Nik's Research Philosophy
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My research philosophy for Information Systems (IS) is rooted in the belief that IS as a field needs to accept the enormous responsibility that it carries as a critical component of modern society. The concerns of modern society should be reflected in IS research. As Peter G. W. Keen1 notes “Until relevance is established, rigor is irrelevant.” In order to successfully carry this burden of responsibility, research in IS should be focused on the creation of knowledge that will coalesce this "fragmented adhocracy" into a distinct, vibrant and influential field. Although IS is a relatively young field, the rapid changes that are continuously overwhelming its users, customers, and stakeholders imply that IS has to develop faster than other established fields. Unlike physics, biology or economics, IS cannot wait 100 years to evolve, instead, IS researchers must agree on what objects they need to study, create their own concepts and theories instead of merely borrowing and corroborating research in other fields, and thereby contribute significantly to the real-world practices of its stakeholders and customers. Kuhn (1962) says it best in the "Structure of Scientific Revolutions":
“It may, for example, be significant that economists argue less about whether their field is a science than do practitioners of other fields of social science. Is that because economists know what science is? Or is it rather economics about which they agree?”
1Keen, P. G. W. (1991). Relevance and Rigor in Information Systems Research: Improving Quality, Confidence, Cohesion and Impact. In H.-E. Nissen, H. K. Klein & R. Hirschheim (Eds.), Information Systems Research: Contemporary Approaches and Emergent Traditions (pp. 27-49). North-Holland: Elsevier Science Publishers B. V.