Evaluation in design science: A framework to support project studies in the context of University Research Centres

This paper proposes a discussion of the evaluation of an artefact developed under the Design Science paradigm using the Delphi method. It evaluates the Ecosystem framework of University Research Centres in Project Studies, considering a set of criteria pre-established in the literature. The Delphi method is an evaluation implemented in an electronic platform involving twenty-one participants, among whom were academics, practitioners, and PhD candidates in the field of project management. It reached consensus and stability in two rounds: the results indicate a consensus among the participants in the applicability, novelty, simplicity, completeness, fidelity to modelled phenomena, consistency and internal coherence, scalability, flexibility, interest, elegance, and reusability criteria. Usability was the only criterion that did not attain the predefined percentage of consensus among the participants (70%). Given the framework's characteristics, Delphi participants indicated the need to produce complementary guidelines for its implementation.

Explanatory Interactive Machine Learning

The most promising standard machine learning methods can deliver highly accurate classification results, often outperforming standard white-box methods. However, it is hardly possible for humans to fully understand the rationale behind the black-box results, and thus, these powerful methods hamper the creation of new knowledge on the part of humans and the broader acceptance of this technology. Explainable Artificial Intelligence attempts to overcome this problem by making the results more interpretable, while Interactive Machine Learning integrates humans into the process of insight discovery. The paper builds on recent successes in combining these two cutting-edge technologies and proposes how Explanatory Interactive Machine Learning (XIL) is embedded in a generalizable Action Design Research (ADR) process – called XIL-ADR. This approach can be used to analyze data, inspect models, and iteratively improve them. The paper shows the application of this process using the diagnosis of viral pneumonia, e.g., Covid-19, as an illustrative example. By these means, the paper also illustrates how XIL-ADR can help identify shortcomings of standard machine learning projects, gain new insights on the part of the human user, and thereby can help to unlock the full potential of AI-based systems for organizations and research.

Search and Evaluation of Coevolving Problem and Solution Spaces in a Complex Healthcare Design Science Research Project

This research employs design ethnography to study the design process of a design science research (DSR) project conducted over eight years. The DSR project focuses on chronic wounds and how Information Technology (IT) might support the management of those wounds. Since this is a new and complex problem not previously addressed by IT, it requires an exploration and discovery process. As such, we found that traditional DSR methodologies were not well-suited to guiding the design process. Instead we discovered that focusing on search, and in particular, the co-evolution of the problem and solution spaces, provides a much better focus for managing the DSR design process. The presentation of our findings from the ethnographic study includes a new representation for capturing the co-evolving problem/solution spaces, an illustration of the search process and co-evolving problem/solution spaces using the DSR project we studied, the need for changes in the purpose of DSR evaluation activities when using a search-focused design process, and how our proposed process extends and augments current DSR methodologies. Studying the DSR design process generates the knowledge that research project managers need for managing and guiding a DSR project, and contributes to our knowledge of the design process for research-oriented projects.

Managerial Relevance Statement

From a managerial perspective, studying the design process provides the knowledge that research project managers need for managing and guiding DSR projects. In particular, research project managers can guide the search process by understanding when and why to explore different search spaces, to expand the solutions investigated, and to focus on promising solutions and to evaluate them. Overall, this research contributes to our knowledge of design and the design process, especially for highly research-oriented problems and solutions.

Design, Development, and Evaluation of an Automated Solution for Electronic Information Exchange Between Acute and Long-term Postacute Care Facilities: Design Science Research

BACKGROUND

Information exchange is essential for transitioning high-quality care between care settings. Inadequate or delayed information exchange can result in medication errors, missed test results, considerable delays in care, and even readmissions. Unfortunately, long-term and postacute care facilities often lag behind other health care facilities in adopting health information technologies, increasing difficulty in facilitating care transitions through electronic information exchange. The research gap is most evident when considering the implications of the inability to electronically transfer patients' health records between these facilities.

