Special Issue Editorial: Introduction to Design Science Education

We propose conceptualizing design science education in the information systems (IS) discipline. While design science has become a robust research paradigm, well-recognized in solving practical problems, how design science should be taught is a question that IS scholars, academia, and practitioners are only now addressing. We do so by considering design science education as a pedagogical tool that engages IS students in design knowledge creation and authentic learning. We conceptualize design science education as three intersections: research-education, research-practice, and education-practice. We further use this conceptualization to introduce six new studies in design science education

Which Factors Govern the Use of Emergency Response Information Systems? Insights from an Ethnographical Study of a Voluntary Fire Department

To realize the digitalization potential of emergency response processes, several information technologies have been proposed that shall support firefighters in their operations. In the incident command process, especially emergency response information systems (ERIS) are supposed to raise the situation awareness and overall efficacy. Despite their theoretical potential, these technologies only slowly disseminate in practice, however. While extant acceptance models can basically explain firefighters’ intention to use them, the actual usage so far remained unexplored. To gain an in-depth understanding of the specific domain and its influence on the usage of technologies, we ethnographically observed a voluntary fire department over several years. During its digitalization of command processes, we identified operational specialties like flexibility, organizational requirements like error culture, and social aspects like perceived importance that influence the introduction of an ERIS. These factors shall enrich existing acceptance models and help to better consider the special characteristics of the firefighter domain

How decolonial can cooperation be? Critical remarks on ICT interventions in the Global South

Projekte zu Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologien (IKT) in der Entwicklungszusammenarbeit im Globalen Süden operieren mit impliziten und expliziten Vorstellungen, Ansprüchen und Zielen. Die kritische Reflexion zu den Rahmenbedingungen, dem ethischen Status und den Konsequenzen solcher IKT-Interventionen und -Projekte kommt dabei oft zu kurz. Durch eine interdisziplinäre Perspektive und unter Rückgriff auf post- und dekoloniale Theorie können die Bedingungen und Partizipationsmöglichkeiten von „Nord-Süd-Kooperationen“ problematisiert und die ihnen zugrunde liegenden Begriffe, Konzepte und deren Konnotationen kritisch beleuchtet werden. Auf der Basis eigener Erfahrungen mit designorientierten Herangehensweisen in einem entwicklungs- und bildungspolitischen Projekt im Hohen Atlas in Marokko sollen diese Kritiken und Problemstellungen veranschaulicht und reflektiert werden. Indem eigene Vorannahmen, Erwartungen und Ansprüche auf den Prüfstand gestellt und Projektverlauf, Technikaneignung und interne Kommunikation nicht als gesetzt, sondern als prozesshaft und wechselseitig aushandelbar verstanden werden, können die Bedingungen für Kooperation in eine dekoloniale Richtung weisen.Information and communications technology (ICT) interventions and development cooperation projects in the Global South operate with implicit and explicit ideas, expectations, and goals about the course of the project and cooperation. Critical reflection on the framework conditions, ethical status, and consequences of such ICT interventions and projects is often neglected. Through an interdisciplinary perspective and recourse to post- and decolonial theory, the conditions and participation possibilities of “North-South cooperation” can be problematized, and the underlying concepts and connotations can be critically examined. Based on our own experiences with design-oriented approaches in a development and education project in the High Atlas in Morocco, we will illustrate and discuss these critiques and problems. The conditions for cooperation can point in a decolonial direction by putting one’s own assumptions, expectations, and demands to the test and by understanding project progress, technology appropriation, or internal communication not as given but as process-oriented and mutually negotiable

The Effects of the Quantification of Faculty Productivity: Perspectives from the Design Science Research Community

In recent years, efforts to assess faculty research productivity have focused more on the measurable quantification of academic outcomes. For benchmarking academic performance, researchers have developed different ranking and rating lists that define so-called high-quality research. While many scholars in IS consider lists such as the Senior Scholar’s basket (SSB) to provide good guidance, others who belong to less-mainstream groups in the IS discipline could perceive these lists as constraining. Thus, we analyzed the perceived impact of the SSB on information systems (IS) academics working in design science research (DSR) and, in particular, how it has affected their research behavior. We found the DSR community felt a strong normative influence from the SSB. We conducted a content analysis of the SSB and found evidence that some of its journals have come to accept DSR more. We note the emergence of papers in the SSB that outline the role of theory in DSR and describe DSR methodologies, which indicates that the DSR community has rallied to describe what to expect from a DSR manuscript to the broader IS community and to guide the DSR community on how to organize papers for publication in the SSB

