Kalle Piirainen

Quo vadis, design science? – a survey of literature

Design science (DS) is increasingly a popular approach for research with a problem-solving perspective The literature on DS has exploded in the past few years creating a lively discussion emphasizing the balance between rigor and relevance in research, particularly within the information systems field However, there is still inconsistency with regards to the terminology, the underlying philosophy and the strategy to follow when doing DS The field(s) into which DS can contribute or in which it can be placed is also an open issue The advent of special issues, tracks and conferences on the subject is a sign of this and perhaps a suggestion that it constitutes a field on its own This paper reports a survey on the most influential literature on DS and provides an analysis of it in order to facilitate the discussion, clarify the terminology and contribute to making DS more actionable for researchers.

Design theory in practice: making design science research more transparent

Design Science Research seeks to develop new generalizable knowledge about design processes, design products, and designed artifacts while solving organizational problems with new work practices based on information technology. However, the ability of Design Science Research to generate knowledge has been challenged by some scholars, due weak connection of the designed artifact to the knowledge base. Design Theories offer a promising approach to codify and generalize some aspects of the knowledge created, in particular that pertaining to design processes and products for a given class of information technology-based solutions. We present a case example to support our argument that Design Theory can be integrated into the context of Design Science Research to make the connection between the design and the knowledge base more transparent, rendering it easier to defend the rigor and generalizablity of the knowledge Design Science Research yields.

Enhancing business and technology foresight with electronically mediated scenario process

Recent turmoil in the world has brought an interest toward creating business and technology foresight to understand the fundamental changes in business, as well as in the environment, society and technology. Especially technology management in changing markets has to deal with long lead times and high sunken costs, and hence handling the risk requires strategic agility and foresight. Scenarios, as a set of multiple possible future development paths, can inform decision makers of the drivers, which shape the future and thus help open-minded planning of actions. The objective of the study is to discuss the present scenario practice in relation to business and technology management, and to present a fresh alternative; the electronically mediated scenario process. Electronic tools offer an effective way to engage decision makers and stakeholders to the scenario process and facilitate efficient use of the time enabling equal contribution from diverse participants. This paper discusses two group support system (GSS) — mediated scenario methods, one heuristic and the other intuitive-logical, compares them to each other and to previous research. The contribution is a thorough discussion of the two method artifacts, highlighting their strengths, weaknesses and limitations, and positioning them to the present scenario practice.

A scenario approach for assessing new business concepts

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine challenges in the front end of innovation (FEI) and to propose a scenario‐based approach to alleviate some of these problems, particularly as regards uncertainty in opportunity recognition.Design/methodology/approach – The paper answers the main research question through a literature review and a case study. The paper employs the design‐oriented approach to propose an artifact which solves the underlined problem, and validate the artifact through the case study.Findings – According to the literature review, scenarios should offer a viable method for opportunity recognition. The case study supports the theoretical proposition, and suggests that scenarios can be used to alleviate the effect of uncertainty in the FEI.Research limitations/implications – The empirical results are limited to the level of proof‐of‐concept. The scenario process as such was rated positively, which corresponds to the theory and previous similar experiments, but the benefits of the s...

Dependency between learning and profitability in different industry conditions: a system dynamic simulation

Technological change and especially radical changes are a major source of uncertainty for strategic management of technology. We look at this situation through the lens of the resource-based view of the firm (RBV). RBV proposes that the competitiveness of industrial companies depends on their ability to manage portfolios of rare and valuable resources. Learning is an important mechanism in resource development and management. We have developed a system dynamic model to understand the linkage between learning and profitability under different conditions set by the appropriability and transferability of resources. The research problem is to examine how profitable the innovator and imitator are in different industry conditions after a radical innovation has been launched to the market. The setting informs the industrial manager whether it is economically feasible to open up the R&D to external influences in a situation of discontinuous change, given the industry parameters. The results show that the expected...

Unraveling challenges in collaborative design: a literature study

The complexities of modern business technology and policy are straining experts who aspire to design multi-actor systems to enhance existing organizations. Collaborative design is one approach to try and manage complexity in design activities. Still, collaboration in itself is not necessarily an easy mode of working. In this paper, we seek insight to challenges of collaborative design though a survey of design literature and qualitative content analysis. The literature reveals that the challenges can be condensed to five main challenges, creating shared understanding, balancing requirements of different stakeholders, balancing rigor and relevance in the process, organizing the collaboration effectively and creating ownership.

Improving the Effectiveness of Business Process Development through Collaboration Engineering: A Method for Process Elicitation

Businesses transform and processes are transformed as organizations adapt to a changing business environment. The discipline of business process reengineering has proposed guidelines for this transformation, but the task is still challenging and the risk of failure remains high. Especially group work presents major challenges for process design.. Accordingly, this paper proposes a group support system to support process development. The paper leverages the collaboration engineering framework in designing an artifact to support teamwork in process elicitation. The artifact has been designed at a conceptual level and validated through a business case in a global process industry organization. The case indicates that the method for process elicitation works as intended in the given context. The contribution is a group process for business process development.

In Search for the Right Tools to Fix the Right Problem: A Look into the Challenges of Collaborative Design

Problem solving and design tasks are quite common across industries; as problems grow more complex and systems grow larger, design becomes increasingly a collaborative task. Design in itself already is challenging but collaboration adds its own challenges to the mix. In this paper, we explore the challenges of collaborative design. We approach the research question through design research framework as we synthesize the knowledge base and expert experiences to propositions about the challenges of collaborative design. We contribute to the discussion on collaborative design and we enable further research on how to support collaborative design activities.

Simulating the effects of radical innovation with the help of system dynamics

Radical innovations pose a great challenge for strategic management. Innovation management has traditionally approached change with static methods relying on information on capabilities, strategy and markets. We introduce a system dynamics model to describe how learning changes the dynamics of innovation management. We use a post radical innovation environment to illustrate how the system reacts to different situations through the process of learning. As a result we propose two major propositions for future study that have not been addressed by past innovation management literature.

Scenario Process as a Community for Organizational Knowledge Creation and Sharing

Uncertainty and radical changes in the environment challenge decision makers in modern organizations. Knowledge of the past and present and also the insights from the future form the necessary conditions for successful decision making. Knowledge of the present can be used to create knowledge about the future through the scenario process. The paper presents two case studies, which support the proposition that the scenario process supports creation of knowledge in organizations. The scenario process can be a community and thus can offer not only artifacts of knowledge, but also a venue where decisions can be rehearsed and evaluated against plausible futures. We arrive to the conclusion that the scenario process can support knowledge sharing and creation, while it makes the assumptions of the organization explicit through the scenarios and also results in projection of plausible futures to come.