Two Hurdles to Take for Maximum Impact of Design Science Research in the IS-Field

Conducting and publishing design science research

“…The proposed design needs further elaboration and field testing, but the article still illustrates important aspects of social system design. By itself, this is not fundamentally different from material system design (van Aken, 2014) in that one makes a model of a to‐be‐realized process or system on the basis of certain analyses and design requirements in a process of synthesis‐evaluation cycles. The fundamental differences are the testing of the design “on paper”, the actual building of the system, and the degree to which the design determines system behavior and performance.…”

“…These issues are not present, or less important, in the design of material systems because in the material domain there are invariant, universal, individual behavior‐determining mechanisms linking cause with effect, action with outcome. These will be called “strong mechanisms ” (van Aken, 2014). Galileo, for example, needed only one drop test to prove that light balls fall equally fast as big ones.…”

Inventory diagnosis for flow improvement—A design science approach

“…Yet, although the framework for flow problem diagnosis provides a first solution for identifying the causes of inventory in an organization, on its own this may be too abstract to be applied directly by managers. As such, solving flow problems is not just a matter of logical deduction based on the application of generic knowledge but requires further design (Van Aken, 2014; van Aken & Romme, 2012). Hence, a diagnosis process for applying the framework to organizations is also needed.…”