David Avison is Distinguished Professor of Information Systems at ESSEC Business School, near Paris, France after being Professor at the School of Management at Southampton University for nine years. He has also held posts at Brunel and Aston Universities in England, and the University of Technology Sydney and University of New South Wales in Australia, and elsewhere. He is President-elect of the Association of Information Systems (AIS). He is joint editor of Blackwell Science's Information Systems Journal now in its eighteenth volume, rated as a 'core' international journal. So far, twenty-five books are to his credit including the fourth edition of the well-used text Information Systems Development: Methodologies, Techniques and Tools (jointly authored with Guy Fitzgerald). He has published a large number of research papers in learned journals, edited texts and conference papers. He was Chair of the International Federation of Information Processing (IFIP) 8.2 group on the impact of IS/IT on organisations and society and is now vice chair of IFIP technical committee 8. He was past President of the UK Academy for Information Systems and also chair of the UK Heads and Professors of IS and is presently member of the IS Senior Scholars Forum. He was joint programme chair of the International Conference in Information Systems (ICIS) in Las Vegas (previously also research programme stream chair at ICIS Atlanta), joint programme chair of IFIP TC8 conference at Santiago Chile, programme chair of the IFIPWG8.2 conference in Amsterdam, panels chair for the European Conference in Information Systems at Copenhagen and publicity chair for the entity-relationship conference in Paris and chair of several other UK and European conferences. He will be joint program chair of the IFIP TC8 conference in Milan, Italy in 2008. He also acts as consultant and has most recently worked with a leading manufacturer developing their IT/IS strategy. He researches in the area of information systems development and more generally on information systems in their natural organizational setting, in particular using action research, though he has also used a number of other qualitative research approaches. Michael D. Myers is Professor of Information Systems and Head of the Department of Information Systems and Operations Management at the University of Auckland Business School, Auckland, New Zealand. He has won numerous awards including Best Paper award for the most outstanding paper published in MIS Quarterly in 1999. He served as President of the Association for Information Systems (AIS) in 2006-2007 and is a Fellow of AIS.

PART ONE: OVERVIEW OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCHAn Introduction to Qualitative Research in Information Systems - Michael D Myers and David E AvisonChoosing Appropriate Information Systems Research Methodologies - Bob Galliers and Frank LandPower, Politics and MIS Implementation - M Lynne MarkusPART TWO: PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVESStudying Information Technology in Organizations - Wanda Orlikowski and J J Baroudi Research Approaches and AssumptionsThe Case Research Strategy in Studies of Information Systems - Izak Benbasat, D K Goldstein and M MeadInterpretive Case Studies in IS Research - Geoff Walsham Nature and MethodThe Critical Social Theory Approach to Information Systems - Ojelanki Ngwenyama Problems and ChallengesPART THREE: QUALITATIVE RESEARCH METHODSA Critical Perspective on Action Research as a Method for Information Systems Research - Richard Baskerville and Trevor Wood-HarperA Scientific Methodology for MIS Case Studies - A S LeeScholarship and Practice - Lynda L Harvey and Michael D Myers The Contribution of Ethnographic Research Methods to Bridging the GapCASE Tools Are Organizational Change - Wanda Orlikowski Investigating Incremental and Radical Changes in Systems DevelopmentPART FOUR: MODES OF ANALYZING AND INTERPRETING QUALITATIVE DATAInformation System Use as an Hermeneutic Process - Richard J Boland JrSymbolism and Information Systems Development - Rudy Hirschheim and Mike Newman Myth, Metaphor and Magic

This book expertly brings together the seminal works in the field, together with editorial introductions to assist the reader in understanding the essential principles of qualitative research.