Addressing the Practical Impact of Design Science Research
Abstract
Design science research (DSR) has established itself as an integral and continuously evolving part of information systems research. Aspects that recently became apparent are what design knowledge is and how it should be communicated to achieve a high impact. However, the question remains, whether DSR contributions find their way into practice. In this research in progress paper, we open and conceptualize the problem space (an assumed lack of practical impact) and conduct a systematic literature review of DSR literature to survey DSR researchers about their perception of a practical impact. The results show that DSR researchers think that their created artifacts either already found their way into practice or will in the future, but more measures are necessary to increase their impact. To ground this perception and further conceptualize the problem space, more steps are necessarily leading to our overall goal: a framework to position DSR research for maximum practical impact.
Keywords
Design science research; practical impact; practice; ivory tower; text mining