Rethinking Design Theory in Information Systems

Design Theory has been written about extensively in InformationSystems (IS), but remains heavily problematic. Some researchers explicitly excludedesign theory as an outcome of Design Science Research (DSR), othersdisagree about the form and purpose of design theories, many consider designtheories to...

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Main Author: Venable, John
Other Authors: Jan vom Brocke
Format: Conference Paper
Published: Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2013
Subjects:
Online Access:http://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2F978-3-642-38827-9_10.pdf
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/49261
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author Venable, John
author2 Jan vom Brocke
author_facet Jan vom Brocke
Venable, John
author_sort Venable, John
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Design Theory has been written about extensively in InformationSystems (IS), but remains heavily problematic. Some researchers explicitly excludedesign theory as an outcome of Design Science Research (DSR), othersdisagree about the form and purpose of design theories, many consider designtheories to be too complicated to construct, some journal editors and researchersgive low priority to design theory, and very few DSR publications propose designtheories.This paper reviews and critically examines the IS literature on design theories,the nature of technological design artefacts compared to phenomena in thenatural, biological, and social domains, and whether design theory is ‘prescriptive’or ‘explanatory’.Using a DSR approach, the paper makes recommendations concerning theform and use of design theory, in order to move toward a resolution of the disagreementsabout design theory and progress the development of clearer andmore useful formalisations of knowledge for practical use.
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institution Curtin University Malaysia
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publishDate 2013
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-492612023-02-13T08:01:36Z Rethinking Design Theory in Information Systems Venable, John Jan vom Brocke Riitta Hekkala Sudha Ram Matti Rossi Utility Theory Information - System Design Science Research Design Theory Design Theory has been written about extensively in InformationSystems (IS), but remains heavily problematic. Some researchers explicitly excludedesign theory as an outcome of Design Science Research (DSR), othersdisagree about the form and purpose of design theories, many consider designtheories to be too complicated to construct, some journal editors and researchersgive low priority to design theory, and very few DSR publications propose designtheories.This paper reviews and critically examines the IS literature on design theories,the nature of technological design artefacts compared to phenomena in thenatural, biological, and social domains, and whether design theory is ‘prescriptive’or ‘explanatory’.Using a DSR approach, the paper makes recommendations concerning theform and use of design theory, in order to move toward a resolution of the disagreementsabout design theory and progress the development of clearer andmore useful formalisations of knowledge for practical use. 2013 Conference Paper http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/49261 http://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2F978-3-642-38827-9_10.pdf Springer Berlin Heidelberg restricted
spellingShingle Utility Theory
Information - System
Design Science Research
Design Theory
Venable, John
Rethinking Design Theory in Information Systems
title Rethinking Design Theory in Information Systems
title_full Rethinking Design Theory in Information Systems
title_fullStr Rethinking Design Theory in Information Systems
title_full_unstemmed Rethinking Design Theory in Information Systems
title_short Rethinking Design Theory in Information Systems
title_sort rethinking design theory in information systems
topic Utility Theory
Information - System
Design Science Research
Design Theory
url http://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2F978-3-642-38827-9_10.pdf
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/49261