Subjectivity, Context, and Perceptions of Quality in Empirical Research

This paper examines the role played by context and subjectivity in the epistemology of information systems research. Different assumptional frameworks underlying the opposing worldviews of positivism and interpretivism explain the differing treatments of context and subjectivity within these two frames of reference and thus the different criteria for quality that can be applied to each. The discussion examines how embedded assumptions concerning appropriate process and the ways in which we account for the research process affect the value-judgments applied to various research studies. It is argued that subjectivity has an important role to play in both positivist and interpretive research, but that this role is significant at different stages of the research life-cycle. Interpretive research is only indefensible if it is presented in the discourse of the positivist tradition. It is suggested that alternative notions of rigor and generalizability replace these traditions to legitimize interpretivism. This conclusion has significant implications for how we conduct and generalize from research in the information systems field.