OBJECTIVE

This study aimed to design and evaluate an open standards-based interoperability solution that facilitates seamless bidirectional information exchange between acute care and long-term and postacute care facilities using 2 vendor electronic health record (EHR) systems.

METHODS

Using the design science research methodology, we designed an interoperability solution that improves the bidirectional information exchange between acute care and long-term care (LTC) facilities using different EHR systems. Different approaches were applied in the study with a focus on the relevance cycle, including eliciting detailed requirements from stakeholders in the health system who understand the complex data formats, constraints, and workflows associated with transferring patient records between 2 different EHR systems. We performed literature reviews and sought experts in the health care industry from different organizations with a focus on the rigor cycle to identify the components relevant to the interoperability solution. The design cycle focused on iterating between the core activities of implementing and evaluating the proposed artifact. The artifact was evaluated at a health care organization with a combined footprint of acute and postacute care operations using 2 different EHR systems.

RESULTS

The resulting interoperability solution offered integrations with source systems and was proven to facilitate bidirectional information exchange for patients transferring between an acute care facility using an Epic EHR system and an LTC facility using a PointClickCare EHR system. This solution serves as a proof of concept for bidirectional data exchange between Epic and PointClickCare for medications, yet the solution is designed to expand to additional data elements such as allergies, problem lists, and diagnoses.

CONCLUSIONS

Historically, the interoperability topic has centered on hospital-to-hospital data exchange, making it more challenging to evaluate the efficacy of data exchange between other care settings. In acute and LTC settings, there are differences in patients' needs and delivery of care workflows that are distinctly unique. In addition, the health care system's components that offer long-term and acute care in the United States have evolved independently and separately. This study demonstrates that the interoperability solution improves the information exchange between acute and LTC facilities by simplifying data transfer, eliminating manual processes, and reducing data discrepancies using a design science research methodology.

Towards an Integrative View on Design Science Research Genres, Strategies, and Pivotal Concepts in Information Systems Research

Design science research (DSR) has been established as an essential part of information systems research. DSR can provide artificial solutions and prescriptive knowledge about how to solve problems relevant to our modern times. However, DSR has been reported to be in a state of "conceptual confusion." Thus, an ongoing and open discourse regarding how to overcome the causes of this confusion has arisen. Several causes and solutions have been proposed, ranging from conceptualizations of contributions, publication schemas, to the formulation of research strategies and genres. Prominently, the persisting confusion frequently leads editors and reviewers to assess the same study's merit substantially differently, depending on the individual editor's and reviewer's understanding of and preferences for DSR. Consequently, publishing DSR studies is challenging. Against this background, we propose DSR focus as a two-dimensional characteristic of a DSR study, comprising the two dimensions "contribution" and "research approach." Furthermore, we present a DSR focus matrix (DSRFM) as a framework and tool to describe the DSR focus of a study and identify relevant seminal work. Following this framework enables a grounded discussion with editors and reviewers, thus preventing diverting understandings and preferences that may skew the assessment of a study. We demonstrate this ability by positioning research strategies, genres, and seminal works within the matrix's quadrants.

An exposition of the constructive research approach: a tactical treatise for addressing methodological and practical issues in organisational research

Purpose

This paper aims to provide an exposition of the constructive research approach (CRA) to show the potential utility of CRA in transcending or mitigating the methodological and practical issues involved in researching organisations.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper is a literature review, and resulting thematic discussion of methodological and practical issues involves in action research (AR) in organisations through the lens of the CRA approach.

Findings

The paper identifies that CRA has benefits in orientation to a practical outcome grounded in a theoretical domain but with leeway to facilitate creativity, which can also potentially improve the quality of the collaborative relationships. The centrality of the construction within the method provides a “vantage point” to manage the emic (inside) and etic (outside) positionality concerns of action researchers working within organisational settings.

Practical implications

CRA has multiple practical benefits for action researchers and their collaborators in terms of time, risk and collaborative commitment.

Originality/value

The paper develops a useful tactical framework for discussing the practical and methodological issues when considering AR in organisations and highlights how CRA can be used in wider organisational scholarship outside its roots in management accounting.

