An increasing presence of practitioners with doctoral degrees in Information Systems and related disciplines holds promise to advance Information Systems research. The prospect is to gain more knowledge from the practical experience of developing, using, and managing information systems in context. To scientifically capitalise on this opportunity, this EJIS special issue introduces the research genre of “Information Systems Clinical Research”. The genre presents knowledge generated from practitioner-researcher interventions to achieve desired outcomes in information systems development, use, and management practice contexts. In this editorial, we introduce and conceptualise the genre; we present a research framework that defines its four key elements; and we discuss how to address its key challenges in research projects. As a result, we derive ten criteria for rigorous Information Systems Clinical Research and provide examples on how the articles published in the special issue have addressed these criteria. We conclude with a call to further advance clinical research as an important part of the Information Systems discipline.

What is the dependent variable in social media use? From a research perspective, this is a pertinent question to help explain and understand the behaviors that underpin the widespread adoption and use of social media throughout society. From a practical perspective, the question is relevant for social media technology providers, for businesses that use social media, and community organizations that turn towards social media to reach out to their constituents. We propose the construct ‘sense of community’ as the dependent variable, which is reflected in four sub-constructs related to the behaviors of social media users. These behaviors are information seeking, hedonic activities, sustaining of strong ties and extending weak ties. Empirical evidence for these constructs comes from a survey of social media use by 18-25 year-olds in Indonesia, a country with exceptionally high utilization of social media. We outline practical implications of the findings and areas for further theoretical development.

Mobile information technologies (IT) are transforming individual work practices and organizations. These devices are extending not only the boundaries of the ‘office’ in space and time, but also the social context within which use occurs. In this paper, we investigate how extra-organizational influences can impact user satisfaction with mobile systems. The findings from our longitudinal study highlight the interrelatedness of different use contexts and their importance in perceptions of user satisfaction. The data indicate that varying social contexts of individual use (individual as employee, as professional, as private user, and as member of society) result in different social influences that affect the individual's perceptions of user satisfaction with the mobile technology. While existing theories explain user satisfaction with IT within the organizational context, our findings suggest that future studies of mobile IT in organizations should accommodate such extra-organizational contextual influences.

South Africa is undergoing a number of changes, which has an effect on every aspect of society from the workplace to everyday life. South Africans need to reflect on this situation and determine how to proceed. The purpose of this article is to consider the development and implementation of information technology, one particular problem area, in this broader context. The article draws an analogy between the trade unionist systems development tradition in Scandinavia and the possible application it might have in South Africa. The article describes the situation in South Africa, presents the trade unionist approach to systems development, and describes the underlying principles that have been identified by Scandinavian researchers. It then evaluates these principles from a South African perspective and discusses the possible uses they might have in the South African situation.