Dropping Your Tools - The Diversity of the Research Agenda in Organizational Dynamics of Technology-Based Innovation

The debate between protagonists of different theoretical approaches continues in the Information Systems field, with little prospect of resolution. The debate is typically characterized by tendentious arguments as advocates from each approach offer a somewhat one-sided condemnation of other approaches. A recent debate in the Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems (SJIS) illustrates the manner in which IS researchers are polarized into opposing camps, each tending to view the other as inferior. Ironically further polarization is occurring in the manner various groups of IS scholars are simultaneously calling for order, discipline and clearer notions of the “core of the discipline” while other scholars call for greater research diversity. In order to overcome this polarization we advocate a strategy recommended by Weick (1996): Drop your tools, hold your concepts lightly and update them frequently. Three reasons for dropping our theoretical tools are suggested as a means for moving forward, both for individual researchers as well as for the research community as a whole.