1. The Supervisor's Dilemma Roger Clarke Xamax Consultancy, Canberra Visiting Professor in Computer Science, ANU, Canberra Visiting Professor in Cyberspace Law & Policy, UNSW, Sydney {.html, .ppt} 26th Bled eConference – 10 June 2013

2. The Supervisor's Dilemma Agenda
1. General Statement of the Dilemma
2. eInteraction Research Realities
3. Specific Dimensions of the Dilemma
4. Resolution? Reconciliation? Avoidance?

3. Dilemma A condition in which the alternatives to be chosen among
are equally unfavourable
resulting in
a position of doubt or perplexity

4. The Supervisor's Dilemma
Candidate's vs.
Needs
The
Supervisor's
Integrity
Is Reconciliation Possible?

5. The Supervisor's Dilemma
Contemporary disciplinary norms
lead the candidate to adopt a
a research perspective, a theoretical basis for research,
a research design and/or rigour-relevance balance
that may conflict
with the supervisor's
academic and professional values
and personal integrity

6. 2. Some Research Realities The Focus of the Bled eConference The eInteraction Research Domain
• Inter-Entity communications facilitated by electronic tools
• Entities may be human or machine
• Purpose is not limited, e.g. economic, social, hedonism
• It is irrelevant whether the communications occur within an organisational context or otherwise
• It encompasses technologies, technologies-in-use, and the politics of technologies and their uses

7. Key Characteristics of the eInteraction Research Domain
Its Immaturity
The Instability of the Phenomena
Driven by Marketing Hype, Misinformation
Innovators' 'Casino Mentality'
The Vast Numbers of Confounding Variables
The Interconnectedness among Phenomena
The Inadequacies of Available Theories

8. Approaches to Research
Pure Research (or 'Basic' Research) 'because it’s there'
Applied Research Theory-driven or tool-driven 'normal science'

9. Approaches to Research
Pure Research (or 'Basic' Research) 'because it’s there'
Applied Research Theory-driven or tool-driven 'normal science' 'With a hammer in your hand, everything looks like a nail'
Instrumentalist Research Problem-driven 'I need to firmly connect two pieces of timber, so find out how to do it'

10. Practical Realities
IS and the eInteraction domain are not 'industrialised'
Tightly-focussed training in 'normal science' isn't appropriate
Instead, broad background needs to be developed in:
the philosophy of research
the full range of research techniques
Much time and effort are invested in the learning process
Considerable formalism is involved in satisfying examiners
The dissertation must make a sufficient 'contribution'
So the topic is very tightly focussed by the time of submission

11. The Candidate's Motivations
Attain education and training relevant to the conduct of research
Make a contribution to a discipline and/or a research domain
Gain access to the research profession
Gain a prenominal (Dr) or postnominal (PhD) as evidence of advanced university education
...

12. The Supervisor's Motivations
Develop the next generation of researchers, for reasons of service / altruism or deferred and indirect reciprocity
Gain intellectual stimulation
Have a junior colleague undertake work closely related to and contributing to the supervisor's own research
Contribute to the supervisor's broader research program
Project the supervisor's theories or methods to the world
Have a research assistant
Satisfy an expectation of the supervisor's employer or peers

13. 3. Specific Dimensions of the Dilemma
Researcher Perspective
Theoretical Basis
Empirical Research Design
Rigour-Relevance Balance

14. Unit of Study / Unit of Analysis
A technology, an event, an object, a person, a group, an organisational sub-unit, a legally-defined organisation, a relationship between entities (e.g. a dyad), an aggregation of organisations (e.g. an industry sector), a region, a nation

15. Unit of Study / Unit of Analysis
A technology, an event, an object, a person, a group, an organisational sub-unit, a legally-defined organisation, a relationship between entities (e.g. a dyad), an aggregation of organisations (e.g. an industry sector), a region, a nation
Perspective
A technology, an event, an object, a person, a group, an organisational sub-unit, a legally-defined organisation, a relationship between entities (e.g. a dyad), an aggregation of organisations (e.g. an industry sector), a region, a nation

16. The Problem of the Singular Perspective
All observation has to be from a specific point of view
Stakeholders' perspectives are diverse
Stakeholders include:
Customers
Suppliers
Providers of similar goods and services
Providers of substitute goods or services
Employees and contractors
Usees
Regulators
The perspective adopted is usually that of one organisation
Other stakeholder interests are excluded, marginalised, or treated as a constraint rather than an objective

