) research through a combination of classroom instruction and independent study. The course is also designed to help you make significant progress on your master’s thesis, in particular in narrowing down the topic, understanding the theory and finding a suitable method.

Contents

Research is the systematic study and investigation of an area of problem or interest. It begins with the analysis of a situation itself and aims to find out the causes and characteristics of the problem.

This course teaches you the basics required to carry-out your own research project (e.g., as part of your master’s thesis), particularly regarding:

• Theory of science and knowledge acquisition
• Basic principles of research (in IS)
• The research process
• The role and nature of theory
• Research design with a focus on the basics of quantitative and qualitative research methods as well as design science research

Learning outcomes

You will advance your knowledge and skills in following areas.

• Understanding the fundamentals of doing sound research and the need for focus (especially the alignment of research question, theory, and methods)
• Understanding the need for theory-guided explanations of real-world phenomenon and approaches and the nature and role of theory in IS research
• Ability to chose adequate research methods depending on the research objective (incl. related data acquisition and data analysis techniques)
• Crafting own theoretical contributions and evaluating those of others, while maintaining academic integrity and uphold the standards of good academic work

Learning set-up

This course combines class teaching with brief exercises, coaching, and self-learning components.

The self-learning components are necessary to prepare and reflect the teaching sessions and to pass the assignment.

The focus of the teaching sessions is on giving you input to the fundamentals of IS research and to reflect those.

The personal coaching sessions will help you move forward with your assignment.

The learning progress is reflected in a written assignment (seminar paper) that could also serve as a foundation for your master’s thesis.

Effort

You will gain 5 ECTS for this course. This equals min. 125 hours workload for an average student required to pass the course.

• Joint sessions including preparation, reflections and coaching: approx. 30 hours
• Assignment (manuscript, review, revision, presentation): approx. 95 hours

Please prepare your schedule accordingly.

Schedule

To make this course as valuable as possible in preparation for your thesis, we have blocked the bulk of the sessions at the beginning of the semester. You will be through with the course by mid-December.

Date	Topic	Location	Preparation
Mo, 30.09.2024	Administrivia & Introduction	E7.1.01.
Tu, 01.10.2024	Theory	E7.1.01.	Read Podsakoff, MacKenzie, and Podsakoff (2016)
Tu, 01.10.2024	Research Process	E7.1.01.	Read Hund et al. (2021)
Fr, 25.10.2024	Deadline Theory Slides	-	Slides
Mo, 28.10.2024	Theory Presentations #1	B.1.23	-
Mo, 04.11.2024	Theory Presentations #1	B.1.23	-
Fr, 08.11.2024	Deadline Theory Paper	-	Theory paper
Mo, 11.11.2024	Research Design & Quantitative Methods	B.1.23	Identify and read a literature review
Mo, 18.11.2024	Qualitative Methods	B.1.23	Research and read papers using different approaches
Mo, 25.11.2024	DSR & Wrap-up	B.1.23	-
We, 04.12.2024	Individual Coaching (book)	Zoom	Questions
Mo, 20.12.2024	Deadline Method Paper	-	Method paper

Table 1: Schedule winter term 2023 (may be subjected to changes)

Basic literature

Dwivedi, Yogesh K, Michael R Wade, and Scott L Schneberger. 2011. “Information Systems Theory: Explaining and Predicting Our Digital Society, Vol. 1.”

Hevner, Alan, and Samir Chatterjee. 2010. Design Research in Information Systems: Theory and Practice. Vol. 22. Springer Science & Business Media.

Hund, Axel, Heinz-Theo Wagner, Daniel Beimborn, and Tim Weitzel. 2021. “Digital Innovation: Review and Novel Perspective.” The Journal of Strategic Information Systems 30 (4): 101695.

Podsakoff, Philip M, Scott B MacKenzie, and Nathan P Podsakoff. 2016. “Recommendations for Creating Better Concept Definitions in the Organizational, Behavioral, and Social Sciences.” Organizational Research Methods 19 (2): 159–203.

Recker, Jan. 2021. “The Research Process.” Scientific Research in Information Systems: A Beginner’s Guide.

Vaishnavi, Vijay K. 2007. Design Science Research Methods and Patterns: Innovating Information and Communication Technology. Auerbach Publications.

Yin, Robert K. 2015. Qualitative Research from Start to Finish. Guilford publications.

Q&A