Title: Qualitative Research Methods in IS: An Overview and Some Guidelines
Speaker: XIAO Xiao, Associate Professor of Copenhagen Business School
Time: 14:00 p.m., May 28, 2025
Venue: Room 105, Building No.12, Wushan Campus
Introduction to the speaker:
XIAO Xiao is an Associate Professor at Copenhagen Business School, Department of Digitalization. She received her PhD in Information Systems from Washington State University, USA. Her main research areas include digital platforms and digital services (with a specific focus on the digital commerce context in China), sports digitalization, IT servitization, and qualitative research methodologies. Her research findings have been published in high-level journals such as MIS Quarterly, Journal of Management Information Systems, Journal of Information Technology, Information Systems Journal, Information and Management, MISQ Executive. She is a member of the editorial boards of MIS Quarterly, European Journal of Information Systems, Journal for the Association of Information Systems, and Information Systems Journal.
Abstract：
This presentation offers an overview of qualitative research methods with the discipline of Information Systems (IS) as the background. First, I will introduce an anatomical view of qualitative research to discuss and analyze different components of a qualitative research paper. Based on such anatomy, I will then provide a critical review of qualitative research published in the four mainstream IS journals to identify patterns and trends related to how qualitative research is conducted. Following the results of the review, two main principles will be offered as general guidelines of conducting qualitative research. Finally, I will discuss the mixed-method design as a way to combine and leverage the strengths of qualitative research methods and quantitative research methods.
