Insights into Practitioner Design Science Research

Building on two previous papers that focused on the concept of Practitioner Design Science Research [1, 2], this paper: (i) presents the Practitioners Design Science Research (PDSR) Canvas, a visual guide for practitioners undertaking DSR, and (ii) utilises it as a lens to analyse the insights of 48 practitioners on their DSR journey. Data is primarily gathered from 48 practitioners, of which, 34 have completed a 12-month Design Science Research study, with the other 14 in the final stages of their journey. This unique practitioner perspective further develops the novel concept of PDSR which enables practitioners to engage with the academic community and not the other way around. Key findings show that practitioners have challenges with the practical (relevance) aspects of DSR as well as the research (rigour) aspects. Nonetheless, the analysis indicates that with a clear depiction of DSR, the gap between practice and research may not be as difficult to bridge as previously thought. However, this requires the IS community to rethink their definition of engaged scholarship from one that solely focuses on the academic as the researcher to one that also includes the practitioner.