Essays on Design Science in Management and Marketing

This thesis explores design science in management and marketing, with a focus on how to expand the research approach from the field of management to that of marketing specifically. Design science is a pragmatic problem-solving approach that provides the researcher with the means to develop artifacts that improve future outcomes. This cross-disciplinary study scopes the allied field of management and proceeds to answer the research question: How can marketing use design science? The thesis employs a systematic literature review, a bibliometric co-citation analysis and conceptual development.

Key findings:
1.Purpose of design science: A systematic literature review reveals that design science is presently used in empirical articles to support researchers to evidence the development of an artifact, often related to technology.
2.Norms: The study explores how design science is used by researchers in empirical articles, in the allied field of management. Our findings indicate that design science can be used as a research method, employing a well-known theoretical process or framework, or alternatively as a paradigm on its own.
3.Mapping: Examining the progress over time, a visualization of the various streams of research in design science is presented, by employing a bibliometric co-citation analysis. Findings suggest that the design science literature is segmented, however still concentrated around Information Systems authors.
4.Positioning: This thesis assesses the positioning of design science and suggests some options that may prove useful for marketing. First, critical realism philosophy of science aligns well with the pragmatism of design science; a second direction is seeing design science as a new paradigm, a new lens to understand the world.
5.Exemplifying: Using a conceptual paper as an example, this PhD thesis explores how marketing can use design science. As a paradigm, a new lens, design science can help advance research in problematic areas, such as conceptualizing value creation in digital platforms.

Implications for future research and marketing:
This PhD thesis not only contributes to the management and the emerging stream of design research in the field of marketing by exploring how this approach is presently used, but also provides guidelines, propositions, and research agendas to guide future research. Such avenues include the exploration of using design science in essential areas of marketing such as consumer research and developing marketing-led conceptual works for design science, design artifact or operationalization of kernel theory.

Conclusion:
In conclusion, this study underlines the importance of having a problem-solving approach to research when dealing with today’s challenges for marketing, design science being ideally positioned to increase collaborations and drive innovation. By developing design science grounding, this PhD thesis offers valuable guidance for future research seeking to find solutions to the increased demands of marketing practitioners, policymakers, and society at large.