Assessing organizational health-analytics readiness: artifacts based on elaborated action design method

Purpose

While the adoption of health-analytics (HA) is expanding, not every healthcare organization understands the factors impacting its readiness for HA. An assessment of HA-readiness helps guide organizational strategy and the realization of business value. Past research on HA has not included a comprehensive set of readiness-factors and assessment methods. This study’s objective is to design artifacts to assess the HA-readiness of hospitals.

Design/methodology/approach

The information-systems (IS) theory and methodology entail the iterative Elaborated Action Design Research (EADR)method, combined with cross-sectional field studies involving 14 healthcare organizations and 27 participants. The researchers determine factors and leverage multi-criteria decision-making techniques to assess HA-readiness.

Findings

The artifacts emerging from this research include: (1) a map of readiness factors, (2) multi-criteria decision-making techniques that assess the readiness levels on the factors, the varying levels of factor-importance and the inter-factor relationships and (3) an instantiated system. The in-situ evaluation shows how these artifacts can provide insights and strategic direction to an organization through collective knowledge from stakeholders.

Originality/value

This study finds new factors influencing HA-readiness, validates the well-known and details their industry-specific nuances. The methods used in this research yield a well-rounded HA readiness-assessment (HARA) approach and offer practical insights to hospitals.

Information systems as a nexus of information technology systems: A new view of information systems practice

The close relationship between the concepts of information systems and information technology creates issues for researchers. Usefully distinguishing between the concepts is problematic. We investigate the use of the systems concept in practice, finding a pragmatic distinction between an information system (IS) and an information technology system (IT system). In a practice view, an IS incorporates an emphasis on both a technical and a social subsystem, while an IT system predominantly emphasizes the technical elements. This distinction becomes useful in practice because contemporary IS practitioners are often involved in acquiring and integrating IT systems into an organizational IS. This involvement leads to a viewpoint on the organizational IS (including the social subsystem) as a nexus of multiple IT systems. This nexus creates issues in practice for not only integrating IT systems into the organizational IS, but also integrating multiple IT systems with each other in the context of the organizational IS. These issues lead to research opportunities such as the need for new methodologies for IT system acquisitions and new theories that accommodate the social integration of IT systems and IS.

Risk Compliance and Master Data Management in Banking – A novel BCBS 239 compliance action-plan proposal

For some years now, master data has become extremely relevant to business success and continuity in an increasingly competitive and global business environment. The banking sector is one example of how the implementation of well-structured and designed master data management policies and initiatives is crucial for reaching positive results. One of the areas in which banks need to ensure extremely fruitful master data management approaches and data governance procedures is when dealing with risk-related data, as it not only ensures accurate and well-supported management and decision-making, but also because banks are required to do so by imposed regulations, such as the BCBS 239. Drawing on a DSR methodology supported research project, where banking and IS-related expertise was continuously merged with existing theoretical knowledge on MDM and BCBS 239 related topics, and a permanent focus on the technical and functional complexity associated with implementing master data management and well-established data governance procedures that ensure regulatory compliance, we propose a novel, six-phase action plan that will allow banks to ensure compliance with BCBS 239 and, consequently, ensure efficient and effective risk data management and reporting.

The Potential of Digitally Enabled Disaster Education for Sustainable Development Goals

A sustainable and resilient local community requires a learning culture that allows them to evolve over time. Disaster education in this context is expected to be an important element for local communities. Conventionally, disaster education in Japan is provided in elementary and junior high school as an evacuation drill. After that age, the attachment with the local community becomes relatively low, which we call the black box of disaster education. This paper reports on a practical research project in Muroran City, Japan. It aimed to use digital technology to involve high school students in a disaster education program. Officials in Muroran City have been struggling with collecting young people to participate in a community leader development program for disaster risk reduction (DRR). The research project employed a cloud-based learning platform in order to appeal to high school students. A set of three workshops was conducted from November to December 2021. Three out of the five categories of DRR consciousness increased after the workshop, namely, imagination, mutual aid and interest. We observed that participants’ mindsets and behaviors changed during the workshop activities. Digital technology can contribute to context-specific disaster risk education, which we believe is important in designing a sustainable and resilient local community for the 2030s.

