Positivist Case Research Exemplar Case research can also be used in a positivist manner to test theories or hypotheses. Such studies are rare, but Markus (1983)12 provides an exemplary illustration in her study of technology implementation at the Golden Triangle Company (a pseudonym). The goal of this study was to understand why a newly implemented financial information system (FIS), 12 Markus, M. L. (1983). “Power, Politics, and MIS Implementation,” Communications of the ACM (26:6), 430-444. 100 | S o c i a l S c i e n c e R e s e a r c h intended to improve the productivity and performance of accountants at GTC was supported by accountants at GTC’s corporate headquarters but resisted by divisional accountants at GTC branches. Given the uniqueness of the phenomenon of interest, this was a single-case research study. To explore the reasons behind user resistance of FIS, Markus posited three alternative explanations: (1) system-determined theory: resistance was caused by factors related to an inadequate system, such as its technical deficiencies, poor ergonomic design, or lack of user friendliness, (2) people-determined theory: resistance was caused by factors internal to users, such as the accountants’ cognitive styles or personality traits that were incompatible with using the system, and (3) interaction theory: resistance was not caused not by factors intrinsic to the system or the people, but by the interaction between the two set of factors. Specifically, interaction theory suggested that the FIS engendered a redistribution of intra-organizational power, and accountants who lost organizational status, relevance, or power as a result of FIS implementation resisted the system while those gaining power favored it. In order to test the three theories, Markus predicted alternative outcomes expected from each theoretical explanation and analyzed the extent to which those predictions matched with her observations at GTC. For instance, the system-determined theory suggested that since user resistance was caused by an inadequate system, fixing the technical problems of the system would eliminate resistance. The computer running the FIS system was subsequently upgraded with a more powerful operating system, online processing (from initial batch processing, which delayed immediate processing of accounting information), and a simplified software for new account creation by managers. One year after these changes were made, the resistant users were still resisting the system and felt that it should be replaced. Hence, the system-determined theory was rejected. The people-determined theory predicted that replacing individual resistors or co-opting them with less resistant users would reduce their resistance toward the FIS. Subsequently, GTC started a job rotation and mobility policy, moving accountants in and out of the resistant divisions, but resistance not only persisted, but in some cases increased! In one specific instance, one accountant, who was one of the system’s designers and advocates when he worked for corporate accounting, started resisting the system after he was moved to the divisional controller’s office. Failure to realize the predictions of the people-determined theory led to the rejection of this theory. Finally, the interaction theory predicted that neither changing the system or the people (i.e., user education or job rotation policies) will reduce resistance as long as the power imbalance and redistribution from the pre-implementation phase were not addressed. Before FIS implementation, divisional accountants at GTC felt that they owned all accounting data related to their divisional operations. They maintained this data in thick, manual ledger books, controlled others’ access to the data, and could reconcile unusual accounting events before releasing those reports. Corporate accountants relied heavily on divisional accountants for access to the divisional data for corporate reporting and consolidation. Because the FIS system automatically collected all data at source and consolidated them into a single corporate database, it obviated the need for divisional accountants, loosened their control and autonomy over their division’s accounting data, and making their job somewhat irrelevant. Corporate accountants could now query the database and access divisional data directly without going through the divisional accountants, analyze and compare the performance of individual divisions, and report unusual patterns and activities to the executive committee, resulting in C a s e R e s e a r c h | 101 further erosion of the divisions’ power. Though Markus did not empirically test this theory, her observations about the redistribution of organizational power, coupled with the rejection of the two alternative theories, led to the justification of interaction theory. Comparisons with Traditional Research Positivist case research, aimed at hypotheses testing, is often criticized by natural science researchers as lacking in controlled observations, controlled deductions, replicability, and generalizability of findings – the traditional principles of positivist research. However, these criticisms can be overcome through appropriate case research designs. For instance, the problem of controlled observations refers to the difficulty of obtaining experimental or statistical control in case research. However, case researchers can compensate for such lack of controls by employing “natural controls.” This natural control in Markus’ (1983) study was the corporate accountant who was one of the system advocates initially, but started resisting it once he moved to controlling division. In this instance, the change in his behavior may be attributed to his new divisional position. However, such natural controls cannot be anticipated in advance, and case researchers may overlook then unless they are proactively looking for such controls. Incidentally, natural controls are also used in natural science disciplines such as astronomy, geology, and human biology, such as wait for comets to pass close enough to the earth in order to make inferences about comets and their composition. The problem of controlled deduction refers to the lack of adequate quantitative evidence to support inferences, given the mostly qualitative nature of case research data. Despite the lack of quantitative data for hypotheses testing (e.g., t-tests), controlled deductions can still be obtained in case research by generating behavioral predictions based on theoretical considerations and testing those predictions over time. Markus employed this strategy in her study by generating three alternative theoretical hypotheses for user resistance, and rejecting two of those predictions when they did not match with actual observed behavior. In this case, the hypotheses were tested using logical propositions rather than using mathematical tests, which are just as valid as statistical inferences since mathematics is a subset of logic. Third, the problem of replicability refers to the difficulty of observing the same phenomenon given the uniqueness and idiosyncrasy of a given case site. However, using Markus’ three theories as an illustration, a different researcher can test the same theories at a different case site, where three different predictions may emerge based on the idiosyncratic nature of the new case site, and the three resulting predictions may be tested accordingly. In other words, it is possible to replicate the inferences of case research, even if the case research site or context may not be replicable. Fourth, case research tends to examine unique and non-replicable phenomena that may not be generalized to other settings. Generalizability in natural sciences is established through additional studies. Likewise, additional case studies conducted in different contexts with different predictions can establish generalizability of findings if such findings are observed to be consistent across studies. Lastly, British philosopher Karl Popper described four requirements of scientific theories: (1) theories should be falsifiable, (2) they should be logically consistent, (3) they should have adequate predictive ability, and (4) they should provide better explanation than rival theories. In case research, the first three requirements can be increased by increasing the degrees of freedom of observed findings, such as by increasing the number of case sites, the 102 | S o c i a l S c i e n c e R e s e a r c h number of alternative predictions, and the number of levels of analysis examined. This was accomplished in Markus’ study by examining the behavior of multiple groups (divisional accountants and corporate accountants) and providing multiple (three) rival explanations. Popper’s fourth condition was accomplished in this study when one hypothesis was found to match observed evidence better than the two rival hypothese