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Dear Colleagues
I am pleased to announce a new special issue at the Information
Systems Journal: Responsible IS Research for a Better World
The notion that there is a moral obligation for researchers to
make the world a better place is not new, yet one seldom
encounters substantive research that practically espouses such a
view. Noting the lack of such research, Walsham (2012) makes an
impassioned call to arms in a short article titled "Are We Making
the World a Better Place with Information Systems?". Providing
further evidence of the critical need for responsible research,
scholars have formed a new virtual organisation named "Responsible
Research in Business and Management" (RRBM). RRBM has the avowed
focus of "inspiring, encouraging, and supporting credible and
useful research in the business and management disciplines"
(
http://rrbm.network).
We suggest that there are many different ways in which responsible
research can lead to a better world. Beyond the interests of
individual organisations, scholars need to also consider the
grander scheme of how research can make the world a better place,
not only in economic terms, but also socially, personally and
environmentally. Occasionally we do come across articles in which
it is clear that the authors are pursuing an agenda that aims to
contribute to 'making the world a better place'. Examples include:
Zheng and Yu's (2016) study of the socialised affordances of
social media in the processes of collective action, with a
detailed examination of the 'Free Lunch for Children' charity in
China; Tim et al.'s (2017) exploration of how the
boundary-spanning competences of social media function as a
digital response mechanism in natural disasters; and Díaz Andrade
and Doolin's (2016) account of how Information and Communication
Technologies contribute to the social inclusion of newly settled
refugees. But these examples are too far and few between.
Apart from articles that demonstrate the beneficial impacts of
social media and IT more generally, a stream of 'critical social
IS research' emerged in the 1990s focusing on the social and
ethical implications of technology in organizations and society.
Critical IS researchers have explored how IS that was deployed
with the objective of increasing efficiency and instrumental
rationality often also increased managerial or social control,
surveillance and domination, with negative social consequences in
organizations and society (see e.g. Howcroft and Trauth, 2005).
Thus, the purpose of critical IS research has been to contribute
knowledge with transformative and emancipatory potential in order
to make a world a better place. Although recognized as a third
research stream (Orlikowski and Baroudi, 1991; Chen and
Hirschheim, 2004) that addressed practically, socially and
ethically relevant questions, critical IS research has remained
somewhat outside the mainstream. It is pertinent to note that the
ISJ was one of a few premier journals to advance critical research
by publishing a Special Issue "Exploring the Critical Agenda in IS
Research" (Cecez-Kecmanovic, Klein and Brooke, 2008).
Notwithstanding these attempts, it does not seem to be an
exaggeration to suggest that, for most IS researchers, the notion
that they can make the world a better place with IS is far from
both their intellectual comfort zone and their scholarly
intentions. For instance, Clarke (2017) suggests that much
research in data markets and e-commerce takes the view that
consumers' privacy rights are mere barriers to corporate profits:
researchers assist organisations to find ways to persuade
consumers to give up these rights for as little compensation as
possible. Some scholars take this a step further and suggest that
customers can be persuaded to disclose confidential and private
information voluntarily (i.e. without any compensation) if the
organisation is able to establish a dyadic and reciprocal
relationship with the consumer. As Zimmer et al. (2010, p.404)
note, individuals have the "inherent tendency to socially orient
themselves toward another. ... People are biologically wired to
respond in kind to polite social advances provided those advances
follow socially acceptable guidelines". Organisations can thus
leverage these inherent tendencies to solicit private information.
But does research that suggests ways in which individual privacy
can be undermined really help to make the world a better place?
Meanwhile, research into 'green IS' often takes the view that a
green image can help the corporate bottom line, yet fails to
consider whether there are any net benefits for the environment
(cf. Elliot and Webster, 2017). Similar concerns afflict other
instances of IS research, notably in the management-employee
tensions that characterise the implementation of enterprise
systems. We are not suggesting that IS researchers should shun
these topics, but we do suggest that researchers need to consider
whose interests they are privileging or protecting: there are
multiple valid stakeholders (organisations, employees, customers)
that can be the focus of research. As noted in an editorial in
this journal, researchers often unconsciously succumb to the
interests of the hegemonic forces (usually corporate entities)
embodied in the de facto powers associated with the contexts that
we investigate (Davison, 2018).
Another example of a missed opportunity to make the world a better
place relates to the technology-based start-ups that continue to
drive entrepreneurship. McKendrick (2017) suggests that the rapid
growth of this sector depends on a variety of technological
factors such as: cloud services, low cost open source software,
and big data analytics capabilities. In parallel, social
entrepreneurship also continues to grow (Zimmer & Pearson
2018), yet there is little evidence that the latter is a focus of
IS researchers, who seem instead to be enchanted by the
technology. If we are to make the world a better place, it is
imperative to study both the technological drivers and the social
aspects of entrepreneurship in the context of a broader ecosystem.
