Chitu Okoli

The Delphi method as a research tool: an example, design considerations and applications

The Delphi method has proven a popular tool in information systems research for identifying and prioritizing issues for managerial decision-making. However, many past studies have not adopted a systematic approach to conduct a Delphi study. This article provides rigorous guidelines for the process of selecting appropriate experts for the study and gives detailed principles for making design choices during the process that ensure a valid study. A detailed example of a study to identify key factors affecting the diffusion of e-commerce in Sub-Saharan Africa illustrates the design choices that may be involved. We conclude with suggestions for theoretical applications.

A Guide to Conducting a Systematic Literature Review of Information Systems Research

This working paper has been thoroughly revised and superseded by two distinct articles. The first is a revised and peer-reviewed version of the original article: Okoli, Chitu (2015), A Guide to Conducting a Standalone Systematic Literature Review. Communications of the Association for Information Systems (37:43), November 2015, pp. 879-910. This article presents a methodology for conducting a systematic literature review with many examples from IS research and references to guides with further helpful details. The article is available from Google Scholar or from the authors website. The second extension article focuses on developing theory with literature reviews: Okoli, Chitu (2015), The View from Giants’ Shoulders: Developing Theory with Theory-Mining Systematic Literature Reviews. SSRN Working Paper Series, December 8, 2015. This article identifies theory-mining reviews, which are literature reviews that extract and synthesize theoretical concepts from the source primary studies. The article demonstrates by citation analysis that, in information systems research, this kind of literature review is more highly cited than other kinds of literature review. The article provides detailed guidelines to writing a high-quality theory-mining review.

The sum of all human knowledge: A systematic review of scholarly research on the content of Wikipedia

Wikipedia may be the best‐developed attempt thus far to gather all human knowledge in one place. Its accomplishments in this regard have made it a point of inquiry for researchers from different fields of knowledge. A decade of research has thrown light on many aspects of the Wikipedia community, its processes, and its content. However, due to the variety of fields inquiring about Wikipedia and the limited synthesis of the extensive research, there is little consensus on many aspects of Wikipedias content as an encyclopedic collection of human knowledge. This study addresses the issue by systematically reviewing 110 peer‐reviewed publications on Wikipedia content, summarizing the current findings, and highlighting the major research trends. Two major streams of research are identified: the quality of Wikipedia content (including comprehensiveness, currency, readability, and reliability) and the size of Wikipedia. Moreover, we present the key research trends in terms of the domains of inquiry, research design, data source, and data gathering methods. This review synthesizes scholarly understanding of Wikipedia content and paves the way for future studies.

A Framework for Assessing E-Commerce in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract Over the past three decades, Sub-Saharan Africa has been viewed as the “Iforgotten continent”. With her many problems of hunger, epidemics, war, and other related socio-economic problems, the dzfusion of the Internet and related technologies might be the last thing to be associated with Africa. However, we are experiencing the contrary. Sub-Saharan countries are experiencing tremendous growth in Internet connectivity, the use of computers, and in the dzfusion of wireless communications. Although still at its starting stages, electronic commerce is one of the growth areas for information and communication technologies (ICTs) in Africa. This paper presents a research framework for assessing electronic commerce in Sub-Saharan Africa. It describes the nature of the digital divide, and explains the need for the commercial applications of the Internet in developing countries in general. Further, it presents literature on e-commerce frameworks, ICT dzfusion, and ICTs in developing countries that shed light on diferent aspects of e-commerce in Sub-Saharan Africa. Finally, it proposes a consolidating framework that synthesizes these various literature streams and lays groundwork for a focused body of research in this area.

