Guidelines for establishing instantiation validity in IT artifacts: A survey of IS research

Abstract

The centrality of information technology (IT) artifacts in Information Systems (IS) research makes it important to understand the relationship between artifacts and the theoretical constructs they purport to instantiate. Despite the central role of the IT artifact in IS research, there are no generally accepted principles for establishing instantiation validity – the extent to which an artifact is a valid instantiation of a theoretical construct or a manifestation of a design principle. We survey relevant knowledge in IS and identify potential guidelines that may address threats to instantiation validity. The guidelines are intended for researchers and reviewers when using IT artifacts in theory testing and when evaluating design science artifacts.