17. Some Perspectives that are Under-Represented in eInteraction Research
Individual Employees and Contractors
Usees Affected individuals (e.g. suppliers, customers, licensees, other people whose data are handled by an organisation, people adjacent to an organisation's facilities)
Industry Sectors and Industry Segments
Economies
Societies
Humanity
The Biosphere

18. Some Indicators of Under-Represented Perspectives
'Public Policy'
The AIS Library – the term appears in 18 of 16,000 Abstracts
The Bled Proceedings ( ) – in 0 of 600 Abstracts
'Privacy'
The AIS Library – appears in 360 of 16,000 Abstracts But from the perspectives of marketers, not of people
'Green' Topics
The AIS Library – 9 in , 19, 20, 28 and 34 in But almost all adopt the corporate view Very few adopt the perspective of humanity or the biosphere

19. Alternative Perspectives ==>> Additional Topics
skills formation; employment and other income-distribution mechanisms; the differential needs of, and impacts on, people and communitities in urban, regional, rural and remote areas; impact and implications for cultural and linguistic minorities; technology design for people with physical and cognitive impairments; impacts of data surveillance on users and usees; consumer needs and consumer rights; and consumer marketing philosophies other than conventional, predatory, mass-marketing approaches, e.g. permission-based, consensual, micro-, 1-to-1, and non-mass

20. The Theoretical Basis for the Research 'Convenience Theories' or 'Fashion Theories'
Cultural Factors Theory Hofstede 1980; but see McSweeney 2002
Innovation Diffusion Theory Rogers 1962; but see McMaster & Wastell 2005
Transaction Cost Theory Williamson 1981; but see Ghoshal & Moran 1996
Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) Davis 1989; but see Benbasat & Barki 2007, Bagozzi 2007

21. Weak Empirical Research Designs - 1
Cases
Semi-structured interviews aren't case studies
Neither are shallow cases / vignettes
Most cases are unauditable (the source is undeclared even to examiners / reviewers let alone readers)
Surveys
Of what people say they do, not what they actually do
Failure to complement with in-depth information
Proxy populations and sampling frames (esp. students)
Over-surveyed populations, minuscule response rates

22. Weak Empirical Research Designs – 2
Convenience Samples 'snowball sampling' open invitations to fill in a web-form
Convenience Data • long lists of highly ambiguous questions • forced choice • 5 or 7 highly ambiguous points
• highly ambiguous scales • assumption that the data is on a ratio scale
'Likert scales' are a contrivance They produce misleading and even dangerous results

23. Rigour and Intellectualism Dominate Relevance
Clearly, cet. par., more rigour is to be preferred to less
However, all other things are seldom equal
The eInteraction domain creates enormous challenges (Slide 6)
High levels of rigour make demands of researchers that conflict with the need for the results to be useful
A trade-off has to be achieved between rigour and relevance
But, instead, topics are favoured for their researchability rather than for the value that they can deliver

24. Tensions The Candidate's Interest in the Mainstream vs
Tensions The Candidate's Interest in the Mainstream vs. The Supervisor's Professional Integrity
Researcher Perspective
Theoretical Basis
Empirical Research Design
Rigour-Relevance Balance

25. 4. Conclusions Resolution ? Reconciliation ? Avoidance ?
… ?

26. 'Design Science' + 'Critical Theory'?
Design Science tries to draw the researcher back into contact with the needs of the real world, ground it, and deny abstract, intellectualist social science
Critical Theory recognises the political dimension of IT applications – the interests and agendas of the players that exercise institutional and market power, and the tensions and the balances among competing forces in influencing the design of technologies and their applications

27. The Supervisor's Dilemma Agenda
1. General Statement of the Dilemma
2. eInteraction Research Realities
3. Specific Dimensions of the Dilemma
4. Resolution? Reconciliation? Avoidance?

28. The Supervisor's Dilemma Roger Clarke Xamax Consultancy, Canberra Visiting Professor in Computer Science, ANU, Canberra Visiting Professor in Cyberspace Law & Policy, UNSW, Sydney {.html, .ppt} 26th Bled eConference 10 June 2013