Systematize your Literature Review, it's a Piece of Cake (and other useful and innovative approaches for analyzing research literature)
May 26, 14.00 – 18.00 (Torhaus, central library, Room ULB 1)
This year’s ECIS Literature Review Workshop will introduce participants to a number of recently published and forthcoming papers which present innovative techniques for analysing and presenting research literature. We intend that this workshop will assist attendees to develop their work for publication in high quality outlets, either as stand-alone literature analysis papers, or as the literature analysis section of conceptual or empirical research papers. We will also organize a panel discussion where we will share our experiences in supervising, reviewing, editing and writing literature analyses, and discuss issues, challenges and future directions with workshop participants. A mix of pre-defined questions and open questions from the audience will create a vibrant atmosphere for learning and reflecting our various approaches for conducting and publishing literature review papers.
There has been a “sea change” in leading journals in our field. “The need to publish more literature reviews and theory development papers is crying for EJIS and beyond for the IS community….The CAIS call for a Special Issue on literature review this year might send a strong signal and change the quality if not the frequency of the genre in IS” (Rowe, 2014, p. 241). This is accompanied by a recognition that literature reviews need to move beyond the usual advice of synthesizing and summarising (Rowe, 2014). Expectations of quality and rigour are getting higher, and the range of approaches available is expanding.
We will present a range of alternatives for conceptualizing and conducting literature reviews, either as a stand-alone literature review papers, or to contextualize other research. These will be based on recent and high profile research by the presenters and other scholars, and will include:
The purpose and genre of a literature review: e.g. describing previous research; understanding a specific phenomenon in the light of previous research; conceptualising the various strands of discourse and key trends in a stream of research or even a discipline or sub-discipline as a whole; generating new theory; critically engaging with previous literature to identify biases, gaps and opportunities.
Paradigms, world views and the implications for literature analysis: while information systems literature reviews usually affect neutrality, or the so-called “God trick” of “seeing everything from nowhere”, a range of other perspectives are possible. These include (among others): a critical view, aimed at identifying ideological hegemonies and alternative perspectives; an (initially) atheoretical and grounded approach, aimed at theory building (Wolfswinkel, Furtmueller, & Wilderom, 2011); or a post-positivist approach using existing theoretical constructs.
Best practice: While there are many possible approaches, some themes are common to many of the methods we present, in particular, the necessity for rigour and transparency in all stages of searching, selecting, and analysing research literature.
Methods, approaches and tools: Alternative methods (beyond the usual “narrative synthesis”) for analysing research literature will be introduced. We will also show how software tools and qualitative coding approaches can be used to support the literature review process and how the results can be presented visually for maximum impact.
Detailed illustrations and examples: Presentations will be offered by researchers who have recently published high profile literature analysis methods and further research in the pipeline.
References
- Mueller, R.M. (2015) (in press). A Meta-Model for Inferring Inter-Theory Relationships of Causal Theories. Proceedings of the 48th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS- 48). IEEE Computer Society Press.
- Rowe, F. (2014). What literature review is not: diversity, boundaries and recommendations. European Journal of Information Systems, 23(3), 241–255.
- Sylvester, A., Tate, M., & Johnstone, D. (2011). Beyond synthesis: Re-presenting heterogeneous research literature. Behaviour and Information Technology, 32(12), 1-17.
- Schryen, G. (2010). Preserving Knowledge on IS Business Value: What Literature reviews have Done. BISE, 233-244.
- Schryen, G. (2013). Revisiting IS business value research: what we already know, what we still need to know, and how we can get there. European Journal of Information Systems, 22, 139-169.
- Sylvester, A., & Tate, M. (2008). Beyond the “Mythical Centre”: An Affirmative Post-Modern View of SERVQUAL Research in Information Systems. European Conference in Information Systems (ECIS), Galway, Ireland.
- Tate, M., Furtmueller, E., Bandara, W. & Evermann, J. Special Issue on the Literature Review in Information Systems Research. Communications of the Association for Information Systems, forthcoming.
- Tate, M., Furtmueller, E., Bandara, W., Evermann, J. (2013). Building up or Piling Up? The Literature Review in Information Systems Research. Workshop in conjunction with the European Conference on Information Systems, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
- Wolfswinkel, J., Furtmueller, E., & Wilderom, C. (2013). Using Grounded Theory as a Method for Rigorously Reviewing Literature. European Journal of Information Systems, 7(4): 413-431.
Duration
This will be a half day (4 hour) workshop.
Date: May, 26, 2015
14:00 – 18:00 + optional dinner together.
Workshop Agenda
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14:00 – 14:15 |
Introductions & goal setting for the Literature Review Workshop |
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14:15 –15:15 |
Best practice and “the new normal” |
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15:15 – 15:30 |
Break |
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15:30 – 16:30 |
Detailed illustrations and examples: |
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16:30 – 16:45 |
Break |
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16:45 – 18:00 |
Panel discussion: The set-up for the panel will be as follows:
Junior Faculty members – Elena Gorbacheva, Shahper Vodanovich and Brad McKenna will talk about their challenges and difficulties in their previous Literature Review projects – either as part of the Ph.D process and perceived lack of literature review training in IS programs, as introduction for empirical papers, for enriching discussion section in qualitative papers or as stand-alone papers.
