BMGT 808g: Information Systems Research
Methodologies
12:40-1:55 Mondays and Wednesdays, 2001
Professor Lucas
The purpose of this seminar is to prepare participants to conduct research in information systems. The IS field is very broad and researchers employ a number of different approaches in their work. While this variety increases what a doctoral student has to know, it provides many opportunities for interesting work and multidisciplinary research. We do not expect you to become an expert in each stream of research discussed in the course; the objective is for you to learn enough about each methodology so you can pursue it further on your own. You will employ one or more of these methodologies in writing a dissertation.
I. Introduction: What is research? Why conduct it? What is
the scientific method? Does it apply in
business research?
1/29 1.
Introduction
1/31 2.
Philosophy of research
Kuhn, On the Structure
of Scientific Revolutions
Watson, The Double Helix
2/5 3. Topics, themes, theories and hypotheses
Assignment: Take any theory related to IS and derive at least three testable hypotheses from it.
II. Microeconomic Modeling: There is increasing interest in applying economics to information systems, especially given the impact of e-commerce on markets. How does one build a microeconomic model? How do you use economic reasoning to conduct an empirical study?
2/7 4.
Microeconomic modeling I: Neoclassical Economics and IT (Joe Bailey)
The neoclassical view of firm, where firms are trying to maximize their utility, is still a very powerful foundation for an economic model. In the information technology literature, we see many examples where firms and/or consumers are said to have utility functions that they are trying to maximize given a set of market and competitive constraints.
Stigler, George J. 1961. The Economics of Information. Journal of Political Economy LXIX (3):213-225. available from www.jstor.org
Bakos, Y. and Brynjolfsson, E. 2000. "Bundling and Competition on the Internet: Aggregation Strategies for Information Goods," Marketing Science, January. http://www.stern.nyu.edu/~bakos/bci.pdf
Varian, Hal R. 1992. Microeconomic Analysis. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
Smith, Adam. 1776. The Wealth of Nations. 1985 Edition ed. New York: Random House.
Which assumption or assumptions are most affected by the introduction of information technology to help aid market transactions?
2/12 5.
Microeconomic modeling II: Game Theory and IT (Joe Bailey)
Whether modeling competition between suppliers or between agents in a market, game theory provides an interesting investigation of how firms can use information. The use of information and misinformation to gain a strategic advantage and, therefore, a more preferable equilibrium is the foundation for this class.
Hayek, F. A., “The Use of Knowledge in Society” The American Economic Review, Vol. 35, No. 4. (Sep., 1945), pp. 519-530. available from www.jstor.org
Clemons, E and Hitt, L. 1999. “Poaching and the Misappropriation of Information,” Presented at the 1999 Workshop on Information Systems and Economics, Charlotte, NC. http://grace.wharton.upenn.edu/~lhitt/poaching.pdf
Gibbons, R. 1992. Applied Game Theory for Economists, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.
Fudenburg and Tirole, 1991. Game Theory, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
1. After expanding rapidly into many markets, Priceline.com has been closing its operations in a few markets. From a game theory perspective, could you have predicted why Priceline.com would stop brokering groceries but continue to sell airline tickets?
2. Assuming that e-commerce gives sellers more opportunity to signal their competitors because of faster, more complete, and more accurate information exchange, what affect will there be on market prices? Think of an Internet market where you can test this hypothesis and describe some of the constructs you would use.
2/14 6.
Microeconomic modeling III: Industrial Organization and IT (Joe Bailey)
The nature of competition in a market by examining how firms compete in markets and obtain a strategic advantage underlies the industrial organization of that market. The structure of the market may change with the introduction of information technology because it can change the nature of strategic advantage or competition. For example, the costs of exit or entry may change leading to a different number of firms in a market. We will examine two papers that address how information technology affects the industrial organization of some markets.
Malone, Thomas W., JoAnne Yates, and Robert I. Benjamin. 1987. Electronic Markets and Electronic Hierarchies. Communications of the ACM 30 (6):484-497.
Steinfield, C. W., A. P. Chan, and R. Kraut. 2000. “Computer Mediated Markets: An Introduction and Preliminary Test of Market Structure Impacts,” Journal of Computer Mediated Communication, v. 5, n. 3, March. http://www.ascusc.org/jcmc/vol5/issue3/steinfield.html
Hart, Oliver. 1989. An Economist's Perspective on the Theory of the Firm. Columbia Law Review 89 (7):1757-1774.