Using design science research to propose an IT governance model for higher education institutions

The increasing use of, and dependence on, Information Technology (IT) to support operational teaching, research, and management activities in Higher Education Institutions (HEI)-mainly due to their multi-unit organizational structure-have evidenced the need of encouraging managers to focus more on IT Governance (ITG) effectiveness, which has been an issue for many of these institutions. In this sense, we aim to develop a specific ITG model for Higher Education Institutions, by following the methodological principles of Design Science Research (DSR). The model was developed based on a robust theoretical basis that took into account different approaches substantiated by both the alignment of good practices and ITG focus areas as well as addressing the current ITG context of the Brazilian higher education institutions. The validation of the ITG model was based on its presentation to members of the IT Steering Committee of a Brazilian HEI, who confirmed its usefulness and applicability.

Review of Design-Oriented Green Information Systems Research

Green IS (GIS) research addresses environmental challenges brought on by climate change and the need to preserve the natural environment. Within this scope, design-oriented research, most notably within the Design Science Research (DSR) community, aims to provide solutions to these environmental challenges in the form of novel artifacts. The resulting IS solutions are valuable instruments for reducing emissions, increasing energy efficiency, and mitigating waste. Over the past 14 years, the IS research community was called upon multiple times to focus on designing solutions suitable for facilitating sustainability. However, it is unclear how these calls for action resonated within the design-oriented research community. Against this background, we analyzed the landscape of design-oriented GIS research by looking at 60 different GIS studies that have designed and evaluated an artifact. By analyzing these publications, we were able to make six observations. Based on these observations, we discuss how design-oriented GIS research can evolve to live up to the expectations of creating an immediate positive environmental impact.

Projectability and Heritage Management of Design Knowledge: A Grass-Roots Artefact Perspective of a Longitudinal Research Project for Knowledge Management System Innovation

This article expands on design science-research (DSR) publications which—based on current knowledge management systems (KM/KMS) and practices—are conceptualizing and prototyping a novel more generative and knowledge-worker-centric approach just presented as a desirable sustainable KMS vision. The perspective taken follows up on recent systematic literature reviews and content analysis studies reporting on the poor knowledge accumulation and evolution in the design, information science, and KM disciplines. Proposed remedies and initiatives are pitched against the novel KMS development case with its longitudinal stream of research output. As the design and creation of complex innovative artefacts facing ‘wicked’ challenges are seldom complemented by concurrent research papers, rare insights are offered of how similar longitudinal DSR or KMS projects may be structured and of how the related domain’s heritage knowledge base and its fitness-for-use-and-evolution may be strengthened. Due to the cycles and progression of its prior publications, this case study is particularly suited to contribute to cumulative research synthesis and, hence, further focusses on the recently proposed notions of projecting and projectability for evaluating distances between actual real-world environments and future possible-world application-ecosystems—a perspective which may become essential acceptance criteria for publishing in DSR-related conferences and journal publishing outlets.

Designing an innovative unified contextual architecture for improving information retrieval service in healthcare organizations

Designing effective methods of retrieving evidence-based clinical information for healthcare professionals’ decision making have always been challenging tasks for researchers in this field. Relevant existing studies have indicated significant limitations of implementing context-sensitive information retrieval services in healthcare organizations, but attempts are yet at their emergent stage for designing research-based solutions. In this paper, we design a new information retrieval architecture as a solution artifact useful in healthcare organizations for improving their information retrieval practices. Under the design science research paradigm, we outline a combined methodology that comprises design science research, design thinking and systems thinking for operating an iterative guiding process for developing and evaluating the new information retrieval approach. A total of 13 requirements that are linked to user-oriented theory of information need and fitness-utility model are captured. The new architecture is evaluated for its usefulness and fitness-utility using multi-case in-depth interviews that satisfy formalizing prescriptive knowledge on information retrieval.

