Theorizing and data analysis in qualitative process research

The majority of IS research to date has focused on 'what' questions (Orlikowski and Baroudi 1991). However, there has been a growing interest in studying 'how' questions (Langley 2009). Process studies are fundamental for developing and testing theories of 'how' social entities adapt, change, and evolve over time. Indeed, "since time is an inescapable reality, process conceptualizations that take time into account offer an essential contribution to our understanding of the world that is unavailable from the variancebased generalizations" (Langley 2009). There are many benefits to process research, including developing rich, theoretically informed views from qualitative data. However, much of the process research that is published focuses on the research outcomes, leaving little description of the data analysis process. This can present a challenge for researchers new to process research. In this short paper we seek to expose and develop a framework that we hope will be useful to those seek to understand how to make sense of and theorize from qualitative process data.