Abstracts of Presentations to be made at IS554 Research Seminars

Lent term 2008
 

Tuesdays, 12.30-3.30 p.m.
 
 
Fifth Floor, Tower One

Tuesday 29 January

Exploring the multifaceted nature of IS strategic value: A practice-based view illustrated by SABRE
François-Xavier de Vaujany (Grenoble University and CERAG)

This presentation will investigate how IS can produce strategic value and economic performance for organizational stakeholders. IS strategic value literature is abundant. Nonetheless, the bulk of these studies do not distinguish between the various types of IS strategic value, nor does it make sense of a strategic value "in practice". Drawing upon a practice-based view of technology, three facets are suggested for the modelling of strategic value: legitimacy-related (based on adoption praxis), assimilative (related to design and acceptance praxis) and appropriative values (linked to local adaptation and improvisation praxis). A practice-based model combining these three facets is then suggested and illustrated by a reinterpretation of the famous SABRE case-study. The final theoretical framework is condensed using three propositions: (i) IS strategic value has multiple facets (ii) IS strategic value does not imply economic performance (iii) 'potential' IS value is not realised value.

François is a Professor of Information Systems and Managerial Practices at Grenoble University (IAE) and a researcher within the CERAG (UMR CNRS). His research deals with ICT-related practices studied by means of various sociological frameworks (such as structuration theory or social critical realism), IS strategic evaluation and the genealogy of managerial practices. François favourite research method is case study, but he also uses some forms of historical methods and quantitative longitudinal techniques. He has published in Information and Organization, International Journal of Technology and Human Interaction, Communications of the AIS, Sociologie du Travail and the Journal of Information Technology Impacts, among others.
http://personal.lse.ac.uk/DEVAUJAN/

Voluntary Organisations, IT engagement as Learning

Jonathan Wang
This research aims to contribute to the study of IT development in the Voluntary Organisations through an account that synthesises the existing literature with evidence collected from an in-depth case study. The discussion of learning as a key element in energising the IT engagement in VOs that are commonly neglected in the current literature. In addition, the contribution of the core capability and learning theory (Andreu and Ciborra 1996) approach to explore the dynamics of the concept of learning during the engagement process is emphasised.

Undertaking the PhD Viva Exam: Comments form my Experience

Daniel Osei-Joehene
The PhD Viva exam is one of the most significant events in the research process. However, despite its importance, the viva exam is among the least enunciated and documented components of the research process. In this presentation I will articulate my experience of preparing for my PhD viva. I will comment of strategies and advice that I received from experienced PhD examiners in our field and the very small number of publications on this subject.

Tuesday 12 February

Researching trends in Internet Use.

 Dr Ellen Helsper (Oxford Internet Institute)
The internet is argued to have reached its teenage years. After its baby shoes which fit only a few geeks the military and academic researchers the bigger boots now seem to fit most UK citizens. Nevertheless, the internet's identity crisis is not over and every day new uses, applications and interpretations of the internet bubble to the surface. People have as yet not made up their minds (and perhaps never will) about what the internet is particularly good at.

Researchers can no longer complain that there is a lack of data about which type of people do what on the internet. However, the interpretation of trends in these data and the distinction between generational (cohort) and lifestage (age) effects remains problematic. This presentation will use the Oxford Internet Surveys to look at the changing patterns of gender and income gaps in internet use. The findings are used to discuss the issues that arise when researching internet use and behaviour in this volatile environment.

Ellen Helsper is a Research Fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute responsible for the design, analysis and coordination of the Oxford Internet Surveys (OxIS) and World Internet Project (WIP) Surveys. She has been involved in the UK Children Go Online project at the LSE, the OSS Watch survey at Oxford University, and a variety of consultations about the links between social and digital exclusion, advertising and media literacy commissioned by the Department of Communities and Local Government and the Office of Communications (UK government).

Making the most of focus group based empirical research

Aaron Martin
In this presentation I first briefly review my research progress to date, including the findings from the literature review on biometric identity. I then offer some background into recent developments concerning my PhD focus (i.e., public understandings and expectations of biometric identity in the UK) before opening up the talk to audience input. In particular, I am interested in audience members' insights into how best to kick off the empirical component of my research so as to optimize my limited resources. For example, one looming issue is how to access and recruit previously identified relevant social groups (e.g., foreign nationals in the UK, British passport holders soon to renew their documents, and those working with vulnerable children (i.e., in positions of trust)) for focus group interviews. Other logistical matters will be discussed as well.

Tuesday 26 February

The Thing in Mid-Assembly: Reflections on Developing a Doctoral Research Project

Peter Erdélyi
I will review the progress of my PhD project entitled "Organising Performance in E-Commerce Firms: A Multi-Case Study of Small Retailers in the South of England." Besides providing a quick overview of the genealogy of the project and the current state of affairs, I will also attempt to draw some conclusions about the nature of the research process from the perspective of a 2nd-year PhD student simultaneously engaged in empirical data collection and conceptual development. My first and second supervisors are Edgar Whitley and Nathalie Mitev.

Panel Debate - Networks: Questions, Issues and Empirical Consequences

Aleksi Aaltonen, Ofer Engel, Patrick Karrberg and Wifak Gueddana.
Chair: Magda Hercheui

The panel will discuss different perspectives on the fragmented academic debate on networks and how these approaches related to technology in different ways. In a broad sense, the debate will argue that the metaphor of networks has been successful to investigate a large range of social phenomena, in spite of its drawbacks. The metaphor of network immediately evokes an imagery of interlinked nodes and, crucially, it is easy to see networks almost anywhere. While social life has been configured into what might be described as networks maybe for thousands of years, Internet-based tools have dramatically altered the characteristics of ego-centric networks that used to be embodied, fuzzy and private. More specifically, the panelists will cover how this metaphor has been useful to understand the new kind of interactions which emerge from computer-mediated communication in three different settings: business environments, social movements and social networks.

Page last updated 01 October 2008

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