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Is Research, Practical Outcomes, Real World Practice: Making Sustainable Links between Communities

ABSTRACT In this article, we seek to problematise the seemingly persistent gap between the results of academic research and professional practice in the field of Information Technology (IT). That this is a problem is widely acknowledged. We propose some ways that this gap can be bridged. However, building bridges to link academic research to practical and exploitable outcomes is not enough, for like all bridges, these particular ones must be maintained. We also propose some ways that this may be done. INTRODUCTION "[In] [o]ur comprehensive study of systems planning and analysis research over [a] 30-year period ... we found that academics take a longer-term view than practitioners and tend to do research aimed at the prevention of errors. Practitioners take a shorter-term view, emphasizing the completion of tasks and solution of specific problems" (Lippert and Anandarajan 2004, p. 91). In a short article published just last year, Lippert and Anandarajan (2004) highlight the very problem that we were hoping to shed some light on when our call for contributions to this special issue of JITTA was distributed. That is, the one of making the connection between academic research and practical outcomes in industry. It is very important for IS research to excel at both the application of rigorous methodology and at relevance, if it is to be of interest to IS managers and executives. To accomplish that, research must lead to or have the potential to lead to outcomes that are implementable, that lead, rather than chase, practice, and that are the result of research practices that are informed by the practical contingencies of practice (Benbasat and Zmud 1999). Back in 1987, Galliers and Land were bemoaning that one "disturbing" tendency in IS research was the emphasis placed on "empirical research more suited to the natural sciences" (1987, p. 900). Furthermore, whilst this "may well be academically acceptable and internally consistent, all too often it leads to inconclusive or inapplicable results" (Galliers and Land 1987, p. 900 emphasis added). It is not our purpose here to reawaken the 'sleeping tiger' debate on qualitative v. quantitative research methods, it is simply to show that concern over the applicability and relevance of research results to practice has been around for some time. Almost as if 1987 was a watershed year for considering the link between research and practice, Benbasat, Goldstein and Mead published a paper suggesting how case Study research could be used to provide better insights into the use of IS in business, particularly where insights into the interaction between technology related problems, context and actors are important (Benbasat, Goldstein and Mead 2002 (originally published 1987)). Specifically they suggest such a research method, appropriately applied, would have "significant implications for the practitioner" (Benbasat et al. 2002 (originally published 1987), p. 368). In 1997, at IFIP8.2, Markus (in an invited paper) took a retrospective look at the use of qualitative research methods in IS and asked us to celebrate "diversity in qualitative methods, converging on content in our field, and pursuing practicality in IS research" (Markus 1997, p. 11). We hope in the following sections to show that practicality in IS research must not only mean that the research can be conducted using methods that are practical but that the outcomes of this research can be applied in practice. In our view there is little point conducting research in an applied discipline such as Information Systems if the results are inapplicable in the real world (see also Galliers and Land 1987). Practicality of method is not enough; practicality of interpreting and applying the results to real world practice must be considered also. Again in 1997, at the ICIS meeting of that year, the issue of the relationship between researcher and practitioner was the subject of a panel session which discussed research under the rubric of Really Useful Rigorous Research or RURR (Brown, Markus, Rockart, Sambamurthy and Shrednick 1997, p. …