Information Systems Department - Research

Research Themes

Pervasive Computing

We explore the design, development, and utilization of pervasive computing applications as an integral part of an organization's ubiquitous information environment. Technical and social elements of pervasive computing environments are both considered important in addressing questions of application design, organizational process, individual behavior, and group performance.

Manage by Designing

We see design as a continual process of changing less desirable states to more desirable ones. It involves the interplay of language and action in a socio-cognitive process of synthesis and invention that results in information environments that are both humanly satisfying and economically productive.

Research Projects

Application of IT to Appreciative Inquiry Based Organizational Change

Faculty Involvement: David Cooperrider
This research program aims to apply information and communication technologies to extend and sustain large-scale organizational dialogue as part of appreciative inquiry based organizational change initiatives. We are particularly interested in understanding the infrastructure and environment conducive to the formation and growth of self-organized virtual communities that focus on positive change.

Impact of ubiquitous computing in the healthcare industry

Faculty Involvement: Kalle Lyytinen
This project includes starting two new empirical field studies on the use of ubiquitous clinical applications in two local hospitals. These deal with management of prescription drugs and deliveries and the use of location aware identifiers to locate people in hospitals.

Funded Research

Weatherhead Connection

Funded by The L. Dale Dorney Fund of The Cleveland Foundation
$1.5 million

We are exploring technology use in three major areas at the Weatherhead School of Management including:

• Community Building
• Curriculum Enhancement
• Institutional Change

In particular, our goals were: the development of new and innovative instructional approaches by using web-based technologies; the development of community portals that can improve research, and teaching in the school, or improve the school’s ties with its stakeholders; and the design and implementation of teaching technologies which improve teaching processes in the classroom or outside the classroom, and which better integrate them with research.

Path Creation

Funded by the National Science Foundation
$450,000

The Path Creation Project (NSF Number IIS-0208963) explores the way that Frank O. Gehry and his firm of architects uses three dimensional computer modeling in the design of buildings and the changes that it creates in his architectural practice as well as in that of the participating network of contractors. The objective is to determine whether or not his innovative designs serve as path-creating events for his firm and companies working on his projects.

Using Technology for Chronic Disease Management
Funded by The Cleveland Clinic Foundation
$31,200

This study will establish the degree to which a technology-based patient intervention can replace manual interventions by exploring the efficacy of a web-based system bsed on The Cleveland Clinic Foundation's electronic medical record for the management of Type II diabetes.

Books

Richard Buchanan, "Thinking About Design: A Historical Perspective." In "The Philosophy of Design," The Handbook of Technology and the Engineering Sciences, ed. By Anthonie Meijers, Vol 12 of The Handbook of the Philosophy of Science, ed. By Dov Gabbay, Paul Thagard, & John Woods. Elsevier, 2009. Forthcoming.

Kalle Lyytinen, et al "Design Requirements Engineering: A Ten-Year Perspective," Springer, 2009

Michel Avital, Richard Boland, Jr., David Cooperrider, "Designing Information and Organizations with a Positive Lens," Elsevier, 2007

John L King, Kalle Lyytinen, "Information Systems: The State of the Field," John Wiley and Sons, 2006

C Sorenson, Youngjin Yoo, Kalle Lyytinen, et al, "Designing Ubiquitous Information Environments: Socio-technical Issues and Challenges," Springer, 2009

Richard Boland, Jr., Fred Collopy, "Managing as Designing," Stanford University Press, 2004

Book Chapters

Nick Berente, Kalle Lyytinen, "Iteration in Systems Analysis and Design: Cognitive Processes and Representational Artifacts," Information Systems Analysis and Design: Techniques, Methodologies, Approaches, and Architectures, Chiang et al (eds), M. E. Sharpe, 2009

Richard Buchanan, "Strategies of Design Research: Productive Science and Rhetorical Inquiry," Design Research Now, Michel (ed), Birkhouser, 2007

Richard Boland, Jr., "Interpretation and Theory in Qualitative Research," The Art of Science, Czarniawsk (ed). Copenhagen Libre, 2005

John L King, Kalle Lyytinen, "Automotive Informatics: Information Technology and Enterprise Transformation in the Automobile Industry," Transforming Enterprise, Dutton et al (eds), MIT Press, 2004

Richard Boland, Jr., Kalle Lyytinen, "Information Systems Research as Design: Identity, Process and Narrative," Information Systems Research: Relevant Theory and Informed Practice, Kaplan et al (eds), Springer, 2004

Richard Boland, Jr., "An Ecology of Distributed Mediated Cognition," Information Systems and Social Theory, Ciborra and Angelou (eds), Cambridge University Press, 2004

Journal Articles

Richard Buchanan, "Introduction: Design and Organizational Change," Design Issues 24 no. 1 (Winter 2008)

Richard Boland, Jr., et al, "Designing management control in hybrid organizations: The role of path creation and morphogenesis," Accounting, Organizations and Society (2008)

Richard Boland, Jr., Fred Collopy, Kalle Lyytinen, Youngjin Yoo, "Managing as Designing: Lessons for Organization Leaders from the Design Practice of Frank O. Gehry," Design Issues 24 no.1 (Winter 2008)

Kalle Lyytinen & M. Newman, "Explaining information systems change: a punctuated socio-technical change model," European Journal of Information Systems (2008)

Richard Boland, Jr., Kalle Lyytinen, Youngjin Yoo, "Wakes of Innovation in Project Networks: The Case of Digital 3-D Representations in Architecture, Engineering, and Construction." Organization Science (2007)

Richard Buchanan, "Anxiety, Wonder and Astonishment: The Communion of Art and Design," Design Issues (2007)

Fred Collopy, "Difficulty and complexity as factors in software effort estimation," International Journal of Forecasting (2007)

M. Bergman, Kalle Lyytinen, et al, "Design Boundary Objects- an ecological view of design artifacts." Journal of the Association for Information Systems (2007)

M. Germonprez, D. Hovorka, Fred Collopy, "A Theory of Tailorable Technology Design," Journal of the Association for Information Systems (2007)

Youngjin Yoo, Richard Boland, Jr., Kalle Lyytinen, "From Organization Design to Organization Designing," Organization Science (2006)

Kalle Lyytinen, John L. King, "Standard Making: A Critical Research Frontier for Information Systems Research," MIS Quarterly (2006)

M. Avital, Kalle Lyytinen, Richard Boland, Jr., et al, "Design with a positive lens: An affirmative approach to designing information and organizations," Communications of the AIS (2006)

Youngjin Yoo & Kalle Lyytinen, "Social Impacts of Ubiquitous Computing: Exploring Critical Interactions Between Mobility, Context and Technology," Information & Organization (2005)

J.S. Armstrong, Fred Collopy, J.T. Yokum, "Decomposition by Causal Forces: a Procedure for Forecasting Complex Time Series," International Journal of Forecasting (2005)

J. Erickson, Kalle Lyytinen, et al, "Agile Modeling, Agile Software Development, and Extreme Programming: the State of Research," Journal of Database Management (2005)

Richard Buchanan, "Human-Centered Design: Changing Perspectives on Design Education in the East and West," Design Issues (2004)

Kalle Lyytinen, et al, "Surfing the Next Wave: Design and Implementation Challenges of Ubiquitous Computing Environments," Communications of the AIS (2004)

Fred Collopy, "The Ombudsman: A Pattern Language for Forecasters," Interfaces (2003)

Kalle Lyytinen & G.M. Rose, "The Disruptive Nature of Information Technology Innovations: the Case of Internet Computing in Systems Development Organizations," MIS Quarterly (2003)