How Relevant is Fieldwork to DSS Design-Science Research?

Arnott, D.; Pervan, Graham

doi:10.3233/978-1-60750-577-8-108

Access Status

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Authors

Arnott, D.

Pervan, Graham

Date

2010

Type

Conference Paper

Metadata

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Citation

Arnott, David and Pervan, Graham. 2010. How Relevant is Fieldwork to DSS Design-Science Research?, in Respicio, A. and Adam, F. and Phillips-Wren, G. and Teixeira, C. and Telhada, J. (ed), DSS 2010: The 15th IFIP WG 8.3 International Conference on Decision Support Systems: Bridging the Socio-technical Gap in Decision Support Systems - Challenges for the Next Decade, Jul 7 2010, pp. 108-119. Lisbon, Portugal: Institute of Physics (IOS).

Source Title

Proceedings of the Bridging the Socio-technical Gap in Decision Support Systems 2010 - the 15th IFIP WG 8.3 International Conference

Source Conference

Bridging the Socio-technical Gap in Decision Support Systems 2010 - the 15th IFIP WG 8.3 International Conference

DOI

10.3233/978-1-60750-577-8-108

ISBN

9781607505778

School

School of Information Systems

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/41296

Collection

Curtin Research Publications

Abstract

Recent reviews of DSS research have indicated a need to improve its quality and relevance. Design science has an important role to play in this improvement as this research strategy can engage industry and the profession in intellectually important projects. DSS has a long history of design science, although most of this research was not conducted under this rubric. Recent publications have clarified what is required for quality outcomes in IS design science. A central issue in these publications is the evaluation of the design artifact, especially the use of the artifact in a field setting. Successful fieldwork is perhaps the most difficult, and most rewarding, aspect of design science. This paper presents research that used bibliometric content analysis to examine evaluation strategies, especially fieldwork, in a representative sample of 362 DSS design-science papers in 14 journals. The analysis found that DSS design-science papers whose artifacts are used in actual field environments are of significantly higher quality, have significantly higher organizational impact, and have significantly higher relevance with both IS professionals and managers. The major conclusion is that rigorous fieldwork should be the ultimate goal of DSS design-science evaluation.