Pornphol, Putsadee and McGrath, Michael (2011) Information Systems Development as an Emergent Knowledge Research Process. International Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, 6 (1). pp. 301-318. ISSN 1833-1882

Abstract

A view of the information system as a research conceptual framework is presented. A parallel is drawn with the manner in which knowledge emerges in iterative case study research. In this paper, our principal objective is to illustrate this ‘emergent knowledge process’ through the staged development of a decision support system (DSS) based upon the ‘tourism area life cycle’ (TALC) model. The TALC is a theory of tourism region evolution designed to assist destination managers and others in dealing with and understanding problems that seem to almost inevitably arise with concentrated tourism development (e.g. environmental despoilment, low visitor yield and social issues). Various heuristics are associated with the transformation from one life cycle stage to the next and these, together with an increasing body of cases dealing with the application of rejuvenation strategies, form the basis of our DSS. It is demonstrated that, as the DSS evolves through a number of cycles (each cycle being the result of DSS application to a new destination), our knowledge of the TALC domain is enhanced and refined in much the same way as would occur with a more conventional case study approach.

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