Design Science Research in Information Systems. Advances in Theory and Practice

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.


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

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