Is Action Design Research Indeed Necessary? Analysis and Synergies Between Action Research and Design Science Research

Dalila Cisco Collatto (), Aline Dresch (), Daniel Pacheco Lacerda () and Ione Ghislene Bentz ()
Additional contact information
Dalila Cisco Collatto: Insituto Federal Sul-Riograndense (IFSUL)
Aline Dresch: Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos – UNISINOS
Daniel Pacheco Lacerda: Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos – UNISINOS
Ione Ghislene Bentz: Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos – UNISINOS

Systemic Practice and Action Research, 2018, vol. 31, issue 3, No 1, 239-267

Abstract: Abstract Action research is one of the research methods that seeks to develop scientific knowledge while simultaneously acting to solve real problems. Design science and design science research are approaches that address problem-solving oriented researches, converging in this aspect with the objectives of action research. A significant part of the literature discusses action research and design science research separately. However, there are some early discussions regarding the similarities and the differences between these research methods. The objective of this study is to deepen an analysis that distinguishes action research, design science and design science research as research methods considering their convergences and divergences. This leads to the discussion of the need for a third method: action design research. This study was conducted based on a configurative systematic literature review. The analysis and the synthesis of literature took into account themes and content analyses. Some results could be observed. First, there is a significant number of similarities among these research methods; second, there are complementary and positive synergies in their use; and third, the concepts of artifact and classes of problems seem to contribute both to the proposition and to the evaluation of the results obtained by action research. Finally, it was possible to establish a set of possibilities for the use of action research and design science research in a combined manner. The limitations of this study have a theoretical nature. There is a need for a comparative analysis of the use of action research and design science research and the use of action research under the paradigm of design science.

Keywords: Research methods; Problem solving; Action Research; Design Science Research; Action Design Research (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11213-017-9424-9 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:syspar:v:31:y:2018:i:3:d:10.1007_s11213-017-9424-9

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/journal/11213

DOI: 10.1007/s11213-017-9424-9

Access Statistics for this article

Systemic Practice and Action Research is currently edited by Robert Flood

More articles in Systemic Practice and Action Research from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().