Boundary Spanning and Practical Impact in IS Research: A Bourdieusian Analysis

McCarthy, Stephen; Scholta, Hendrik; Hausvik, Geir Inge; Busch, Peter André

Abstract

Information systems (IS) research often seeks to deliver practical impact in addition to the traditional requirement for theoretical contribution. While an admirable goal, it is nevertheless a challenging prospect, as key questions remain around how best to facilitate a relationship between IS academic and practitioner communities. To explore this issue, we analyse multi-case study data from interviews with 24 IS practitioner doctorates, industry contact points, and senior IS academics who sought to create a joint field between academia and practice during their research. Our findings reveal several boundary spanning activities needed to traverse field boundaries and maintain the joint field's existence across the stages of proof-of-concept, proof-of-value, and proof-of-use. Building on insights from the work of Pierre Bourdieu, we further discuss how IS practitioner doctorates operationalised capital, doxa, and habitus to achieve varying degrees of practical impact in their work. Action-oriented recommendations are presented to support practical impact going forward including creolised messages and the mobilisation of capital to change inter-field relationships. By adapting Bourdieu's Theory of Practice to the engaged scholarship discourse in IS, we contribute new insights into how the academia-practice gap might be addressed.

Keywords
academia-practice gap; boundary spanning; design science research; engaged IS scholarship; practical impact; qualitative research; relevance; theory of practice