Hermeneutical exegesis in information systems design and use Richard J. Boland a , Mike Newman b,c, * , Brian T. Pentland d a Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio 44106, USA b Manchester Business School, University of Manchester, UK c Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration, Bergen, Norway d Eli Broad Graduate School of Management, Michigan State University N259 Business Complex East Lansing, MI 48824-1122, USA article info Article history: Received 27 June 2008 Received in revised form 7 September 2009 Accepted 14 September 2009 Keywords: Hermeneutics Interpretation Exegesis Biblical criticism Hermeneutic circle Organizational texts Information systems development Semantic web abstract Interpreting texts is central to information systems practice and research. The entire process of developing and using information systems involves interpretation, from the earliest statements of functional requirements, through the testing of prototypes, to the engagement with a completed system. Here, we present a frame- work for locating six techniques of exegesis (textual criticism, lin- guistic criticism, literary criticism, historical criticism, Form criticism and redaction criticism) in the hermeneutic circle and applying them to some problems of interpretation that are central to information systems development and use. We first apply this hermeneutical exegesis framework to the interpretation of a tex- tual fragment of a computer system development project in an American insurance company, and show how the six techniques of exegesis can each serve as an entry point in the hermeneutic cir- cle and open up the possibility for meaningful interpretations that can improve system development. We then apply the hermeneuti- cal exegesis framework to the proposed development of a ‘‘seman- tic web”, revealing some of the limitations of this venture. In both these settings, we argue that the problem of interpretation is fun- damental to information system design and use, and that the her- meneutical exegesis framework is a systematic approach for addressing it. Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1471-7727/$ - see front matter Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.infoandorg.2009.09.001 * Corresponding author. Address: Manchester Business School, Division of Accounting and Finance, Room M29, Crawford House, Manchester M13 9PL, UK. Tel.: + 44 161 275 4003; fax: +44 161 275 4023. E-mail addresses: boland@case.edu (R.J. Boland), mike.newman@manchester.ac.uk (M. Newman), pentland@bus.msu.edu (B.T. Pentland). Information and Organization 20 (2010) 1–20 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Information and Organization journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/infoandorg