Piloting Socio-Technical Innovation

Anyone familiar with the German IS research culture would expect to find numerous action researchers in Germany. However, a closer examination of the literature reveals there are relatively few if any. There are few publications claiming to report on action research and there is little if any ongoing debate on action research. This paper argues that the lack of publications is a result of a different framing of action oriented research in Germany. The purpose of this paper is to use a variant of action research, the piloting of an innovation, as a starting point for a debate on the action research methodology in Germany and to contribute to the international debate on action research. We do so in a general manner and by reflection on the research approach in the socio-technical pilot project Cuparla. Posted at the Zurich Open Repository and Archive, University of Zurich ZORA URL: https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-61347 Published Version Originally published at: Schwabe, Gerhard; Krcmar, Helmut (2000). Piloting a sociotechnical innovation. In: 8th European Conference on Information Systems ECIS, Wien, 3 July 2000 5 July 2000, 132-139. Piloting Socio-technical Innovation Gerhard Schwabe University of Koblenz-Landau 56075 Koblenz, Germany [email protected] Helmut Krcmar Hohenheim University 70593 Stuttgart, Germany [email protected] Abstract Anyone familiar with the German IS research culture would expect to find numerous action researchers in Germany. However, a closer examination of the literature reveals there are relatively few if any. There are few publications claiming to report on action research and there is little if any ongoing debate on action research. This paper argues that the lack of publications is a result of a different framing of action oriented research in Germany. The purpose of this paper is to use a variant of action research, the piloting of an innovation, as a starting point for a debate on the action research methodology in Germany and to contribute to the international debate on action research. We do so in a general manner and by reflection on the research approach in the socio-technical pilot project Cuparla. Anyone familiar with the German IS research culture would expect to find numerous action researchers in Germany. However, a closer examination of the literature reveals there are relatively few if any. There are few publications claiming to report on action research and there is little if any ongoing debate on action research. This paper argues that the lack of publications is a result of a different framing of action oriented research in Germany. The purpose of this paper is to use a variant of action research, the piloting of an innovation, as a starting point for a debate on the action research methodology in Germany and to contribute to the international debate on action research. We do so in a general manner and by reflection on the research approach in the socio-technical pilot project Cuparla.