Document Type

Article

Publication Date

9-2012

Publication Source

MIS Quarterly

Abstract

Critical realism is emerging as a viable philosophical paradigm for conducting social science research, and has been proposed as an alternative to the more prevalent paradigms of positivism and interpretivism. Few papers, however, have offered clear guidance for applying this philosophy to actual research methodologies. Under critical realism, a causal explanation for a given phenomenon is inferred by explicitly identifying the means by which structural entities and contextual conditions interact to generate a given set of events. Consistent with this view of causality, we propose a set of methodological principles for conducting and evaluating critical realism-based explanatory case study research within the information systems field. The principles are derived directly from the ontological and epistemological assumptions of critical realism. We demonstrate the utility of each of the principles through examples drawn from existing critical realist case studies. The article concludes by discussing the implications of critical realism based research for IS research and practice.

Inclusive pages

787-810

ISBN/ISSN

0276-7783

Document Version

Published Version

Comments

This document available for download upon expiration of the publisher's required embargo period is provided in compliance with the publisher's policy on self-archiving. Permission documentation is on file.

Publisher

Society for Information Management

Volume

36

Issue

3

Peer Reviewed

yes

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