In striving to make the world a better place, it is possible that
researchers may make impossible demands from the digital economy
leading to confusion, policy paralysis and regulatory overreach
(cf. Bhagwati, 2004). This research often criticises digital
enterprises and initiatives (especially in developing countries)
for their generation of unequal outcomes, exploitation of
employees, provision of inadequate working conditions and
engagement in a host of other unethical practices (Sandeep and
Ravishankar, 2018). We suggest that this is a different category
of irresponsible research: it usually ignores compelling evidence
of how commercial digital endeavours create social impact when
such findings are inconsistent with researchers' preferred
worldviews. In such research we often encounter situations where
researchers claim to speak on behalf of beneficiary stakeholders
yet provide little evidence that they speak with the same
stakeholders in order to help them understand the potential
impacts of IS on their lives (cf. Peticca-Harris et al., 2019).
In this special issue, we seek articles that both embody
principles of responsible research and contribute explicitly to
demonstrating how IS research contributes to our understanding of
how IS makes the world a better place. Following Majchrzak et al.
(2016), we suggest that contributing authors should not limit
their research designs and thus contributions to the scholarly
community. They should also consider the practical and policy
implications for a wide range of practitioners (not only managers)
as well as the broader social world. Finally, they can consider
the non-human world of the environment, given our focus on making
the world a better place through IS research.
While the principles for responsible research may be contested, we
refer to a number of prominent examples. For instance, the Lund
declaration (
https://era.gv.at/object/document/130) suggests that
'Europe must speed up solutions to tackle grand challenges through
alignment, research, global cooperation and achieving impact',
with a strong emphasis on innovation. We echo this call and hope
that contributing authors will consider how they can contribute to
grand challenges in innovative ways that will help to make the
world a better place.
A more detailed set of principles is offered by the RRBM Network,
who note
(
https://rrbm.network/position-paper/principles-of-responsible-science/)
that "responsible research depends on an ecosystem that supports,
recognizes, and rewards, in a coordinated fashion, the following
seven principles.
Principle 1: Service to Society: Development of knowledge that
benefits business and the broader society, locally and globally,
for the ultimate purpose of creating a better world.
Principle 2: Stakeholder Involvement: Research that engages
different stakeholders in the research process, without
compromising the independence of inquiry.
Principle 3: Impact on Stakeholders: Research that has an impact
on diverse stakeholders, especially research that contributes to
better business and a better world.
Principle 4: Valuing Both Basic and Applied Contributions:
Contributions in both the theoretical domain to create fundamental
knowledge and in applied domains to address pressing and current
issues.
Principle 5: Valuing Plurality and Multidisciplinary
Collaboration: Diversity in research themes, methods, forms of
scholarship, types of inquiry, and interdisciplinary collaboration
to reflect the plurality and complexity of business and societal
problems.
Principle 6: Sound Methodology: Research that implements sound
scientific methods and processes in both quantitative and
qualitative or both theoretical and empirical domains.
Principle 7: Broad Dissemination: Diverse forms of knowledge
dissemination that collectively advance basic knowledge and
practice".
A broader set of goals has been established by the United Nations.
These 17 sustainable development goals
(
https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-edevelopment-goals/<https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/>)
include several that are salient to the work undertaken by IS
researchers. For example, Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and
Communities may relate to IS research on Smart Cities, and Goal
13: Climate Action may relate to research undertaken in Green IS.
A final set of ideas comes from the UK Government's Research
Evaluation Framework, which covers five broad areas of relevance
including: economic growth; health and welfare; public policy;
culture; and quality of life and work.
Recognition of these prominent principles (or others) and a
deliberate attempt to adhere to (some of) them in research design
and reporting will be taken as one form of evidence that a
submitted article is in scope for this special issue. We expect
that authors will explicitly address such principles in both the
text of their research articles and in the cover letter.
Topics that are relevant to this call for papers include, but are
not limited to, demonstrations of how IS can bring about positive
impacts in such domains as:
· Poverty alleviation
· Providing banking services for the unbanked
· Enhancing or protecting the environment
· Creating social value for individual citizens, especially in
marginalised communities
· Catering to the legitimate workplace needs of employees
· Supporting social entrepreneurship
· Enforcing protection of data privacy rights of individual data
subjects
· Developing policies that strengthen the rights of employees and
citizens in civil society and the rights of non-human actors
(fauna, flora, natural ecosystems) in the environment.