Porter, M. 1980. Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors, The Free Press, New York.
Tirole, J. 1988. Theory of Industrial Organization, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
1. As information technology is used more extensively in the following markets, would you expect there to be movement from markets to hierarchies or vice-versa? Why?
· Wholesale fresh flowers
· Retail gasoline
· Education
2. Assuming that the costs of entering a market are lower, we would expect firms to enter the market more quickly if it is a profitable market and exit more quickly if it is not a profitable market relative to physical markets. Describe the data you could collect to test this hypothesis using the Internet.
III. Survey research: The IS field has a long tradition of survey research. What kinds of questions can you answer with survey research? What distinguishes good from poor methodology and interesting studies from dull ones?
2/19 7. Survey research design
Read: Lucas and Spitler, Technology Use and Performance: A Field Study of
Broker Workstations,” Decision Sciences, Vol. 30, No. 2 (1999)
2/21 8. Survey
research data collection
Instruments
Secondary data
Read: Duiliba, Kauffman and Lucas, “Appropriating Value From CRS
Ownership in the Airline Industry,” Organization Science, (forthcoming
2/26 9.
Present a proposal for conducting survey research
IV. Experimental research: Experimental research is another staple of the IS field. What kinds of questions are suited to experimental research? How do you design an experiment? We will compare and contrast survey and experimental research designs.
2/28 10.
Experimental research design (Venki)
Control, power, number of subjects, independent variables
Creating experimental treatments
Read: Cook and Campbell, Quasi-Experimentation: Design &
Analysis Issues
For Field Settings, Houghton Mifflin, 1979 Chas. 2 and 3.
Venkatesh, V. and C. Speier, “Computer Technology Training in the Workplace:
A Longitudinal Investigation of the
Effect of Mood,” Organization Behavior and
Human Decision Processes, Vol. 79, No. 1, (July 1999), pp: 1-28
Review paper: “Creation of Favorable User Perceptions: Exploring the Role of
Intrinsic Motivation.”
Questions for the sessions:
1. Be able to effectively list and summarize various dimensions of
validity.
2. Relate (1) to the experimental context.
3. How are issues of validity different in surveys?
4. What is causality and what are causal inferences? Surveys vs. experiments.
5. "Pure" experiments vs. Quasi-experiments. Issues, trade-offs (relative merits and
demerits).
The students have two papers--one paper of mine (published at
OBHDP) and a second that I was somehow involved in the review process.
6. Re: the OBHDP paper
(a) Analyze the objective of the paper
(b) Strengths of the design
(c) Weaknesses of the design
(d) Future issues (methodology-related only)
7. Re: the paper submitted for review
(a) Analyze the objective of the paper
(b) Strengths of the design
(c) Weaknesses of the design
(d) What will you ask the authors to do in a revision? Focus on methodological issues.
The students should not expect me to provide answers but rather be
prepared to present their viewpoints on all these questions. They can expect to be called upon to answer
these questions. I would recommend that
they come prepared with written answers to all these questions. I would recommend 1-2 pages total for
questions 1 through 5, and at least 1 page each on questions 6 and 7.
3/5 11.
Experimental research (Venki)
Data collection and analysis
3/7 12.
Present a proposal for conducting an experiment
V. Qualitative Research: A number of IS researchers conduct qualitative studies, sometimes called interpretivist research. What does one learn with qualitative designs? How does qualitative work compare to positivist research? How do you generalize qualitative research?
3/12 13.
Qualitative and interpretive research
Read: Orlikowski, “Improvising Organizational Transformation Over Time:
A Situated Change Perspective,” ISR, Vol. 7 (March 1996) pp. 63-92.
3/14 14. Issues in Qualitative Research
Read: Klein and Myers, “A Set of Principles for Conducting and Evaluating
Interpretive Field Studies in Information Systems,” MISQ, 23 (March 1999),
67-93
VI. Causality: How does one draw causal inferences from research? What determines the extent to which one can make causal statements?
