2.2 Research culture
IS has demonstrated both rigorous scientific evaluation and the split between positivist and phenomenological perspectives. In fact, “the essence of Information Systems as design science, for example, lies in the scientific evaluation of artifacts” (Iivari, 2005) in (Chatterjee & Hevner, 2010) (Hevner & Chatterjee, 2010). According to Smith (1998), positivists attitudes toward sociology are of the view that objective or hard facts and the relationship between these facts are foundational to scientific facts. For positivists, such laws have the status of truth and social objects that can be studied in much the same way as natural objects.’ These hard facts are the objective (quantitative) and the technical aspects of IS that are logically established and programmed into systems with defined functionalities or outputs and excludes any priori speculations. For example, embedded business rules, primary keys, and other information systems functionalities that are not subjected to broad discourse and varying outputs. On the contrary, phenomenology is generally qualitative and subjective, more abstract and draws on divergence and exploratory. Again, in IS non-technical and managerial decision-making based on the outputs from sets of computerised set of systems and procedures. For example, digital transformation, IS Strategy and other management related issues.