A Design Science Method for Emerging Decision Support Environments

Emerging technologies and business models require organisations to continuously deal with complex, dynamic and unstructured issues, leading to the need for newer forms of decision support systems (DSS). However, in emerging environments the existing knowledge base can be scattered, unstructured, and sometimes conflicting, which challenges any efforts in designing DSS. This paper highlights the role of design science methods in developing these emerging areas, and suggests a design science method that focuses on consolidating the knowledge base by ontologically grounding experience and expertise. The proposed method is illustrated in the context of a published case, and validated by practically applying it to develop a crowdsourcing decision tool. The study contributes with recommendations on how to consolidate the knowledge base and design DSS artefacts in areas lacking strong theoretical foundations, and where expertise and experience are dominant sources of knowledge.