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ECITE:
European Conference on Information Technology Evaluation
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Advancing
Information Systems Evaluation (Research): A Critical Realist Approach,
Sven A. Carlsson,
Lund University,
Sweden,
sven.carlsson@ics.lu.se.se |
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ABSTRACT
The aim of Information Systems
(IS) evaluation research is to produce ever more detailed answers to the
question of why an IS initiative works (better) for whom and in what
circumstances. This paper presents an alternative to traditional IS
evaluation research approaches. The alternative, realistic IS evaluation
research, is based on the philosophy of critical realism. Realistic IS
evaluation research attends to how and why an IS initiative has the
potential to cause (desired) changes and seeks to understand for whom and
in what circumstances (contexts) an IS initiative works through the study
of contextual conditioning. The paper also discusses problems with
traditional IS evaluation research approaches and how realistic IS
evaluation overcomes the problems.
Keywords: Information
systems evaluation, critical realism, realistic IS evaluation |
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