Research approach in enterprise engineering: A matter of engineering

Abstract

Enterprises encounter serious problems in keeping pace with ever faster changing markets. Enterprise Engineering (EE) is an emerging field that is promising in providing solutions. Doing research in this field, requires choosing an appropriate research method for different parts of the research. This is the composition of the research method from known research methods, we call this engineering of the research approach. We structure available methods, approaches and techniques for qualitative research in information systems. We describe three epistemologies and discuss the different qualitative research methods and differences and similarities between them. For our research on EE that applies transaction cost economics in designing enterprises using the notions of Enterprise Ontology and Enterprise Architecture we combine a positivist approach during literature study with an interpretivist approach during Action Research. © 2013 Springer-Verlag.