The seminar “Methods and Theories in Information Systems Research” (ManTIS) is designed to provide students with an opportunity to build up basic theoretical and methodological skills needed to conceptualize, conduct, and communicate their own research. In doing so, ManTIS familiarizes students with the essential triad consisting of topic, methods, and theories. Hence, ManTIS is a seminar well suited to help students preparing themselves for an academic thesis in the IS discipline (e.g., Master or Doctoral Thesis).

To produce valid and reliable results it is important to have a sound understanding of theories and methods that explain social phenomena tackling questions of how technology is used and designed by humans in organizations. Theories provide the researcher a sound basis by summarizing current knowledge and allowing for a precise investigation and definition of their topic’s underlying phenomenon. Complementary to this, methods afford the student with the ability to produce reliable results which allow her/him to derive both meaningful and trustworthy conclusions. This way they can make sure that their results are not only interesting, but also scientifically valid.

To support students in their preparation for their theses, the seminar will introduce the most common methods used in business research by looking at examples from the IS discipline. This includes how to carry out a literature review as well as qualitative (e.g., case study research) and quantitative methods of empirical research. In addition, the concept of design research will be introduced.

 

Learning Objectives

The students get

• ability to understand the relevance of methods and theories in meaningful research
• overview of most common methods and theories used in IS research
• ability to prepare and execute own research project (e.g., master thesis)
• knowledge of the basic quality criteria for scientific research

 

Lecture Content

• Foundations: Topic, Methods and Theories
• Scientific Writing & Publishing
• Literature Review
• Qualitative Research
• Quantitative Research
• Design Research