ABSTRACT
In this chapter we provide an overview of Affordance Theory, and provide guidance to IS researchers on how to use it properly and productively in their research. We start by examining the core features of Gibson’s original theory and considering some of the challenges we encounter when translating it from ecological psychology to IS. We then distill these observations into six principles for appropriately applying an affordance lens for IS research, after which we discuss three unresolved issues and our views on how these might be addressed. The chapter then comments on the critical realist underpinnings of affordance theory, and how researchers who are not critical realists might utilize an affordance lens nonetheless. It concludes by identifying research opportunities enabled by the application of an affordance lens, and the observation that by finally having a tool that allows us to include the IT artifact appropriately, our theories become of real value to practitioners.