Digital transformation of legionella-safe cooling towers: an ecosystem design approach

Purpose

Legionnaires’ disease is a major threat to public health. Solutions to deal with this problem are usually siloed and not entirely effective. This paper aims to model the information requirements of legionella-safe cooling towers in the era of Industry 4.0.

Design/methodology/approach

A year-long design science research was conducted in a cooling tower producer for heavy industries. The project started with a bibliometric analysis and literature review of legionella in cooling towers. Goal modeling techniques are then used to identify the requirements for digital transformation.

Findings

The improvement of legionella prevention, detection and outbreak response in digitally enabled cooling tower should involve different stakeholders. Digital twins and blockchain are disruptive technologies that can transform the cooling tower industry.

Originality/value

For theory, this study revises the most recent advances in legionella protection. Legionella-safe systems must be prepared to anticipate, monitor and immediate alert in case of an outbreak. For practice, this paper presents a distributed and digital architecture for cooling tower safety. However, technology is only a part of outbreak management solutions, requiring trustworthy conditions and real-time communication among stakeholders.

CBA-Based Evaluation Method of the Impact of Defects in Residential Buildings: Assessing Risks towards Making Sustainable Decisions on Continuous Improvement Activities

Evaluating the impact of defects in buildings and ranking the most impactful ones enables construction companies to better choose which paths to take in light of continuous improvement activities to support more sustainable decisions regarding the design and operation of buildings. As a result, the risks of the different choices are more clearly identified while assessing all tangible and intangible aspects of residential building defects in a structured way. Although recent studies on managing construction defects in residential buildings have focused on monetary losses associated with maintenance activities based on the defect’s frequency and severity, these studies do not take into account the levels of customer satisfaction. To address this gap, this paper proposes a novel evaluation method of the impact of defects to support decision-making in managing defect occurrences in residential buildings. The goal is to rank the defects’ impact based on a combination of some critical aspects: frequency of occurrence, financial considerations on repairing such defects, the impact that these defects have on customer satisfaction, and the cost and complexity of preventing and minimizing these defect occurrences through continuous improvement activities. The method consists of a structured set of steps that use data from technical assistance departments and customer satisfaction surveys, where information about the users’ level of satisfaction and the occurrence of defects is available. In this paper, data obtained from a construction company were used to test and validate the proposed method. The method also examines the challenges and barriers associated with the technique and points out that difficulties in acquiring reliable data are a bottleneck for making conscious and sustainable decisions to address construciton defects. Moreover, the case study results highlight essential capabilities needed by companies to correctly assess the impact of defects, such as correctly logging data in a structured database and having skilled personnel to verify defects users might have complained about. The paper ends by proposing a set of guidelines to use the method and stressing that structured methods for decision-making are crucial to analyze construction defects in a structured way while also incorporating the user’s perspective. The proposed method is expected to improve sustainable managerial decisions where economic, environmental, social, and technical risks can be accounted for to enhance the quality of projects from the customer’s perspective. Such analysis can help optimize and prioritize the use of resources and minimize the economic impact of activities on the construction company.

iOntoBioethics: A Framework for the Agile Development of Bioethics Ontologies in Pandemics, Applied to COVID-19

Background: Few ontological attempts have been reported for conceptualizing the bioethics domain. In addition to limited scope representativeness and lack of robust methodological approaches in driving research design and evaluation of bioethics ontologies, no bioethics ontologies exist for pandemics and COVID-19. This research attempted to investigate whether studying the bioethics research literature, from the inception of bioethics research publications, facilitates developing highly agile, and representative computational bioethics ontology as a foundation for the automatic governance of bioethics processes in general and the COVID-19 pandemic in particular.

Research Design: The iOntoBioethics agile research framework adopted the Design Science Research Methodology. Using systematic literature mapping, the search space resulted in 26,170 Scopus indexed bioethics articles, published since 1971. iOntoBioethics underwent two distinctive stages: (1) Manually Constructing Bioethics (MCB) ontology from selected bioethics sources, and (2) Automatically generating bioethics ontological topic models with all 26,170 sources and using special-purpose developed Text Mining and Machine-Learning (TM&ML) engine. Bioethics domain experts validated these ontologies, and further extended to construct and validate the Bioethics COVID-19 Pandemic Ontology.

