Case study and grounded theory: a happy marriage? An exemplary application from healthcare informatics adoption research

As qualitative methods become increasingly popular in the research of information systems (IS), the analysis of resultant data becomes problematic. The primary aim of this paper is to contribute to the literature of qualitative research methodology in the area of information technology adoption. This study aims to outline a potentially powerful combination of grounded theory (GT) and case study research to produce relevant and rigorous theories that facilitate the understanding of emerging socio-technical IS phenomena. The study describes the compatibility of GT theoretical sampling and coding mechanisms as data analysis in conjunction with an interpretive case study strategy. A secondary objective of this study is to provide a real-life research project that shows the applicability of such a combination. The proposed methodology has been applied in the field of electronic health records (EHR) adoption. This study revealed that the application of the suggested methodology resulted in concepts and factors of EHR adoption that are not proposed by generalised theory.