Reconciling Theories with Design Choices in Design Science Research

Despite increased acceptance of design science research, concerns about rigor and relevance permeate the research community. One way to increase rigor is by codifying design knowledge into design theories. While this idea is gaining popularity, it is unclear how to approach design theorizing in a scientifically rigorous, yet practically relevant, way. In this paper, we address one particularly murky issue in design science research: reconciling theoretical abstractness with practicality. Since many design theories are moderately abstract, a gap exists between theoretical propositions and concrete issues faced in practice. We present a case study of real information system (IS) development where these issues become evident. Based on the identified issues we provide four theory-driven recommendations including specification of transformational rules, developing or imagining a real IS artifact, specification of boundary conditions and over-specification of the theoretical core. The consequences of these recommendations for design science theorizing are discussed.