Multi-criteria Selection in Design Science Projects - A Procedure for Selecting Foresight Methods at the Front End of Innovation

In order to identify the best option(s) out of a set of alternatives selection procedures are used in many different fields of application. Depending on the respective setting and research domain, developing or selecting an appropriate selection procedure is a complex and challenging task. This paper proposes a procedure for selecting a set of options out of a large amount of alternatives. The procedure is used within a Design Science Context. It has been developed, applied and evaluated in the course of a current research project addressing the highly dynamic Front End of Innovation. This represents a classic "wicked" and challenging Design Science problem. The selection procedure proposed in this paper can serve as a reference framework for other Design Science based projects in similar "wicked" application domains, where a theory-and practice-based definition of selection criteria and a structured evaluation process requires comprehensive domain knowledge and deep practical insights.