Abstract

In the Information Systems (IS) discipline, Design Science Research (DSR) is distinctive; creating knowledge through the design of novel or innovative artefacts, and analysing the artefacts’ use or performance. We present an analysis of DSR doctoral theses published in Australia for the period 2006-2017. Our purpose is to understand the extent and diversity of DSR applied by the Australian IS community in particular by doctoral candidates. We selected the theses from the Australian national repository and analysed their content. The findings suggest that 1) DSR is evolving and maturing in this cohort, 2) DSR theses have resulted in various artefacts and scholarly publications, 3) candidates’ ability to theorize about their work remains a challenge, and 4) nomenclature in DSR remains a problem and the whole IS community should strive for consistency. This paper contributes towards our understanding of DSR as a research approach and offers recommendations to the DSR community.

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