Assignment 📑

SIM & AIDA Information Systems Research (ISR)

Andy Weeger

Neu-Ulm University of Applied Sciences

August 19, 2023

Task

You will write a seminar paper that reflect your learning outcomes and help you to lay the foundations for your master’s thesis. The paper consists of following parts:

Research problem, literature stream, literature synthesis, theory & method

Research problem (1 page): Describe the research problem, enumerate why the problem is important from both a practical and scholarly standpoint, and specify the research objectives and question(s).
Literature stream (1-2 pages): Write a short reflection on your own research topic in relation to, e.g., IS (see.g., AIS), computer/system sciences (see e.g., IEEE Computer Society), and/or management research (see e.g., AoM). In what tradition does it fit? Can you identify new literature to draw from? Can you think of other disciplines that might enrich theorizing in your own topic or field of study? If so, what would these be? Identify candidate scholarly journals that are likely to be suitable targets for the research and explain why these can be suitable outlets. Articles from these journals should serve as exemplars for the approach taken to develop your research.
Literature synthesis (2 pages): Synthesize the approx. 10-15 major articles that are relevant to the problem and research questions, clearly articulating what is known and the gaps in knowledge pertaining to the problem that motivate the research.
Theory (3-5 pages): Specify the role of existing theory for your research. What theory/theories will be used to inform the study¹? Why are they suitable? Outline the key elements of your theoretical underpinnings and their relationships (e.g., your research model or the design theory used). Ensure that there is correspondence between the theoretical arguments and the specification of the model.
Method (2-3 pages): Write a short reflection on the effectiveness of different research methods (and their epistemological assumptions) that you could apply to achieve the research objectives. Decide for one method and justify your decision.

All page counts exclude figures and tables

Grading

An paper that fulfills expectations has the following characteristics:

The research problem and its relevance is comprehensible
The goals of the research are clear
The research can be clearly assigned to a current conversation in research
The body of knowledge related to the research topic is sufficiently synthesized
The theoretical assumptions are sound and describe the phenomenon well
The theory work allows for a significant theoretical contribution
The research design is reflective and appropriate to the object of knowledge

Note: Compliance with formal requirements (see template) and good scientific practice are critical pass criteria for all parts, means that in case of non-compliance the exam is automatically failed (e.g., plagiarism, even light forms).

Q&A

Footnotes

Theory in design science research is used to inform both the design of the artifact as well as the design process used to derive the artifact.