PrefaceSince the mid-1980s there has been increasing interest in qualitative research within the information systems research community. Today qualitative research is accepted as being able to provide important insights into information systems phenomena. Qualitative research involves the use of qualitative data, such as interviews, documents and participant observation, to understand and explain social phenomena. Qualitative researchers can be found in many disciplines and fields, using a variety of approaches, methods and techniques. In information systems research, there has been a general shift away from issues that are purely technological to issues that additionally include the managerial and organizational, hence an increasing interest in the application of qualitative research methods.There have been three 'inspirations' for this book. The first stems from the success of Michael Myers' web resource entitled 'Qualitative Research in Information Systems' at www.auckland.ac.nz/msis/isworld/index.html, a joint publication of MISQ Discovery and ISWorld. This book is intended as a supplement to that work. Michael's work received the Value-Added Side Award for 1996-1997 sponsored by the Academy of Management's Organizational Communication and Information Systems Division and ISWorld. The above work is published in two forms. First, an archival version of the work was published in MISQ Discovery in 1997 (Myers, 1997a). MISQ Discovery is a department of MIS Quarterly, and is intended to engender new forms of knowledge dissemination. The journal is available in electronic form on the Internet at www.misq.org/discovery/index.html. Second, a living version of the work continues to be updated as part of both MISQ Discovery and ISWorld Net (Myers, living). ISWorld Net is an international information infrastructure for information systems researchers and educators throughout the world. Having a living version means that the work is dynamic and as an example of living scholarship is able to take full advantage of advances in computer and communications technologies. The second 'inspiration' is the work of the International Federation of Information Processing (IFIP) Working Group 8.2 of which David Avison is chair. IFIP 8.2 has long campaigned for qualitative research in information systems and has held a series of conferences in qualitative research methods. The proceedings can be found in (Lee, Liebenau et al., 1997; Mumford, Hirschheim et al., 1985; Nissen, Klein et al., 1991). David has seen the atmosphere change at the three conferences from the tentative, almost apologetic, meeting in Manchester of people who argued that qualitative research had (possibly) a role to play in information systems to the most recent conference in Philadelphia by which time qualitative research in information systems (IS) had a major impact. Many researchers wanted to hear more about our latest qualitative research work on IS.The third inspiration is the perceived need for a book which brings together many of the best qualitative research articles in IS. Until now excellent articles on qualitative research in IS have appeared in many different places, for example in various journals and conference proceedings. In our international travels many colleagues have mentioned to us that a book which provided some of the 'classic' articles would be very useful, especially in the teaching of qualitative research methods and as a basic reader for PhD students in IS. The contribution of this book is to bring together many of these articles in one volume for the first time. This book is therefore intended to satisfy the above needs and to complement the MISQ Discovery/ISWorld site. It provides many of the recommended readings in a readily accessible form. Following the introductory chapter, the book includes 12 chapters that discuss various approaches to qualitative research in IS. The authors are leading IS researchers from around the world.The organization of this book is as follows: Part I provides a general overview of qualitative research in IS; Part II has chapters which introduce the reader to various philosophical perspectives; Part III includes chapters which discuss various qualitative methods; and Part IV discusses modes of analyzing and interpreting qualitative data.We believe that providing a collection of articles such as this draws attention to the tremendous progress that has been made within the field of IS, particularly within the past decade. Our intention in bringing them together is to make them more accessible to IS scholars and students while at the same time making them available to qualitative researchers in other fields. We hope that this volume contributes to further development of qualitative research in IS.Editors Michael Myers and David Avison, ISBN: 9780761966326, also available as an e-book at https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=NzrlEZMflZ0C&pg=GBS.PP1&hl=en
