Analysis by Long Walk: Some Approaches to the Synthesis of Multiple Sources of Evidence

Abstract

Through this chapter I make two contributions. First, I provide both conceptual guidance and practical advice for information systems (IS) scholars who are involved in multi-method research, with a particular focus on conducting multi-method analysis. Second, and as a means to achieve the first contribution, I detail some of the principal components of multi-method research. Multi-method research is based on the premise that analysis of separate and dissimilar data sets drawn on the same phenomena will provide a richer picture of the events and/or issues than will any single method. While valued by many IS scholars, multi-method-based research to study the roles of information and communication technologies (ICT) in social organization is under-explored as a set of coherent techniques.