RIGOR IN INFORMATION SYSTEMS POSITIVIST CASE RESEARCH: CURRENT PRACTICES, TRENDS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS1

Toward the end of the 1980s, the issue of whether IS case research was rigorously conducted was first raised. The present study seeks to determine the extent to which the field of IS has advanced in its operational use of case study method. Precisely, it investigates the level of methodological rigor in positivist IS case research conducted over the past decade. To fulfill this objective, 183 case articles from seven major IS journals were identified and coded. Evaluation attributes or criteria considered in the present review focus on three main areas, namely, design issues, data collection, and data analysis. While the level of methodological rigor has experienced modest progress with respect to some specific attributes, the overall assessed rigor is somewhat equivocal and there are still significant areas for improvement. One of the keys is to include better documentation particularly regarding issues related to the data collection and analysis processes.