Theory Building in the Information Systems Discipline: Some critical reflections

Abstract

This chapter articulates criteria for evaluating the quality of a theory. It also shows how the criteria can be used to pinpoint the strengths and weaknesses of a theory that, based upon citation evidence, appears to have had a significant impact on other researchers within the information systems discipline. Aside from their evaluation purposes, the criteria are also intended to inform researchers who are seeking to build high-quality theory to account for some type of phenomena within the information systems domain.Nothing is as practical as a good theory. (Lewin, 1945, p. 129)

IT controls in the public cloud: Success factors for allocation of roles and responsibilities

“…The resultant theoretical success factors derived from this study will make novel contributions to the IS field due to the lack of prior theories that provides relevant criteria for the allocation of roles and responsibilities of IT controls in a cloud environment (Weber, 2012).…”

“…A theory is considered to be a special kind of model (Ludewig, 2003) that is intended to account for some subset of phenomena in the world (Weber, 2012). This research aims to develop theory that guides in the allocation of staff to the roles and responsibilities of IT control in a public cloud environment.…”

A preliminary analysis of theorizing effort in ERP research

“…In his editorial [3], R. Weber is aware of this difficulty and warns the reader that he has been particularly careful about the language he uses and the terms selected to develop his argument. In a similar essay published by the same author [5], the question of epistemology is carefully avoided. Nonetheless, he expresses his disagreement ( [5], p. 4) with certain aspects of the taxonomy of IS theories proposed by Gregor in [6], and implicitly adopts a positivist epistemological point of view.…”

“…In a similar essay published by the same author [5], the question of epistemology is carefully avoided. Nonetheless, he expresses his disagreement ( [5], p. 4) with certain aspects of the taxonomy of IS theories proposed by Gregor in [6], and implicitly adopts a positivist epistemological point of view. In the limited scope of this study, we don't attempt taking up a position in this controversial debate; we merely present here a summary of what theory is according to four different sources.…”

“…In [5], Weber defines a theory as a particular type of model that is destined to report on a predetermined subset of phenomena in the real world. By "report," he means that the theory helps to predict and/or explain the studied phenomenon, and insists that a theory cannot help us to understand without first of all having attempted to explain.…”