Start Date
14-12-2012 12:00 AM
Description
This paper concentrates on a major concern in the IS field – theory building – and couples it with a major development in our field – social media, to consider how we might build theory using digital texts within the case study methodology. The growing popularity and constant innovations of social media have transformed ways of interacting, working, creating value and innovating. There is a need for theorizing these new environments and the intriguing inextricably social and technical dynamics they make possible. We elaborate upon how building theory from case studies should be adapted to the opportunities and challenges of social media environments. We delve into key challenges of the research process: case study design, data analysis, and engaging in multi methods, and identify some key considerations that can help IS researchers navigate the still new and not yet fully understood characteristics of these environments for theory building purposes.
Recommended Citation
Urquhart, Cathy and Vaast, Emmanuelle, "Building social media theory from case studies: A new frontier for IS research" (2012). ICIS 2012 Proceedings. 8.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2012/proceedings/ResearchMethods/8
Building social media theory from case studies: A new frontier for IS research
This paper concentrates on a major concern in the IS field – theory building – and couples it with a major development in our field – social media, to consider how we might build theory using digital texts within the case study methodology. The growing popularity and constant innovations of social media have transformed ways of interacting, working, creating value and innovating. There is a need for theorizing these new environments and the intriguing inextricably social and technical dynamics they make possible. We elaborate upon how building theory from case studies should be adapted to the opportunities and challenges of social media environments. We delve into key challenges of the research process: case study design, data analysis, and engaging in multi methods, and identify some key considerations that can help IS researchers navigate the still new and not yet fully understood characteristics of these environments for theory building purposes.