Results: Cross-validation of the MCB and TM&ML bioethics ontologies confirmed that the latter provided higher-level abstraction for bioethics entities with well-structured bioethics ontology class hierarchy compared to the MCB ontology. However, both bioethics ontologies were found to complement each other forming a highly comprehensive Bioethics Ontology with around 700 concepts and associations COVID-19 inclusive.

Conclusion:The iOntoBioethics framework yielded the first agile, semi-automatically generated, literature-based, and domain experts validated General Bioethics and Bioethics Pandemic Ontologies Operable in COVID-19 context with readiness for automatic governance of bioethics processes. These ontologies will be regularly and semi-automatically enriched as iOntoBioethics is proposed as an open platform for scientific and healthcare communities, in their infancy COVID-19 learning stage. iOntoBioethics not only it contributes to better understanding of bioethics processes, but also serves as a bridge linking these processes to healthcare systems. Such big data analytics platform has the potential to automatically inform bioethics governance adherence given the plethora of developing bioethics and COVID-19 pandemic knowledge. Finally, iOntoBioethics contributes toward setting the first building block for forming the field of “Bioethics Informatics”.

Digital Learning Support for Makers: Integrating Technical Development and Educational Design

Makerspaces have gained momentum, not only due to novel manufacturing technologies but also the need for qualified workforce in production industries. Capacity building should not follow ad hoc procedures or arbitrary project designs to qualify for digital production, but rather should still leave room for creativity. As such, the quest has arisen for structured while empowering guidance of additive manufacturing. This can be of benefit for timely education, not only for qualifying existing workforce in production industries but also to attract students in production-related domains. In this paper, we aim to develop an integrated understanding of technical development and capacity-building support activities. We exemplify the proposed design science approach with a regional makerspace. This provides us with the user-centered evaluation of structuring additive manufacturing along an individualized education scheme. Thereby, additive manufacturing capacity building starts with individual goal setting and structuring requirements for an envisioned solution, which becomes part of a learning contract of a specific project. Learning steps are framed by design science and its stages and cycles, since artifacts can be of various kinds, stemming either from construction, modeling, material selection, or manufacturing. The evaluation study revealed essential benefits in terms of structured planning and individualization of capacity-building processes.

Toward replication study types for design science research

In design science research, two important challenges exist to achieve greater influence in research and practice: (1) foster frequent reuse of artifacts and design theories and (2) increase knowledge accumulation in the field. In this article, we argue that replication studies could support the accumulation and development of design theories to reach a state that encourages reuse of artifacts and design theories. However, it is unclear precisely how replication relates to design science research—that is, what outcomes replication produces and how researchers should apply it within design science research. This study proposes three overarching research questions ( Does the artifact provide utility? Is the design theory complete? What design theory components fit a larger context?) and eight categories for replication studies in design science research (Test, Redesign, Justification, Adaptation, Explanation, Update, Recreation, and Meta-Replication). We offer guidance to researchers, editors, and reviewers on how to conduct replication studies in design science research and why such studies are so critical. Our goal is to provide “food for thought” on the significance of design science research replication studies and, in turn, help facilitate their widespread implementation and publication. We conclude our study by highlighting areas for further discussion and investigation, such as defining replication procedures and conceptualizing genuine replication goals within design science research.

