Too often research and practise are totally separated tracks. I have met inventors who dislike science and research, because "researchers have nothing practical to provide". Somehow I have a feeling that these sceptics do not really understand the current state of research and its methods.
True, the traditional, positivistic view on science does not accept inventing in the university. However, design research and especially Herbert Simon's book "The Sciences of the Artificial" was the first attempt to introduce inventing in research and emphasise the importance of artefacts .
The term artifact is used
to describe something that is artificial, or constructed by humans, as opposed
to something that occurs naturally (Simon 1996).
"Building a system in of itself does not constitute research", saw Jay Nunamaker & Co. I agree. Theories need to guide the building process of systems and artefacts .
Artefacts are built, evaluated and demolished as part of design research. In Information Systems (IS) field this is called design science. If you are interested in building artefacts (software, models, prescriptions, etc) I recommend you to take a look at:
- Design Research in Information Systems, an overview by Vijay Vaishnavi and Bill Küchler (UPDATE D 20th Jan 2008) .
- Action Design - a method integrating action research and design science. Originally this was introduced by Chris Argyris. There is a company and a consulting methodology related to it. BUT, more interesting stuff is coming from Matti Rossi, Maung Sein, Ola Henfridsson & Co. Please, keep on eye on their work.
- The evolutionary management-related work of Joan van Aken: "Prescription-driven research that provides solutions for management problems in addition to description driven research that enables us to understand the nature of problems but leaves undone the task of developing sound change programs".
- Theory of Design Science: The latest article by Shirley Gregor and David Jones.
(If the links above do not work or you need more info about design research, please, let me know)
Afterword: Thanks to my advisor, professor Pertti Järvinen for advancing this field and my understanding.
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