Abstract

Action design research (ADR) is increasingly used as a research method in the information systems discipline. It enables the joint development of artifacts by practitioners and researchers in a single context to derive design principles (Sein et al., 2011). Yet, performing ADR projects involves key challenges: (1) Translating complex context-specific problems, shaped by stakeholder dynamics, organizational structures, and cultures, into instances of broader problem classes. (2) Deriving generalizable artifacts and design principles from context-bound solutions evaluated within a single context, even when applying Sein et al.’s (2011) abstraction levels. (3) Sustaining practitioner involvement throughout all phases. A recent methodological approach responds to complex challenges with an iterative procedure and multiple instantiations across contexts (Tuunanen et al., 2024). Building on this, multiple case (MC) studies allow for data aggregation across diverse contexts, enhancing the robustness and external validity of the findings. Nevertheless, to our knowledge, there are only a few existing studies combining ADR with multiple sequential cases to address these challenges (Riedinger et al., 2025; Zimmermann et al., 2016), and no study combining a parallel MC design, in terms of replication logic (Yin, 2014), with ADR. Therefore, this TREO talk paper addresses both sequential and parallel MC designs (Figure 1) in ADR projects and poses the following question: How can IS researchers use multiple case studies in ADR? To answer this question, we plan to apply design science research following Tuunanen et al. (2024). This study contributes by deriving design principles for conducting MCs within ADR, providing methodological support for researchers in applying this approach and addressing related challenges.

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