One hour panel discussion where senior faculty members respond to some of the identified challenges of the Junior Faculty members and answer questions from the audience. Celeste Wilderom, Frantz Rowe, Roland Mueller and Guido Schryen will share their experiences of supervising, reviewing, editing and writing literature analyses, and discuss issues, challenges and future directions with workshop participants. A mix of pre-defined questions and open questions from the audience will create a vibrant atmosphere for learning and reflecting our various approaches for conducting and publishing literature review papers. |
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18:00 |
Wrap up and dinner |
Target audience
The workshop is aimed at doctoral students, early career researchers, people supervising doctoral students, people engaged in doctoral education, and researchers interested in developing a high-impact stand-alone literature analysis papers. We believe this content will become increasingly central to doctoral education. We also believe that increasing rigour in literature analysis is becoming essential to meet the expectations of top journals. Tutorial materials will be made available and may be freely reused provided the authors are acknowledged.
Portrait and short bio of the organizers
Prof. Dr. Frantz Rowe
Professor Frantz Rowe has been serving as a Professor of Information Systems at the University of Nantes, France, since 1995. Before he was a Professor at Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications, Paris, and an Assistant Professor at Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées, Paris. He was trained as an Engineer (Master in Engineering) and as an Economist (Master of Arts). He graduated from UC Berkeley in 1985. His PhD from the University of Paris was awarded in 1991. He has been an invited Professor and has given seminars at Harvard University, Bentley University, Copenhagen Business School, and Cape Town University. His current research areas pertain to organizational transformations related to information systems projects and to the effects of PLM use. He has recently directed several research projects on ERP dynamics, on the design and performance of call centers and on electronic marketplaces and supply chains. He has published 51 peer-reviewed articles in scientific journals and several books, including Innovation and IT in an international context (2014, co-edited with Dov Te'eni). He has been the Editor in Chief of Systèmes d'Information et Management and is the co-Editor of the European Journal of Information Systems. He has directed 25 PhD students and was the first Director of the graduate program in IS at the Management Faculty of the University of Nantes. He is currently directing the PhD program in Management. With Dov Te’eni has been the co-chair for ICIS 2008 in Paris and the co-chair of the ECIS 2014 Doctoral Consortium.
Prof. Dr. Guido Schryen
After research visits to Stanford University and Queensland University of Technology (Brisbane, Australia), Guido Schryen received a doctorate in information systems from the RWTH Aachen University and earned a post-doctorate degree (habilitation/venia legendi) at the RWTH Aachen. From May 2007 to March 2011, he held a position as Assistant Professor at the Department of Business Information Systems, RWTH Aachen University. From September 2008 to August 2009, he joined the International Computer Science Institute (ICSI) at Berkeley (USA), sponsored by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). From October 2009 to Juli 2010 and from October 2010 to March 2011, he was temporary full professor of Information Systems Research at the University of Freiburg and at the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, respectively. Since April 2011, Guido Schryen is full professor of Information Systems Research at the University of Regensburg, Germany. From September 2013 to November 2013, he was senior vising fellow at the School of Computer Science & Engineering at the UNSW, Sydney. Guido Schryen has published in leading IS and management science journals and conference proceedings, including European Journal of Information Systems (EJIS), Business & Information Systems Engineering (BISE), International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), European Journal of Operational Research (EJOR), OR Spectrum, and Communications of the ACM (CACM).
http://www-wiwi.uni-regensburg.de/Personen/Guido-Schryen.html.de
Prof. Dr. Celeste Wilderom
Celeste Wilderom holds the chair in Change Management and Organizational Behavior at the University of Twente, The Netherlands. She obtained her PhD from the State University of New York, Buffalo (USA), and then worked at the Tilburg and the Free University in the Netherlands. She has served as an associate editor of the Academy of Management Executive (now ‘Perspectives’), the Journal of Service Management, and the British Journal of Management. Her studies have appeared in many international journals such as the European Journal of Information Systems, Organization Science, Journal of Management Inquiry, Journal of Organizational Change Management, Leadership Quarterly, Management Learning, Journal of Organizational Behavior and Accounting, Organization and Society.
http://www.utwente.nl/bms/cmob/
Prof. Dr. Roland M. Mueller
Roland M. Mueller is Professor of Information Systems, especially Business Intelligence at the Berlin School of Economics and Law. There he is also the academic director of the master program “Business Intelligence and Process Management”. He has also visiting professorship appointments at the University of Twente and the Hasso-Plattner Institute (HPI) School of Design Thinking. He published three books and more than 50 peer-reviewed academic papers. His research areas are in the fields of Business Intelligence, Big Data, User-driven Innovation Methods, Causal Models, and Science 2.0.
