Knowledge contributions in design science research: Paths of knowledge types

Abstract

Design science research addresses important, complex real-world problems. Although well-accepted as part of research in information systems, initiating or progressing a design science research project still requires effort to describe how knowledge creation emerges and its underlying dynamics. Given the existing body of knowledge on design science research, it should be possible to learn from that knowledge to progress future work. This paper analyzes design science research projects to identify and make explicit their knowledge contributions while recognizing the plurality of a project's knowledge contributions with respect to a project's knowledge scope and knowledge goals. The construct of a path of knowledge types is introduced that represents how knowledge contributions are dynamically created throughout a project. These paths form the basis for the derivation of seven design science research strategies, which lead to guidelines for initiating or progressing a project. This effort is compared to other research that analyzes the growing body of work in design science with respect to knowledge contributions and project classifications.