Lecturer Dr. Ariana Polyviou, of the Department of Management, Entrepreneurship and Digital Business at the Cyprus University of Technology (CUT), has received an international distinction.

The leading academic journal Journal of the Association for Information Systems (ABS 4*) has awarded Dr. Polyviou the JAIS Best Paper Honorable Mention Award 2024 for a paper co-authored with Nancy Pouloudi and Katerina Pramatari (Athens University of Economics and Business) and Leiser O. Silva (Bauer College of Business, University of Houston).

The award-winning article is entitled: “A DNA Helix Analogy for Interdependent Mixed Methods Research: Enabling Cross-Fertilizations and Interim Meta-Inferences.”

Mixed methods research (e.g., combining qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection and analysis) enables a more integrated and insightful understanding of phenomena, yet remains complex to design, implement, and document.

This challenge is particularly relevant to concurrent and fully integrated research designs, which are still underrepresented in Information Systems research. This study proposes a new way of conceptualizing mixed methods, in which different research strands (e.g., qualitative, quantitative, computational) unfold simultaneously.

These concurrent strands need not remain independent; rather, they may continuously interact and inform each other through ongoing cross-fertilization, thereby enhancing validity and yielding more comprehensive findings. The authors draw on the DNA double helix analogy, where the two strands are interlinked and evolve together, to conceptualize such interdependent mixed-methods research.

The paper also presents a flow diagram that can serve as a roadmap for implementing this type of mixed-methods design, along with a template for capturing interim feedback, thus contributing to greater transparency in the research process.

Furthermore, the study provides an illustrative example and outlines a set of guiding principles to support the application of the proposed design in practice. The usefulness of the approach is further validated through interviews with both junior and experienced researchers engaged in mixed-methods research.

Short CV

Ariana Polyviou is a Lecturer at the Department of Management, Entrepreneurship and Digital Business, Cyprus University of Technology. Her research focuses on digital business strategy, digital transformation, technology policy, digital entrepreneurship, and technology decision-making. Her work has been published in journals including the Journal of the Association of Information Systems (JAIS), Journal of Information Technology, Information Systems Frontiers, Information Technology & People and others. She is currently a member of the editorial boards of the European Journal of Information Systems and the Behaviour & Information Technology. She has served as a guest editor for various special issues in Information Systems journals and committee member for the organization of Information Systems conferences over multiple years. Her academic work has been recognized by the AIS Mid-Career Award 2024.