Digitaler Konsum: Herausforderungen und Chancen der Verbraucherinformatik

Die Durchdringung der Gesellschaft mit IT-Artefakten führt nicht nur zu Veränderungen in der Arbeitswelt („Industrie 4.0“), sondern auch zu einem Wandel in Privathaushalten, etwa im Bereich der Digitalisierung von Verbraucherpraktiken. Dabei werden vor allem die klassischen Konsumfelder Ernährung, Wohnen und Mobilität zunehmend von „smarten“ Geräten und digitalen Diensten durchdrungen. Für VerbraucherInnen eröffnet dies neue Erlebniswelten und vereinfacht den Konsum. Gleichzeitig stellt die neue Qualität der Vernetzung jedoch auch eine Reihe von Fragen, etwa in Bezug auf Datenschutz und die digitale Souveränität der VerbraucherInnen, einen möglichen Digital Divide, sowie die Nachhaltigkeit digital ermöglichter Verbrauchspraktiken auf den Ebenen Gesellschaft, Ökonomie und Ökologie. Die Verbraucherinformatik nimmt dabei ein interdisziplinär verfasstes Forschungsfeld in den Blick, wobei die Bedeutung der Phänomene einer digitalisierten Welt aus Verbrauchersicht untersucht und gestaltet werden sollen

The Generation of Qualitative Data in Information Systems Research: The Diversity of Empirical Research Methods

This paper investigates the concept of data collection in information systems qualitative research. In this text, I replace the term “data collection” with “data generation” to emphasize that the researcher arranges situations that produce rich and meaningful data for further analysis. Data generation comprises activities such as searching for, focusing on, noting, selecting, extracting, and capturing data. This paper analyzes and compares a repertoire of empirical research methods for generating qualitative data. It describes and visualizes (through a common data-generation template) 12 research methods: interviewing, questionnaire study, document study, artifact study, observation study, participant observation, intervention study, practice-based design study, lab-based design study, focus group study, test study, and self-reporting. I compare these data-generation methods according to 1) the researcher’s role in data generation, 2) data generation’s influence on everyday life reality, 3) each data-generation method’s relationship to everyday life reality, 4) what parts/mediators of everyday life reality each data-generation method addresses, 5) the expected value of generated data and 6) possible shortcomings in generated data. As a basis for investigating data generation, I ontologically clarify (based on a practice-theoretical perspective) the empirical landscape of information systems (the kinds of phenomena and sources of data that exist). A concluding discussion contains 1) analyses concerning relationships between data-generation methods and compound research methods/strategies such as case study research, action research, and design science research and 2) the role of interpretation in data generation versus data analysis

Ordinary user experiences at work: a study of greenhouse growers

We investigate professional greenhouse growers’ user experience (UX) when using climate-management systems in their daily work. We build on the literature on UX, in particular UX at work, and extend it to ordinary UX at work. In a ten-day diary study, we collected data with a general UX instrument (AttrakDiff), a domain-specific instrument, and interviews. We find that AttrakDiff is valid at work; its three-factor structure of pragmatic quality, hedonic identification quality, and hedonic stimulation quality is recognizable in the growers’ responses. In this paper, UX at work is understood as interactions among technology, tasks, structure, and actors. Our data support the recent proposal for the ordinariness of UX at work. We find that during continued use UX at work is middle-of-the-scale, remains largely constant over time, and varies little across use situations. For example, the largest slope of the four AttrakDiff constructs when regressed over the ten days was as small as 0.04. The findings contrast existing assumptions and findings in UX research, which is mainly about extraordinary and positive experiences. In this way, the present study contributes to UX research by calling attention to the mundane, unremarkable, and ordinary user experiences at work