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dc.contributor.authorSiponen, Mikko
dc.contributor.authorTsohou, Aggeliki
dc.date.accessioned2018-08-13T08:36:58Z
dc.date.available2018-08-13T08:36:58Z
dc.date.issued2018
dc.identifier.citationSiponen, M., & Tsohou, A. (2018). Demystifying the Influential IS Legends of Positivism. <i>Journal of the Association for Information Systems</i>, <i>19</i>(7), 600-617. <a href="https://doi.org/10.17705/1jais.00503" target="_blank">https://doi.org/10.17705/1jais.00503</a>
dc.identifier.otherCONVID_28200207
dc.identifier.otherTUTKAID_78463
dc.identifier.urihttps://jyx.jyu.fi/handle/123456789/59203
dc.description.abstractPositivism has been used to establish a standard that Information Systems (IS) research must meet to be scientific. According to such positivistic beliefs in IS, scientific research should: 1) be generalizable, 2) focus on stable independent variables, 3) have certain ontological assumptions, and 4) use statistical or quantitative methods rather than qualitative methods. We argue that logical positivist philosophers required none of these. On the contrary, logical positivist philosophers regarded philosophizing in general and ontological considerations in particular as nonsense. Moreover, the positivists’ preferred empirical research method was not a survey, but rather a qualitative observation recorded by field notes. In addition, positivist philosophers required neither statistical nor nonstatistical generalizability. At least some positivist philosophers also acknowledged the study of singular cases as being scientific. Many research orientations (e.g., single-setting research, examination of change, qualitative research) that are deemed “unscientific” by positivism in IS seem to be “scientific” (in principle) according to logical positivism. In turn, generally speaking, what has been justified as scientific by positivism in IS (e.g., requirements of statistical or nonstatistical generalizability, surveys, independent variables, ontological views) were either not required by logical positivists or were regarded as nonsensical by logical positivists. Furthermore, given that positivism is sometimes associated (or confused) with logical empiricism in IS, we also briefly discuss logical empiricism. Finally, realizing that certain influential, taken-forgranted assumptions that underlie IS research are unwarranted could have ground-breaking implications for future IS research.fi
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdf
dc.language.isoeng
dc.publisherAssociation for Information Systems
dc.relation.ispartofseriesJournal of the Association for Information Systems
dc.rightsIn Copyright
dc.subject.otherlogical positivism
dc.subject.otherIS Philosophy
dc.titleDemystifying the Influential IS Legends of Positivism
dc.typearticle
dc.identifier.urnURN:NBN:fi:jyu-201808063736
dc.contributor.laitosInformaatioteknologian tiedekuntafi
dc.contributor.laitosFaculty of Information Technologyen
dc.contributor.oppiaineTietojärjestelmätiedefi
dc.contributor.oppiaineInformation Systems Scienceen
dc.type.urihttp://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle
dc.date.updated2018-08-06T09:15:08Z
dc.type.coarhttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_2df8fbb1
dc.description.reviewstatuspeerReviewed
dc.format.pagerange600-617
dc.relation.issn1536-9323
dc.relation.numberinseries7
dc.relation.volume19
dc.type.versionpublishedVersion
dc.rights.copyright© the Authors & Association for Information Systems, 2018.
dc.rights.accesslevelopenAccessfi
dc.subject.ysotieteenfilosofia
dc.subject.ysopositivismi
dc.subject.ysolooginen empirismi
dc.subject.ysotietojärjestelmät
dc.format.contentfulltext
jyx.subject.urihttp://www.yso.fi/onto/yso/p3016
jyx.subject.urihttp://www.yso.fi/onto/yso/p2927
jyx.subject.urihttp://www.yso.fi/onto/yso/p14958
jyx.subject.urihttp://www.yso.fi/onto/yso/p3927
dc.rights.urlhttp://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en
dc.relation.doi10.17705/1jais.00503
dc.type.okmA1


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