http://www.hwr-berlin.de/fachbereich-wirtschaftswissenschaften/kontakt/personen/detail/roland-mueller/
Senior Lecturer Dr. Mary Tate
Mary Tate is a Senior Lecturer at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. She has also been a visiting scholar or Adjunct Professor at international institutions including Renmin University of China, Queensland University of Technology, and Memorial University of Newfoundland. She is the author of more than 60 peer-reviewed publications, and her work has been presented in journals such as the Journal of the Association for Information Systems, the International Journal of Information Management, Communications of the Association for Information Systems, and Behaviour and Information Technology; and in leading international conferences. Dr Tate has a strong interest in research methods, service delivery in the public and private sectors, and in measuring the quality, value, and impact of information systems.
http://www.victoria.ac.nz/sim/about/staff/mary-tate
Ass.-Prof. Dr. Dr. Elfi Furtmueller
Since 2012 Elfi Furtmueller has been leading an internet services research project subsidized by the Austrian Science Fund. In her research, Elfi collaborates closely with faculty from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, University of Twente, the Netherlands and University of Innsbruck, Austria. Elfi has been an Assistant Professor at the University of Twente, the Netherlands (2007-2012) and Researcher at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley (2005-2006). She obtained a Ph.D in Business Administration (summa cum laude) from the University of Linz, Austria and earned a second Ph.D in Information Systems from the University of Twente, the Netherlands. Elfi is on the Editorial Board of the British Journal of Management and the International Journal of Computing and Social Networks. Her research has appeared in various international journals such as the Journal of Service Management, Journal of Management Inquiry, European Journal of Information Systems, International Journal of Information Management, Communications of the Association for Information Systems and European Journal of International Management.
https://at.linkedin.com/in/elfifurtmueller
Ass.-Prof. Dr. Martin Wiener
Martin Wiener is Assistant Professor in Information Systems at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (Germany), Managing Director of the University’s Dr. Theo and Friedl Schoeller Research Center for Business and Society, and Affiliated Researcher at the Stockholm School of Economics Institute for Research (Sweden). His research concerns IS project control, IT multi-sourcing strategies, digital business models, and IT-related information overload, and has been published in outlets such as Information Systems Journal, Journal of Strategic Information Systems, European Journal of Information Systems, Journal of Information Technology, Business & Information Systems Engineering, Communications of the AIS, and Journal of Global Information Management. http://www.wi3.uni-erlangen.de/index.php?id=170
Senior Lecturer Dr. Brad McKenna
Brad McKenna is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Portsmouth, UK. Brad completed his Ph.D in 2013 at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. Brad’s research interests relate to how and why people use technology, and how technological configurations impact the people that use them. He has been able to explore this with multiple research interest areas such as virtual worlds, social media, systems analysis, mobile services, and user requirements. Brad has published in Information and Management, the Journal of Information Systems Education, Information Technology and Tourism, and the International Journal of E-Services and Mobile Applications, and in leading international conferences. Website: http://www.port.ac.uk/operations-and-systems-management/staff/brad-mckenna.html
Dr. Shahper Vodanovich
Shahper Vodanovich is a Lecturer at the School of Computer and Mathematical Sciences at AUT University in New Zealand. She received her PhD from the University of Auckland in 2014. Shahper's research is about how people interact with technology in their everyday life and the impact that it has on them. Her primary research interest lies in digital natives and their use and engagement with Social Media in all forms. She is also working on projects to do with Women and IT and Sustainability Transformation. Shahper has published in Information Systems Research, Human IT Journal, Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries and leading conferences.
PhD candidate Elena Gorbacheva, MSc.
Elena Gorbacheva is a PhD candidate at the Department of Information Systems at the University of Muenster (Muenster, Germany). Elena holds BSc and MSc degrees in Business Informatics (both with honours) from the State University – Higher School of Economics (Moscow, Russia) and a MSc degree in Information Systems (IS) from the University of Muenster. In her PhD thesis Elena addresses the existing challenges of under-representation of girls and women in IS, as well as under-theorization and immaturity of the gender and IS research field. Her research was published in Enterprise Information Systems Journal, Australasian Journal of Information Systems, Communications of the Association for Information Systems and several IS conferences. In 2014 Elena was awarded the Leoni Warne Prize for Outstanding Publication in the Area of Women and IT. Her paper at ECIS 2015 was nominated for the Claudio Ciborra Award for the most innovative paper. http://erc.is/p/elena.gorbacheva
Research Associate Joost Wolfswinkel, MSc.
Joost Wolfswinkel is a Research Associate at the University of Twente, the Netherlands. He obtained a Master’s degree in Computer Science and currently works on his PhD. Recently he published a paper in the European Journal of Information Systems on “Using grounded theory as a method for rigorously reviewing literature” (Vol. 22: 45-55). Joost was an IT project manager for a consultancy firm and is the co-founder of an IT-company. His research interests are IT service innovation, software engineering, software management and e-recruiting services research. He regularly presents his latest research at various international conferences such as the European Conference on Information Systems, the International Conference on Information Systems and the Academy of Management Meetings.
http://nl.linkedin.com/pub/joost-wolfswinkel/5b/338/365