A narrative approach to publishing information systems research: inspiration from the French New Novel tradition

In this paper, we suggest an alternative way of producing Information Systems (IS) case studies in which researchers act as narrators of stories following the spirit and techniques of the French New Novel (FNN). As such, authors attempt to represent the richness of a problem situation. The readers’ role is more demanding compared to traditional case studies, as they have to play detectives to discover meaning from the narrative. Hence, readers need to expose different interpretations from the text rather than accept a complete story by the author or an author-provided set of alternative interpretations. Following a discussion of the FNN, we present an extract of a narrative that follows this approach. It concerns use of technology in team meetings in a research project on the potential impact of climate change on organic farming in France. Based on this example, we discuss the techniques used in its construction, ways in which the text might be interpreted, and how it may become part of publishing qualitative case study research within IS.