Feb 20th: Rick Watson to Present: “The weakness of strong ties”

Information Systems is currently situated as strongly tied to theories from other fields. This has two significant and diverse consequences for the field. First, while theoretical contributions are highly valued by most journals, they are rarely aimed at extending IS’s intellectual endowment but rather at demonstrating the applicability of other fields’ theories in an IS context or elaboration of others’ theories to an IS setting. We have failed to build theories and knowledge that are centered on IS. Second, contributions to practice are heavily discounted. Yet, we are mainly publicly funded, directly or indirectly. As an applied field in a business school, IS should be creating value for those who fund our research. Theories are a means to end, and we have strongly tied ourselves to the means. The weakness of the IS field is its strong ties to theory.  Strong ties to the other fields’ theories and strong ties to theories as end points rather than way stations to improved practice.

The seminar will address the first issue by presenting three propositions that could provide a conceptual foundation for the field. An argument for prescriptive accuracy as the ultimate goal of IS research will be presented as an answer to the second issue. IS can fortify its reputation by creating strong ties to a distinctive conceptual foundation and the advancement of IS practice.