ABSTRACT
Overview of Design Science Research Research Drawing heavily from Kuhn (1996; first published in 1962) and Lakatos (1978), research can be very generally defined as an activity that contributes to the understanding of a phenomenon. In the case of design science research (DSR), all or part of the phenomenon may be created as opposed to naturally occurring. The phenomenon is typically a set of behaviors of some entity (entities) that is found interesting by the researcher or by a group-a research community. Understanding in most western research communities is valid (true) knowledge that may allow prediction of the behavior of some aspect of the phenomenon. Thus, research must lead to contribution of knowledge-usually in the form of a theory-that is new and valid (true).
