I am still trying to find more through Google and blogs. Still almost nothing around the British Journal of Management, see previous post.
But I have found this
Improving the Relevance of Management Research: Evidence-Based Management: Design Science or Both?
Howard Davies
Faculty of Business, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
It is available for download and is very clear. It shows the background of concerns about relevance and the case for design science.
The starting point for the Design Science approach, which builds on Herbert Simon’s 1969 classic The Sciences of the Artificial, is the recognition that there are three different types of science. First, there are the Formal Sciences, Logic and Mathematics, which have no empirical content in themselves. Then come the Explanatory Sciences, whose purpose is to explain existing phenomena. In the physical sciences that includes Physics, Chemistry and Biology, and in the social sciences Economics, Sociology and Psychology. Then there are the Design Sciences, whose purpose is to design solutions to real world problems. These include Architecture, Engineering, Medicine, and Design itself, all of which are centrally concerned to produce artifacts which are new to the world and preferred to those currently in existence.
The distinction between Explanatory Science and Design Science has not generally been made clear in respect of management research, which has been based almost entirely on the explanatory social sciences.
This is slightly different to the distinction made by Hodgkinson and Starkey. They refer to "Simon’s differentiation of explanatory-based and prescriptive-based social sciences" (page 359)
I think this misses the scope of the danger for social science if design science is seen as defining the relevant from a practice point of view. There is a remark towards the end of the YouTube clip on Science 2 - the Design Science of Collaboration that implies social science is not always seen as contributing much.
I'm still looking for any blogs around the British Journal of Management articles. The publishing aspects are intriguing. If they do a freely available issue, why not do more publicity? If there is some comment, why wait three months to publish it? If the comments are behind a paywall, why not offer some clues or a shorter version somewhere else?
Now there is no university bookshop in Exeter I don't see any of the collections of readings that used to appear. On Design Science there could be a set of links for what can be found as open, and also what is only available through academic libraries. I suppose this could be on offer as a bundle with a specially costed day pass. Any suggestions welcome.
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