Abstract
Information systems research involves an exploration and understanding of the interplay between technologies and human actors who can be grouped in different ways, ranging from simple pairings of employee-manager (dyadic relationship) to complex global virtual teams (group) to societies. Though researchers sometimes identify the impact of technologies and accompanying socio-technical systems over several units of analysis, few researchers investigate their effects across multiple levels of analysis. Yet, IS phenomena, like other research domains, involve variables or constructs found at multiple levels. For example, in virtual team research, investigators often examine individuals’ perceptions and abilities and their impact on group level outcomes such as performance or cohesion. Similarly, in IT implementation research, individual resistance to a new system is often studied as affecting success or failure of the implementation for the organization as a whole.
The workshop is highly interactive, allowing participants to evaluate how their own research can or should be conducted in a multilevel framework. The session begins with a discussion of what multilevel research is, presenting the characteristics of and methodological issues associated with multilevel research. The workshop then offers participants opportunities to explore how multilevel research can be included within their own research area, using guidelines for each of six phases of research development.
Recommended Citation
Belanger, France, "Conducting Multi-Level Research in Information Systems" (2009). AMCIS 2010 Proceedings. 22.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/amcis2010/22