Editorial

Abstract

Information systems (IS) is a fairly new discipline, and in our first paper Juhani Iivari, Rudy Hirschheim and Heinz Klein attempt to define a body of knowledge that encompasses the subject. They suggest five topic areas that IS experts should know about. Of these, they regard two as distinct in IS: the knowledge about IS applications and the process of IS development; and they attempt to codify the latter. In doing so, the paper reveals many concerns, but even so, this and subsequent papers can have a major positive impact on IS teaching and research. One recurring theme of IS development research concerns resistance to the introduction of new systems and, using data spanning a six-year period, Bill Doolin discusses how doctors reduced the potential of a hospital information system by their resistance. He considers this a result of the power that the doctors had in this situation and he analyses the case study using a Foucauldian perspective. Such an approach is often discussed from a purely theoretical perspective but here, we have empirical data illustrating the approach in practice. The many citations from the interviews help to make the arguments convincing as does the fact that this is a longitudinal study. Markos Goulielmos also looks at aspects of IS development, but this time at the process of IS development, including the roles of the actors involved. Goulielmos uses grounded theory to make sense of the interview data from five consultancy firms and six other large organizations. The paper makes many interesting observations about IS development in practice, and distinguishes between a broader, pragmatic view of an IS ‘approach’ from the more traditional focus on methodology. The final paper of this issue concerns the moral and ethical issue of unauthorized copying of software. But it is also a practical concern of course – how should companies attempt to prevent such copying? Mikko Siponen and Tero Vartiainen apply Kohlberg's theory of cognitive moral development to the issue and finds that the current preventative actions fail to take into account all the necessary aspects of moral development and are therefore unlikely to be fully successful. The research approach involves a hermeneutic study of texts (33 studies about the issue of unauthorized software copying) and the study argues for a more holistic approach to the problem.