Restructuring the design science research knowledge base: A one-cycle view of design science research and its consequences for understanding organizational design problems

Abstract

The contribution of this paper is twofold. We revisit the three-cycle procedural view of Design Science Research (DSR) as introduced by Hevner, and we propose a structuring mechanism for the DSR Knowledge Base (KB) and the problem/context specification that supports our revisited DSR procedure. Regarding the first contribution, we argue that each design cycle has rigor related as well as relevance related aspects. We therefore introduce a one-cycle view of DSR, comprised of alternating core activities design and evaluation. With every iteration, the understanding of the environment and the problem to be solved are enhanced. Additionally, every design iteration allows for revisiting the Knowledge Base in order to improve the problem solution. Concerning the second contribution, we propose to structure the DSR KB by means of two two-dimensional maps to support an efficient search for existing, reusable solution artifacts. One map concerns the application scope; the other one concerns the artifact character. Solution artifacts are then organized with regard to their type, generality, application domain and coverage. We demonstrate the applicability of the proposed DSR KB structure using the domain of change projects in organizations as an exemplar.