A narrative approach to publishing information systems research: inspiration from the French New Novel tradition

Abstract

In this paper, we suggest an alternative way of producing Information Systems (IS) case studies in which researchers act as narrators of stories following the spirit and techniques of the French New Novel (FNN). As such, authors attempt to represent the richness of a problem situation. The readers’ role is more demanding compared to traditional case studies, as they have to play detectives to discover meaning from the narrative. Hence, readers need to expose different interpretations from the text rather than accept a complete story by the author or an author-provided set of alternative interpretations. Following a discussion of the FNN, we present an extract of a narrative that follows this approach. It concerns use of technology in team meetings in a research project on the potential impact of climate change on organic farming in France. Based on this example, we discuss the techniques used in its construction, ways in which the text might be interpreted, and how it may become part of publishing qualitative case study research within IS.

Keywords:

• alternative genre
• research case study
• qualitative research
• narrative
• role of the reader
• French New Novel

Acknowledgments

We first wish to thank Marie-Anne Marty for sharing her deep knowledge of the French New Novel with us in several discussions. We are grateful to Myriam Vallas, the project coordinator of the Melibio Project who gave us unlimited access and who generously shared her time and insights on the project. We also wish to acknowledge and thank the group members for their support and openness. Finally, we wish to thank the special issue editors, in particular, Lars Mathiassen and the reviewers for their great support over the last few months and for their outstanding feedback which helped us to restructure the material into its present form.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

David Avison

About the Authors

David Avison was the President of the Association of Information Systems (AIS) and joint founding editor of Information Systems Journal. He has been awarded the International Federation of Information Processing (IFIP) Silver Core, Fellowship of the AIS, and has lifetime honorary membership of the AIS.

Julien Malaurent

Julien Malaurent is currently serving as senior editor of the Information Systems Journal. He uses qualitative approaches (in particular, case study and action research) to address issues related to the work practices of IS users in multi-cultural contexts. 

Philippe Eynaud

Philippe Eynaud was guest editor of a special thematic issue for Voluntas Journal on civil society governance as a new field of research. He was in the steering committee of a European consortium on Innovative platforms for social services. He has co-edited a book about governance and democracy published by Routledge.