Operationalization of Configuration Analysis in Interorganizational Information Systems Research: A Research Journey

Abstract

Configuration analysis is still an under-developed tool for researchers to investigate interorganizational information systems (IOIS) and the forms of interorganizational integration that are supported by IOIS. In our attempt to explain observed phenomena in a target industry we applied configuration analysis proposed by Lyytinen and Damsgaard in their position paper from 2011 on an industry level. We operationalized the conceptual idea of configuration analysis in a research design defining research paradigm, type of reasoning, research goals, unit of analysis and research methods to make it feasible for IOIS research. Our findings indicate that our operationalization of configuration analysis is suitable for research fields in IOIS that have no or hardly any empirical groundwork to observe phenomena and hypothesize about the mechanics leading to the existence of the phenomena.