Reframing a Novel Decentralized Knowledge Management Concept as a Desirable Vision: As We May Realize the Memex

Proposing a major (though envisaged synergetic) shift in the knowledge management (KM) paradigm needs to convince a skeptical audience. This article attempts such a feat and motivates its conceptual considerations by fusing a wide scope of theoretical KM-related foundations in response to current KM unsustainabilities and emerging enabling technologies. The envisioned workflows, infrastructure, affordances, and impact resulting from the progressing design science research and prototyping efforts are consolidated and reframed, guided by a five-step visioneering process and twelve triple-criteria-clusters combining innovative, technological, and vision-related qualities. Inspired by Bush’s “Memex”, a desirable vision never realized since its suggestion three quarters of a century ago, the novel KM system (KMS) pursues the scenario of a mutually beneficial co-evolution between individual and institutional KM activities. This article follows up on the unsatisfactory and unsustainable state of current KM affairs suffering from accelerating information abundance, invisible work, structural interdisciplinary holes, lacking personal tools, and widening opportunity divides. By portraying a potentially transformative and game-changing technology, the crafting and drafting of a desirable, sustainable, and viable KMS vision assures transparency and can be more easily shared with a critical mass of stakeholders as a prerequisite for creating the respective future KM reality. The drafting of the “Desirable Sustainability Vision” is envisaged to assist a currently accepted KMS start-up project and investment.

Analysis of Driver’s Reaction Behavior Using a Persuasion-Based IT Artefact

The use of interactive technology to change behavior, which is commonly known as persuasive technology, is currently gaining attention in information systems research. It has been assessed in many application domains and the field of private mobility is not an exception, notably with the advent of self-driven cars. However, the reviewed body of research shows that when it comes to linking persuasion-based systems and mobility, most of the approaches focus on engaging drivers to use the car in a safer way, leaving the cost-efficiency aspect of driving less explored. Therefore, this article focuses on the study of a persuasion-based IT (Information Technology) artefact devised to make drivers more aware of car expenses (e.g., maintenance control, engine failures, enhance driving, etc.). Specifically, it aims to identify persuasive design principles for a smart IT solution that is tailored for the enhancement of the cost-efficiency of private cars. To this purpose, the results of a survey, where respondents (N = 301) were asked to rank different principles of persuasion which might result in increased efficiency to save time and money within their car, are presented. This work aims to contribute a persuasion-based IT artefact to help and influence drivers, enhancing their management of costs related to car mobility in real-time. The implications of the proposed solution, according to the responses of the survey, are discussed in line with its implementation and adoption by car holders.

The duality of science: Knowledge in information systems research

Rigorous research in Information Systems requires an understanding of how scientific foundations drive both the process and outcome. This science duality addresses the effective application of the scientific method (process) as well as the advance of knowledge (outcome) from the research project. This commentary responds to Siponen and Klaavuniemi’s paper with a focus on the uses of knowledge in Information Systems research.

Redesigning Portable Health Clinic Platform as a Remote Healthcare System to Tackle COVID-19 Pandemic Situation in Unreached Communities

Medical staff carry an inordinate risk of infection from patients, and many doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers are affected by COVID-19 worldwide. The unreached communities with noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) such as chronic cardiovascular, respiratory, endocrine, digestive, or renal diseases became more vulnerable during this pandemic situation. In both cases, Remote Healthcare Systems (RHS) may help minimize the risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission. This study used the WHO guidelines and Design Science Research (DSR) framework to redesign the Portable Health Clinic (PHC), an RHS, for the containment of the spread of COVID-19 as well as proposed corona logic (C-Logic) for the main symptoms of COVID-19. Using the distributed service platform of PHC, a trained healthcare worker with appropriate testing kits can screen high-risk individuals and can help optimize triage to medical services. PHC with its new triage algorithm (C-Logic) classifies the patients according to whether the patient needs to move to a clinic for a PCR test. Through modified PHC service, we can help people to boost their knowledge, attitude (feelings/beliefs), and self-efficacy to execute preventing measures. Our initial examination of the suitability of the PHC and its associated technologies as a key contributor to public health responses is designed to "flatten the curve", particularly among unreached high-risk NCD populations in developing countries. Theoretically, this study contributes to design science research by introducing a modified healthcare providing model.

An unstructured big data approach for country logistics performance assessment in global supply chains

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to explore the potential for the development of a country logistics performance assessment approach based upon textual big data analytics.

