Identifying Generative Mechanisms through Affordances: A Framework for Critical Realist Data Analysis
针对批判实在论数据分析中最难的因果机制识别步骤，提出一个基于可供性概念的逐步框架，并通过航空业案例展示如何识别信息系统创新机制，帮助研究者进行更精确的实证数据分析。
Critical realism has attracted increasing attention as an alternative to positivist and interpretive research for explaining contemporary phenomena. There are now several sources for information systems' (IS) scholars providing guidance on conducting critical realist studies. However, the most challenging step of a critical realist data analysis, the identification of causal mechanisms, is still insufficiently described. Identifying mechanisms is challenging. Drawing on the concept of affordances as an analytical construct offers the researcher a tool to identify and analyse mechanisms. We present a stepwise framework for identifying structural components of a mechanism, how these components interact to produce an outcome and contextual influences on this outcome. We illustrate the application of the framework through an example of the identification of IS innovation mechanisms in a case study in the airline industry. In doing so, we argue that the approach offers a methodological tool for identifying generative mechanisms, helping the researcher in conducting a more precise data analysis in empirical research.