The Use of an Explicitly Theory-Driven Data Coding Method for High-Level Theory Testing in IOIS

As part of an international empirical study we have developed a high-level theory of the structureand evolution of inter-organizational information systems (IOIS), but face two issues in testingthis theory; the very large set of factors possibly influencing IOIS and need to bound a complexresearch object. We describe a novel solution involving an explicitly theory-driven coding of ourraw empirical data to produce a new interpreted “meso-level” ground upon which to derive andtest predictions. To justify this approach, we first give a pragmatic analysis which traces the problemto the traditional choice between top-down (deductive) and bottom-up (inductive) methods forlinking theory and data. We then assess the validity of our approach against standard philosophicalpositions. We find that a hard Empiricist view commonly espoused in information systemswould not admit our approach but that Critical Realism does and suggests a conceptual interpretationof our meso-level.