Abstract

Posing research questions is a fundamental step to develop our knowledge. However, the particular nature of the Design Science Research (DSR) paradigm raises some interesting challenges for constructing research questions. In fact, our review of a sample of more than 100 publications shows that only 62% of them actually use research questions. We analyse some fundamental characteristics of the DSR published in that sample and propose a framework for question formulation. We then suggest some empirical patterns and guidelines for DSR researchers to formulate research questions.

PEDRO ANTUNES is Associate Professor at Victoria University of Wellington, School of Information Management. He has a Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the Technical University of Lisbon and Habilitation in Informatics Engineering from the University of Lisbon. Pedro is a strong advocate of design science and design thinking. His research is mainly centred on the design of information systems with an emphasis on decision support, collaboration and process management. He has published in A*/A journals such as ACM Computing Surveys,  Communications of the AIS, Group Decision and Negotiation, Behaviour and IT, Business and IS Engineering, Knowledge and Process Management, IS Frontiers, Australasian Journal of IS, IEEE Pervasive Computing, Expert Systems With Applications, and Journal of Systems and Software.

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