Developing Design Propositions through Research Synthesis

Abstract

The field of organization and management studies has a significant and ever increasing published research base, often criticized as fragmented and of limited relevance for practice. A design science approach to management has argued that more room for the development of solution-oriented or prescriptive knowledge would increase its relevance. In this article we discuss prescriptive knowledge cast in the form of design propositions following the so-called 'CIMO-logic', extending previous applications of the design proposition notion. This logic involves a combination of a problematic Context, for which the design proposition suggests a certain Intervention type, to produce, through specified generative Mechanisms, the intended Outcome(s). We discuss how design-oriented research synthesis provides a vehicle for addressing fragmentation and increasing the chances of application. Moreover, we explore how the development of design propositions can result from synthesizing previously published research and illustrate this with the design of high-reliability organizations (HROs).

Effects of Business Model Development Projects on Organizational Culture: A Multiple Case Study of SMEs

“…The last phase is to draw cases together using CIMO logic to increase the practical relevance of solution-orientated prescriptive knowledge by problematic Context (C), Intervention type (I), generative Mechanism (M) and the Intended outcome(s) (O) (Denyer et al, 2008), to reveal interventions, implied effects, and effects on the case company's organizational culture. Organizational culture changes are not necessarily intended outcomes, but rather the needed side effect of business model development.…”

“…A questionnaire is filled in by the respondent during an interview focused on explaining the reasons behind any changes in culture type. Finally, we used CIMO logic (context, intervention, mechanism, outcome) (Denyer et al, 2008) to explore intervention effects and synthesize information from the practical project work. CIMO logic has been used in other studies to draw causal relationships between an intervention and the outcome within a particular context (Bougharas et al, 2010;Brouwer et al, 2012;Rajwani et al, 2015;Pries-Heje & Baskerville, 2010).…”

“…CIMO logic (cf. Denyer et al, 2008) applied to the participative business model development processes of the three case companies: Ergo-Kalusteet, Chasswheel, and Autorobot (Eskelinen et al, 2017) www.timreview.ca…”

Bridging the gap between theory and practice in management accounting

“…As all academic disciplines are different, the methodology for conducting systematic literature reviews which has developed in recent decades in engineering and medical sciences, may not be transferred unadjusted to management or management accounting disciplines (Briner et al, 2009, p. 26;Denyer et al, 2008). First, in management accounting defining which studies are useful as a basis for making practical recommendations will be more complex than in engineering and in medicine.…”

Alliance strategy: context, process, and requirements

“…The role of content shifts from descriptive-explanatory theory development towards understanding of a network's challenges and associated journey. The fourth philosophy enables development of improvement-oriented theory (which interventions will work under which conditions (Denyer et al, 2008)) and implementation (how do results relate to the context and original challenges) (Cederlund, 2015).…”