A cross-paradigm macro-structure analysis of research articles in Information Systems

The study presented in this paper examined the macro-structures (MSs) of research articles (RAs) in Information Systems (IS). Unlike most previous MS studies, which have tended to look for a single unified MS model to represent the discipline under investigation and have provided post hoc explanations of intra-disciplinary variability, this study set out to examine how MSs of RAs in IS may vary with the epistemological paradigms they follow. Thirty articles of behavioural science research and thirty design science research articles were collected from eight IS journals. Their main sections were subjected to a series of analyses. Results show distinct macro-structural variations across the two corpora. Implications for teaching and future research of MS will be discussed.