· Contributing directly to one or more of the SDGs (e.g. health)
· Critiquing existing projects as to whether and how they support
equity/inequity' (e.g. Aadhar in India)
· Proposing new methodological or theoretical approaches to
understanding the 'better world' concept (e.g. critical realism)
The Senior Editors for this special issue are Robert Davison
(Managing Editor), Andrew Hardin, Ann Majchrzak and MN
Ravishankar. Advisory Cttee Members: Cynthia Beath, Niels
Bjørn-Andersen, M Lynne Markus and Geoff Walsham
Associate Editors: Albert Boonstra, Frank Chan, Christy Cheung,
Antonio Diaz Andrade, Jonas Hedman, Helle Zinner Henriksen, Julien
Malaurent, Ning Su, Alex Wang, Martin Wiener.
Deadlines: Extended abstracts (1000 words) may be submitted for
editorial guidance and feedback before August 31st, 2019. Full
submissions are due by March 31st 2020. No extensions will be
granted. We expect that submitted articles will be subjected to
2-3 rounds of review prior to acceptance and so that publication
of the special issue will be in 2022. All submissions (abstracts
and full papers) should be made via:
https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/isj
References
Bhagwati, J. (2004) In Defense of Globalization, Oxford University
Press
Cecez-Kecmanovic, D., Klein, H. and Brooke, C. (2008) "Exploring
the Critical Agenda in Information Systems Research", Information
Systems Journal 18, 2, 123-135.
Chen, W.S. and Hirschheim, R. (2004) A Paradigmatic and
Methodological Examination of Information Systems Research from
1991 to 2001, Information Systems Journal 14, 197-235.
Clarke, R. (2017) Personal Data Markets and Privacy: A Critical
Content Analysis of Published Works, Working Paper, Xamax
Consultancy Pty Ltd, March
http://www.rogerclarke.com/SOS/MPCA.html
Davison, R.M. (2018) Editorial: Researchers and the Stakeholders'
Perspective, Information Systems Journal 28, 1, 1-5.
Díaz Andrade, A. and Doolin, B. (2016) Information and
Communication Technology and the Social Inclusion of Refugees, MIS
Quarterly 40, 2, 405-416.
Elliot, S. and Webster, J. (2017) Editorial: Special Issue on
Empirical Research on Information Systems Addressing the
Challenges of Environmental Sustainability: An Imperative for
Urgent Action, Information Systems Journal 27, 4, 367-378.
Howcroft, D. and Trauth, E.M. (eds), Handbook of Critical
Information Systems Research: Theory and Application, Edward Elgar
Publishing, Cheltenham, UK.
Majchrzak, A., Markus, M.L. & Wareham, J. (2016) Designing for
Digital Transformation: Lessons for Information Systems Research
from the Study of ICT and Societal Challenges, MIS Quarterly 40,
2, 267-277.
McKendrick, J. (2017)
https://www.forbes.com/sites/joemckendrick/2017/11/28/technology-is-driving-entrepreneurial-growth-and-were-not-just-talking-about-silicon-valley/#386830f17cd0
Orlikowski, W.J. and Baroudi, J.J. (1991) Studying Information
Technology in Organizations: Research Approaches and Assumptions,
Information Systems Research 2, 1, 1-28.
Peticca-Harris, A., deGama, N. and Ravishankar, M.N. (2018)
Postcapitalist Precarious Work and those in the 'Drivers'' Seat:
Exploring the Motivations and Lived Experiences of Uber Drivers in
Canada, Organization,
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1350508418757332
Sandeep, M.S. and Ravishankar, M.N. (2018) Sociocultural
Transitions and Developmental Impacts in the Digital Economy of
Impact Sourcing, Information Systems Journal 28, 3, 563-586.
Tim, Y., Pan, S.L., Ractham, P. and Kaewkitipong, L. (2017)
Digitally Enabled Disaster Response: The Emergence of Social Media
as Boundary Objects in a Flooding Disaster, Information Systems
Journal 27, 2, 197-232.
Walsham, G. (2012). Are We Making a Better World with ICTs?
Reflections on a Future Agenda for the IS Field, Journal of
Information Technology 27, 2, 87-93.
Zheng, Y.Q. and Yu, A. (2016) Affordances of Social Media in
Collective Action: The Case of Free Lunch for Children in China,
Information Systems Journal 26, 3, 289-313.
Zimmer, J.C., Arsal, R., Al-Marzouq, M., Moore, D. and Grover, V.
(2010) Knowing Your Customers: Using a Reciprocal Relationship to
Enhance Voluntary Information Disclosure, Decision Support Systems
48, 395-406.
Zimmer, K. and Pearson K. (2018)
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/08/six-challenges-social-entrepreneurs-need-to-overcome/
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