Information Systems Research and the Quest for Certainty

Abstract

This paper is written for information systems (IS) scholars who may be researching design problems of considerable complexity and who seek approaches and ideas that can increase their confidence in understanding and tackling these problems. The subject of the paper is the notion of ‘certainty:’ the certainty of a researcher’s performance and that of his or her research targets. How can researchers be sure that they are studying the right things in the right way in novel situations? How can they predict the certainty of success in situations where information technology (IT) innovation involves novelty and affects multiple stakeholders like users, developers, and managers? In order to answer these questions, researchers may need to critically evaluate and assess the ways they handle uncertainty in IS research.