Evidence-Based Information Systems: A New Perspective and a Road Map for Research-Informed Practice

Abstract

Despite the increasing sophistication and quality of published work, the development of a cumulative body of knowledge and an evidence-base for Information Systems (IS) research still represents a major challenge. IS research is still predominantly undertaken by IS researchers for other IS researchers and not utilized to its full extent by IS practitioners or policy makers. We focus on this problem and express the need for a new evidence-based research perspective. It is argued that it is time to refocus the efforts of IS academics (and practitioners) to develop a new evidence-base for IS research whereby it can more routinely inform, develop, improve and support IS practice. We contribute to this debate by defining evidence-based practice (EBP), its relevance to IS, and the need to develop an evidence-based approach. We look in particular at its brief history, and its subsequent evolution, development and widespread acceptance in Medicine whilst also making reference to recent arguments and critiques of EBP in other disciplines such as software engineering and management. We espouse the need to develop a similar evidence-based movement and infrastructure within the IS research and practitioner communities and then put forward a possible roadmap for the development of Evidence-Based Information Systems (EBIS) that comprises 9 key initiatives. We conclude our argument by stating that the current extent, severity and impact of IS failures are unacceptable, emphasizing the need for a new perspective for IS research that encourages and incorporates EBP as a guiding principle to inform better IS practice.

Understanding the role of employees in digital transformation: conceptualization of digital literacy of employees as a multi-dimensional organizational affordance

“…Increasingly IS and Information Management (IM) researchers are encouraged to apply a greater focus on transferring knowledge and educating practitioners through practice-based research and to direct the research outcomes for informing policymakers and other stakeholders about the current state of knowledge on the use of a particular tool, method, or strategy (Wainwright et al , 2018). Wainwright et al (2018) invite IS and IM scholars to use evidence-based practice for IS (EBIS) as an approach to make their research more relevant to practitioners as well as scholars within the discipline and beyond. We use an EBIS approach in this paper, due to a high level of current interest in practice as well as in academia for understanding and implementing digital transformation in organizations.…”

“…We do this by drawing on the expanded affordance theory emphasizing the actualization of affordances by drawing attention to how technologies affect practices and vice versa in organizational context (Anderson and Robey, 2017; Vyas et al , 2017; Orlikowski, 2000). We examine the role of digital literacy in digital transformations by taking an evidence-based practice for information systems (EBIS) approach as proposed by Wainwright et al (2018) to ensure our research makes both theoretical contributions to the body of knowledge and is strongly relevant to the practice.…”

Egypt Family Planning Method Mix Indicates Shifting toward Hormonal Contraceptives

“…Therefore, service statistics predicted those changes as presented at community level in EDHS [7]. Such findings indicate the importance of health services research that consider output data/service statistic guides for the need for operations research to answer specific managerial problem that explain the changes in pattern of FP method use [22], [23], [24].…”

Co wynika z badań opartych na dowodach dla dalszego rozwoju nauk społecznych?

“…Trzeba więc z jeszcze większą intensywnością propagować ją wśród profesjonalistów i nakłaniać do ciągłego szkolenia się w tym zakresie". W ten sposób specjaliści od posługiwania się naukowymi dowodami radzą sobie z brakiem dowodów na skuteczność ich propozycji (Mansell, Carey, 2009;Wainwright, Oates, Edwards, Childs, 2018).…”