Wikipedia in the eyes of its beholders: A systematic review of scholarly research on Wikipedia readers and readership

Hundreds of scholarly studies have investigated various aspects of Wikipedia. Although a number of literature reviews have provided overviews of this vast body of research, none has specifically focused on the readers of Wikipedia and issues concerning its readership. In this systematic literature review, we review 99 studies to synthesize current knowledge regarding the readership of Wikipedia and provide an analysis of research methods employed. The scholarly research has found that Wikipedia is popular not only for lighter topics such as entertainment but also for more serious topics such as health and legal information. Scholars, librarians, and students are common users, and Wikipedia provides a unique opportunity for educating students in digital literacy. We conclude with a summary of key findings, implications for researchers, and implications for the Wikipedia community.

The Open Source Movement: A Revolution in Software Development

The open source movement is based on a radical retake on copyright law to create high quality software whose use and development are guaranteed to the public. In this article we trace the history of the movement, highlighting its interaction with intellectual property law. The movement has spawned open source software (OSS) communities where developers and users meet to create software that meets their needs. We discuss the demographic profile of OSS participants, their ideology, their motivations, and the process of OSS development. Then we examine the impacts of OSS on society as a whole from the perspective of the information society, discussing the effects on OSS developers, users of OSS, and society at large, particularly in developing countries.

Generating quality open content: A functional group perspective based on the time, interaction, and performance theory

We applied the input-process-output approach and time, interaction, and performance theory to examine the input factors (organisational, group-related, and individual) and process factors (group production, group well-being, and member support) that yield group effectiveness, measured as high-quality articles in Wikipedia. The results provided evidence of the positive effects of: group size and shared experience on both group process variables and group effectiveness; group heterogeneity on group production; organisational support and member activeness on group well-being; member activeness on member support; and organisational support and member activeness on group effectiveness.

A Critical Realist Guide to Developing Theory with Systematic Literature Reviews

This working paper has been thoroughly revised and superseded by two distinct articles, both available at SSRN. The first focuses on developing theory with literature reviews: Okoli, Chitu. The View from Giants’ Shoulders: Developing Theory with Theory-Mining Systematic Literature Reviews. SSRN Working Paper Series, December 8, 2015. This article identifies theory-mining reviews, which are literature reviews that extract and synthesize theoretical concepts from the source primary studies. The article demonstrates by citation analysis that, in information systems research, this kind of literature review is more highly cited than other kinds of literature review. The article provides detailed guidelines to writing a high-quality theory-mining review. The second subsequent article offers various comments on literature reviews from a critical realist perspective: Okoli, Chitu. Critical Realist Considerations for Literature Reviews. SSRN Working Paper Series, December 8, 2015. Using the systematic review framework, it offers various comments from a critical realist lense on uncovering real mechanisms underlying theoretical phenomena. It also offers other general comments on the literature reviewing practice beyond theory-building.

Protocol for a systematic literature review of research on the Wikipedia

Context: Wikipedia has become one of the ten-most visited sites on the Web, and the worlds leading source of Web reference information. Its rapid success has attracted over 1,000 scholarly studies that treat Wikipedia as a major topic or data source. Objectives: This article presents a protocol for conducting a systematic mapping (a broad-based literature review) of research on Wikipedia. It identifies what research has been conducted; what research questions have been asked, which have been answered; and what theories and methodologies have been employed to study Wikipedia. Methods: This protocol follows the rigorous methodology of evidence-based software engineering to conduct a systematic mapping study. Results and conclusions: This protocol reports a study in progress.

The best of adaptive and predictive methodologies: open source software development, a balance between agility and discipline

Open source software development (OSSD) is a promising alternative for synthesising agile and plan-driven (e.g., waterfall) software development methodologies that retains most benefits of the two approaches. We contrast the traditional systems development life cycle approach, more recent agile software development methods, and OSSD. We compare the first two approaches with OSSD, highlighting its synthesis of benefits from both, with unique benefits of its own, offering solutions to areas where the other methodologies continue to face difficulties. OSSD is highly responsive to user needs, and potentially draws talent from a global team of developers. OSSD is a relatively low-risk methodology with potentially high return on investment. While not appropriate for all applications, especially those where the needed applications are extremely idiosyncratic to one company, it is nonetheless a valuable asset in an organisation|s portfolio of software development solutions.