Enhancing Design Science through Empirical Knowledge: Framework and Application

The discourse about differences between behavioral and design science still attains wide interest in the information systems research community. While design-oriented research is repeatedly subject to criticism on account of lacking transparency and rigor, behavioral research is fighting against the accusation of little relevance. It would be highly desirable to overcome the shortcomings of design science by using existing theories, empirical knowledge, etc. within the design of an artifact. For that purpose, we present a framework that shows how different ways of applying empirical knowledge can put the research of design scientists on a better grounding and thus improve the rigor of design science. Specifically we point out, how design science can be performed more rigorously on the basis of our framework by empirically motivating, guiding, evaluating, and analyzing design science research. To illustrate the application of our framework, we will provide an example from the domain of information security.