The struggle towards an understanding of theory in information systems - Information Systems Foundations: Constructing and Criticising - page 10

Weber (1987), for example, recognised difficulties with design work in information
systems. He saw the 'lure of design and construction' as a factor inhibiting the progress
of information systems as a discipline and called for theory that gave information systems
a paradigmatic base.
In 1992, Simon's ideas were adopted and applied to consideration of information systems
design theory by Walls et al. (1992). Recently the ideas of these authors have enjoyed
some currency, as shown in the specification of a design theory for knowledge manage-
ment systems by Markus, Majchrzak and Gasser (2002). The explication of information
systems design theory by Walls et al. (1992) is probably the most complete and thorough
to date. Since 1992, there have been varying and rather scattered approaches to the
problem and articulation of design theory in information systems and allied fields. March
and Smith (1995) and Hevner et al. (2004) followed Simon's ideas closely, but with an
important difference. They saw design science products as comprised of four types:
constructs, models, methods, and implementations, but excluded theories. Jarvinen
(2001) expresses similar views.
More recently, Iivari (2003) argued that determining the distinctive identity of inform-
ation systems relies on the recognition that our knowledge and theory is concerned with
the developing and building of information system artefacts.
Thus, these considerations provide a justification for a fifth type of theory of interest
to information systems researchers: theory for design and action (Type V).
A typology of theory for information systems
The perspectives presented above provide justification for distinguishing five different
interrelated types of theory that are relevant to information systems research (see Fig-
ure 1.1). Each type is described more fully in Gregor, (2002).
Figure 1.1. Interrelationships among theory types.
Type I. Theory for analysing and describing
Descriptive theory says 'what is' and is the basis for all other types of theory. Description
and specification of constructs in theories of this type are needed (Dubin, 1978), as are
descriptive frameworks that specify and classify the phenomena of interest in a theoret-
ical domain (Cushing, 1990).