Big data and algorithmic decision-making have been touted as game-changing developments in management research, but they have their limitations. Qualitative approaches should not be cast aside in the age of digitalisation, since they facilitate understanding of quantitative data and the questioning of assumptions and conclusions that may otherwise lead to faulty implications being drawn, and - crucially - inaccurate strategies, decisions and actions. This handbook comprises three parts: Part I highlights many of the issues associated with 'unthinking digitalisation', particularly concerning the overreliance on algorithmic decision-making and the consequent need for qualitative research. Part II provides examples of the various qualitative methods that can be usefully employed in researching various digital phenomena and issues. Part III introduces a range of emergent issues concerning practice, knowing, datafication, technology design and implementation, data reliance and algorithms, digitalisation.
Part I. Philosophical, Epistemological and Theoretical Considerations: 1. Introduction: the need for qualitative research in the age of digitalisation Robert D. Galliers and Boyka Simeonova; 2. Philosophical perspective on qualitative research in the age of digitalization Allen S. Lee and Suprateek Sarker; 3. Data as a contingent performance and the limitations of big data Matthew Jones; 4. Big data: little understanding Rudolf A. Hirschheim and David Whitchurch; 5. Power, knowledge and digitalisation: a qualitative research agenda Boyka Simeonova and Robert D. Galliers; 6. Information technology and power Boyka Simeonova and M. N. Ravishankar; Part II. Methodological Considerations: 7. Human values in a digital-first world: the implications for qualitative research Hameed Chughtai and Michael Myers; 8. One picture to study one thousand words: visualization for qualitative research in the age of digitalization Hani Safadi, Marie-Claude Boudreau and Samer Faraj; 9. Demystifying the digital: a case for hybrid ethnography in IS Nicola Ens, Mari-Klara Stein and Tina Blegind Jensen; 10. Case study research revisited Boyka Simeonova and Guy Fitzgerald; 11. Social media qualitative research vignettes Alex Wilson, Josh Morton and Boyka Simeonova; 12. Co-inquiring in a digital age: enhancing the practice of strategy work in government organisations through action research Joe McDonagh, David Coghlan and Paul Coughlan; Part III. Illustrative Examples and Emergent Issues: 13. Observing artifacts: how drawing distinctions creates agency and identity Sven-Volker Rehm, Lakshmi Goel, and Iris Junglas; 14. Algorithms as co-researchers: exploring meaning and bias in qualitative research Wendy Arianne Günther, Mark Thompson, Mayur P. Joshi, and Stavros Polykarpou; 15. Sensemaking about HRV data of high performing individuals: crafting a mixed methods Study Stefan Klein, Stefan Schellhammer and Nathalie Mitev; 16. The rich facets of digital trace data Jonas Valbjørn Andersen and Philipp Hukal; 17. Balancing the momentum of datafication with qualitative researchers as design thinkers Gongtai Wang, Andrew Burton-Jones and Saeed Akhlaghpour; 18. What data sharing in government tells us about the digitalisation of government services: lessons from the UK digital economy act Edgar Whitley.
Boyka Simeonova is an Assistant Professor in Information Management at Loughborough University, and the Director of the Knowledge and the Digital Economy Research Network and the Deputy Director of the Centre for Information Management. Boyka is also a co-editor of the book, Strategic Information Management: Theory and Practice, 5th Edition (2020). Robert D. Galliers is the University Distinguished Professor Emeritus and former Provost, Bentley University, and Professor Emeritus and former Dean, Warwick Business School. He received the AIS LEO Award for exceptional lifetime achievement in Information Systems in 2012 and was the founding editor-in-chief of The Journal of Strategic Information Systems. His work on research methods has been particularly well cited.
