Abstract
Descriptive theories tell us how to understand the world better and prescriptive theories tell us how to make the world better. Design theories are of the latter kind but usually involves a product or process artifact to create changes as well. Despite a focus on utility, there is little evidence about how design theories become adopted after their development. We know too little about how design theories are applied, adopted, adapted, and emerge and change over time. We present a study of an organizational change design theory that was adopted in 108 different organizations. The results indicate that the theory was adopted As-Is in 25% of the cases. But it was adapted in various ways for use in the remaining organizations. Our analysis of these cases provides a typology of eight categories of adoptability. Among these, organizations most commonly adapted the recommended organizational strategy. As a result of these and other findings we show how design theory adoption is a continuous co-creation process between design theorists and design adopters.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Hevner, A.R., March, S.T., Park, J., Ram, S.: Design science in information systems research. MIS Q. 28, 75–105 (2004)
Baskerville, R., Wood-Harper, A.T.: Diversity in information systems action research methods. Eur. J. Inf. Syst. 7, 90–107 (1998)
Schein, E.: The Clinical Perspective in Fieldwork. Sage, Newbury Park, Calf (1987)
Baskerville, R., Pries-Heje, J.: Explanatory design theory. Bus. Inf. Syst. Eng. 2, 271–282 (2010)
Markus, M.L., Majchrzak, A., Gasser, L.: A design theory for systems that support emergent knowledge processes. MIS Q. 26, 179–212 (2002)
Bunge, M.: Scientific Research I: The Search for System. Springer-Verlag, New York (1967)
Bunge, M.: Scientific Research II: The Search for Truth. Springer-Verlag, New York (1967)
Pries-Heje, J., Baskerville, R.: The design theory nexus. MIS Q. 32, 731–755 (2008)
van Aken, J.E.: Management research based on the paradigm of the design sciences: the quest for field-tested and grounded technological rules. The J. Manage. Stud. 41, 219–246 (2004)
Gregor, S., Jones, D.: The anatomy of a design theory. J. Assoc. Inf. Syst. 8, 312–335 (2007)
Walls, J.G., Widmeyer, G.R., El Sawy, O.A.: Building an information system design theory for vigilant EIS. Inf. Syst. Res. 3, 36–59 (1992)
Simon, H.A.: The Sciences of the Artificial. MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass (1996)
Bryan, S.P.: Cognitive complexity, transformational leadership, and organizational outcomes. Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College, United States -- Louisiana (2002)
Fritzen, S.A.: Can the design of community-driven development reduce the risk of elite capture? Evidence from Indonesia. World Development 35, 1359–1375 (2007)
Gensler, H.J.: Formal ethics. Cambridge Univ Press (1996)
van Aken, J.E.: Valid knowledge for the professional design of large and complex design processes. Des. Stud. 26, 379–404 (2005)
van Aken, J.E.: Management research as a design science: articulating the research products of mode 2 knowledge production in management. Br. J. Manag. 16, 19–36 (2005)
Pawson, R., Tilley, N.: Realistic Evaluation. Sage, London (1997)
Chu, P.C., Beasley, J.E.: A genetic algorithm for the multidimensional knapsack problem. Journal of Heuristics 4, 63–86 (1998)
Cocchiarella, N.B., Freund, M.A.: Modal Logic: An Introduction to its Syntax and Semantics. Oxford University Press, New York (2008)
Breakstone, M.Y., Cremers, A., Fox, D., Hackl, M.: On the analysis of scope ambiguities in comparative constructions: converging evidence from real-time sentence processing and offline data. Semantics and Linguistic Theory 21, 712–731 (2011)
Vial, G.: Understanding digital transformation: a review and a research agenda. Managing Digital Transformation 13–66 (2021)
Pries-Heje, J., Vinter, O.: A framework for selecting change strategies in IT organizations. In: International Conference on Product Focused Software Process Improvement, pp. 408–414. Springer (Year)
ISO/IEC_33001: Information technology -- Process assessment -- Concepts and terminology. Geneva, Switzerland. (the first of the ISO/IEC 330xx serie of standards) (2015)
van Aken, J.E.: The nature of organizing design: both like and unlike material object design. Working Paper 06.13, Eindhoven Centre for Innovation Studies, Department of Technology Management, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven (2006)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2022 IFIP International Federation for Information Processing
About this paper
Cite this paper
Pries-Heje, J., Baskervillle, R. (2022). Co-design Theory Adoptability: How Organizational Change is Co-created by Design Theorists and Theory Adopters. In: Elbanna, A., McLoughlin, S., Dwivedi, Y.K., Donnellan, B., Wastell, D. (eds) Co-creating for Context in the Transfer and Diffusion of IT. TDIT 2022. IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology, vol 660. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-17968-6_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-17968-6_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-17967-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-17968-6
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)