Design Science in the Information Systems Discipline: An Introduction to the Special Issue on Design Science Research

MIS Quarterly ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 725 ◽  
Author(s):  
March ◽  
Storey
2013 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Matti Rossi ◽  
Ola Henfridsson ◽  
Kalle Lyytinen ◽  
Keng Siau

In this introductory piece to the special issue on design science research (DSR) in information systems, the authors probe the past research in DSR, introduce the papers in the special issue, discuss their contributions to the field, and conclude the paper by highlighting some potential directions for future research. To provide a good overview of the research domain, the authors review the key research approaches (or processes) that have been proposed and identify the concrete products of DSR that come in the form of artifacts. As the production of artifact is only part of the DSR process, the authors discuss the role of theorizing about these results and propose avenues for future design-oriented research. It is the authors’ strong belief that DSR should be at the heart of information systems discipline because it invites people to research the issues surrounding the development and organizational implementation of new systems.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
NH Thuan ◽  
Andreas Drechsler ◽  
Pedro Antunes

© 2019 by the Association for Information Systems. Posing research questions represents a fundamental step to guide and direct how researchers develop knowledge in research. In design science research (DSR), researchers need to pose research questions to define the scope and the modes of inquiry, characterize the artifacts, and communicate the contributions. Despite the importance of research questions, research provides few guidelines on how to construct suitable DSR research questions. We fill this gap by exploring ways of constructing DSR research questions and analyzing the research questions in a sample of 104 DSR publications. We found that about two-thirds of the analyzed DSR publications actually used research questions to link their problem statements to research approaches and that most questions focused on solving problems. Based on our analysis, we derive a typology of DSR question formulation to provide guidelines and patterns that help researchers formulate research questions when conducting their DSR projects.


Author(s):  
Rafael A. Gonzalez ◽  
Henk G. Sol

Validation within design science research in Information Systems (DSRIS) is much debated. The relationship of validation to artifact evaluation is still not clear. This chapter aims at elucidating several components of DSRIS in relation to validation. The role of theory and theorizing are an important starting point, because there is no agreement as to what types of theory should be produced. Moreover, if there is a theoretical contribution, then there needs to be clear guidance as to how the designed artifact and its evaluation are related to the theory and its validation. The epistemological underpinnings of DSRIS are also open to different alternatives, including positivism, interpretivism, and pragmatism, which affect the way that the validation strategy is conceived, and later on, accepted or rejected. The type of reasoning guiding a DSRIS endeavor, whether deductive, inductive, or abductive, should also be considered as it determines the fundamental logic behind any research validation. Once those choices are in place, artifact evaluation may be carried out, depending on the type of artifact and the type of technique available. Finally, the theoretical contribution may be validated from a formative (process-oriented) or summative (product-oriented) perspective.


Author(s):  
Nadhmi Gazem ◽  
Azizah Abdul Rahman ◽  
Faisal Saeed ◽  
Noorminshah A. Iahad

This article contends that design science research (DSR) has emerged as an important approach in information systems (IS) research. The design science research roadmap (DSRR) model describes the process of using the DSR in IS in great detail. Unfortunately, the existing literature does not address the task of demonstrating the use of the DSRR in detail by conducting a real case study. This article aims to examine the implementation of the DSRR with real IS research activities. The construction of a systematic innovation framework to solve problems for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) is used as a case study for demonstration purposes. This article shows that the DSRR provides very useful guidance, since it covers almost all the necessary steps to conduct DSR in the information systems field. The illustrations provided with each step of the DSRR in this article will help other researchers, especially novice researchers, to gain a comprehensive understanding of the use of the DSRR model.


10.28945/2143 ◽  
2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas Drechsler

This paper identifies areas in the design science research (DSR) subfield of the information systems (IS) discipline where a more detailed consideration of practitioner audiences of socio-technical design artifacts could improve current IS DSR research practice and proposes an initial conceptualization of these audiences. The consequences of not considering artifact audiences are identified through a critical appraisal of the current informing science lenses in the IS DSR literature. There are specific shortcomings in four areas: 1) treating practice stakeholders as a too homogeneous group, 2) not explicitly distinguishing between social and technical parts of socio-technical artifacts, 3) neglecting implications of the artifact abstraction level, and 4) a lack of explicit consideration of a dynamic or evolutionary fitness perspective of socio-technical artifacts. The findings not only pave the way for future research to further improve the conceptualization of artifact audiences, in order to improve the informing power – and thus, impact on practice and research relevance – of IS DSR projects; they can also help to bridge the theory-practice gap in other disciplines (e.g. computer science, engineering, or policy-oriented sociology) that seek to produce social and/or technical artifacts of practical relevance. A revised version of this paper was published in Informing Science: the International Journal of an Emerging Transdiscipline, Volume 18, 2015


Author(s):  
Arkin Efeoglu ◽  
Jie Gong ◽  
Jakob Kristoffersen ◽  
Søren Juul ◽  
Robert Winter ◽  
...  

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