The Pursuit of Innovative Theory in the Digital Age

Abstract

Grover & Lyytinen (2015) urged to reassess the Information System (IS) field’s exclusive dependence on reference theories and to engage more in blue-ocean theorizing. From its inception, such need has been latent in the field, because it deals with novel, fast changing, complex, and systemic phenomena that is hard to account with received theory. We note in this essay that the need for innovative theorizing is heightened given the unprecedented, pervasive digitalization of contemporary society, accelerated by ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. In this essay, we scrutinize further the idea of blue-ocean theorizing and review the characteristics, impediments, and merits of developing innovative theory. We define endeavors toward such theory as collectively endorsed cognitive processes which increase variance and novelty of theoretical accounts of IS phenomena. These push to deviate from the field’s established theoretical (canonical) core by relaxing six assumptions that guide dominant, legitimate forms of the field’s theorizing. We identify and review institutional barriers that curb the development of innovative theory. In conclusion, we offer guidelines for how the field and its stakeholders can productively engage in developing and evaluating innovative theory.