Design/methodology/approach

The study employs design science principles. Data were collected using the Global Perspectives text corpus that describes the logistics systems of 20 countries from 2006–2014. The extracted texts were processed and analysed using text analytic techniques, and domain experts were employed for training and developing the approach.

Findings

The developed approach is able to generate results in the form of logistics performance assessments. It contributes towards the development of more informed weights of the different country logistics performance categories. That said, a larger text corpus and iterative classifier training is required to produce a more robust approach for benchmarking and ranking.

Practical implications

When successfully developed and implemented, the developed approach can be used by managers and government bodies, such as the World Bank and its stakeholders, to complement the Logistics Performance Index (LPI).

Originality/value

A new and unconventional approach for logistics system performance assessment is explored. A new potential for textual big data analytic applications in supply chain management is demonstrated. A contribution to performance management in operations and supply chain management is made by demonstrating how domain-specific text corpora can be transformed into an important source of performance information.

Advancing service design research with design science research

Purpose

Service design is a multidisciplinary approach that is key to service innovation, as it brings new service ideas to life. In this context, the development of new service design methods and models for creating new service futures is an important stream of service design research. Such developments can benefit from a systematized research methodology that builds on existing knowledge and robustly evaluates the suitability of research contributions. To address this challenge, the purpose of this paper is to present design science research (DSR), an established methodology from the information systems field, and examine how it can be useful for service design research by supporting the development of new artifacts, such as service design constructs, methods and models.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper presents DSR and related literature and shows how DSR can support service design research through a step-by-step approach. A methodology to develop prescriptive-driven solutions for classes of problems, DSR can support service design research in developing rigorous and relevant research. One illustrative example of a service design research effort using the DSR approach is presented.

Findings

Building on DSR’s robust methodological background, this paper discusses how DSR can support service design research, namely, through the development of new methods and models, and how DSR can be adapted to leverage service design research participatory, iterative, human-centric and creative approach.

Originality/value

This paper provides an overview of DSR and proposes it as a methodology to conduct service design research, offering step-by-step guidance on the application of DSR in service design research and discussing how it can be adapted according to the specific characteristics of service design research and drive future research.

Augmenting Advanced Analytics into Enterprise Systems: A Focus on Post-Implementation Activities

An analytics-empowered enterprise system looks to many organizations to be a far-fetched target, owing to the vast amounts of factors that need to be controlled across the implementation lifecycle activities, especially during usage and maintenance phases. On the other hand, advanced analytics techniques such as machine learning and data mining have been strongly present in academic as well as industrial arenas through robust classification and prediction. Correspondingly, this paper is set out to address a methodological approach that works on tackling post-live implementation activities, focusing on employing advanced analytics techniques to detect (business process) problems, find and recommend a solution to them, and confirm the solution. The objective is to make enterprise systems self-moderated by reducing the reliance on vendor support. The paper will profile an advanced analytics engine architecture fitted on top of an enterprise system to demonstrate the approach. Employing an advanced analytics engine has the potential to support post-implementation activities. Our research is innovative in two ways: (1) it enables enterprise systems to become self-moderated and increase their availability; and (2) the IT artifact i.e., the analytics engine, has the potential to solve other problems and be used by other systems, e.g., HRIS. This paper is beneficial to businesses implementing enterprise systems. It highlights how enterprise systems could be safeguarded from retirement caused by post-implementation problems.

Design Science Research: Evaluation in the Lens of Big Data Analytics

Given the different types of artifacts and their various evaluation methods, one of the main challenges faced by researchers in design science research (DSR) is choosing suitable and efficient methods during the artifact evaluation phase. With the emergence of big data analytics, data scientists conducting DSR are also challenged with identifying suitable evaluation mechanisms for their data products. Hence, this conceptual research paper is set out to address the following questions. Does big data analytics impact how evaluation in DSR is conducted? If so, does it lead to a new type of evaluation or a new genre of DSR? We conclude by arguing that big data analytics should influence how evaluation is conducted, but it does not lead to the creation of a new genre of design research.