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What Is Design Science? Read chapter Read first chapter

2014 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

9. Scientific Theories

Author : Roel J. Wieringa

Published in: Design Science Methodology for Information Systems and Software Engineering

Publisher: Springer Berlin Heidelberg

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Abstract

Like all scientific research, design science aims to develop scientific theories. As explained earlier in Fig. 1.​3, a design science project starts from a knowledge context consisting of scientific theories, design specifications, useful facts, practical knowledge, and common sense. This is called prior knowledge. The set of scientific theories used as prior knowledge in a design research project is loosely called its theoretical framework. When it is finished, a design science project should have produced additional knowledge, called posterior knowledge. Our primary aim in design science is to produce posterior knowledge in the form of a contribution to a scientific theory. In this chapter, we discuss the nature, structure, and function of scientific theories in, respectively, Sects. 9.1, 9.2, and 9.3.

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previous chapter Conceptual Frameworks
next chapter The Empirical Cycle
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Metadata
Title
Scientific Theories
Author
Roel J. Wieringa
Copyright Year
2014
Publisher
Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Book
Design Science Methodology for Information Systems and Software Engineering

Print ISBN: 978-3-662-43838-1

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-662-43839-8

Copyright Year: 2014

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-43839-8_9

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