3/26 15. Causality in empirical research
Read: Chapter from Blalock or Simon?
3/28 16. Class
does not meet; attend and help with DIT Symposium Fri and Sat
VII. Econometric/Statistical Analysis of Research Data: It is important to understand the concepts behind statistical techniques. The researcher must also learn how to apply these techniques when faced with a research design and the resulting data. These sessions focus on the practical issues of using appropriate statistical procedures given one’s research design and data.
4/2 17.
Econometric/Statistical Analysis of Research Data I (Paul Zantek)
Which regression model to use? Why?
Assignment: Refresh your memory on the following statistical terms/concepts: estimator, unbiasedness, consistency, standard error, regression, random error term, F and t tests in regression
4/4 18. Econometric/Statistical Analysis of
Research Data II (Paul Zantek)
Two Examples
Read: Brynjolfsson & Kemerer (1996), “Network Externalities in Microcomputer Software,” Management Science, 42, 1627-1647.
Harter, Krishnan, & Slaughter (2000), “Effects of Process Maturity on Quality, Cycle Time, and Effort in Software Product Development,” Management Science, 46, 451-466.
4/9 19. Econometric/Statistical Analysis of Research
Data III (Paul Zantek)
PLS, structural equation modeling (LISREL), or regression? Why?
Read: Fornell & Bookstein (1982), “Two Structural Equation Models: LISREL and PLS Applied to Consumer Exit-Voice Theory,” Journal of Marketing Research, 19, 440-452.
VIII. Management Science. Management Science and information systems have a great deal in common. OR models, however, are quite different from descriptive and hypothesis testing modeling. These sessions discuss how one builds operations research models.
4/11 20. Operations research modeling I (Mike Ball)
4/16 21. Operations research modeling II (Mike Ball)
4/18 22. Operations research modeling III (Mike Ball)
4/23 23. Operations research modeling IV (Mike Ball)
IX. Computer Science: Computer Science is one of the underlying disciplines of information systems. We share some of the research paradigms of computer science and there are many studies that combine the interests of IS researchers and computer scientists.
4/25 24. Research in Computer Science I (Louiqa
Rachid)
I chose these papers to illustrate several different research
paradigms.
While I understand that you are not technical experts in my
reference area
of computer science / DBMS, I think that you should be able to
follow a
significant percentage of this material. Have fun! Louiqa
This is a book chapter. It summarizes the results of several
papers.
The task was to use the WWW to publish location and content
METADATA
about scientific data sources.
The parallel is textual data (XML,HTML, etc.)
and search engines. This
illustrates how we defined a fairly extensive
system architecture and developed a prototype. Read just the first
paper if you are pressed for time.
ftp://ftp.umiacs.umd.edu/pub/louiqa/PUB00/AdvinComp.ps AdvinComp.pdf
ftp://ftp.umiacs.umd.edu/pub/louiqa/PUB00/WSvldb00.ps WSvldb00.pdf
These two papers describe a tool (WebPT) that we developed to
predict
delays in accessing sources on the Internet, and how we validated
this
tool experimentally. If
necessary, you can read just the first paper.
It illustrates a combination of software development and real
experiments.
ftp://ftp.umiacs.umd.edu/pub/louiqa/PUB01/WWW10.pdf
ftp://ftp.umiacs.umd.edu/pub/louiqa/PUB99/WebPT-VLDB991.pdf
I included this paper since it illustrates aspects of theoretical
computer
science research. It looks
at a problem of query optimization. It
provides
definitions, theorems, algorithms, and even some analytical
results. It
is a long and dense paper.
Don't try to read all of it!
Reading the
first 20 pages should suffice.
ftp://ftp.umiacs.umd.edu/pub/louiqa/PUB01/tods01.pdf
4/30 25. Research in Computer Science II (Louiqa
Rachid)
5/2 26.
Present a proposal for conducting economic, OR or
Computer Science Research
X. Technology: What kind of technology should the IS Ph.D. know to undertake a career in teaching and research?
5/7 27. Key technology for the IS Ph.D.
XI. First-Year Paper. Each doctoral student writes a first-year research paper to be presented to the faculty. At the end of this course, you are asked to present a proposal for your paper to be written during the coming summer.
5/9 28. Present a proposal for summer research
paper