Alan Hevner

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Verified

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• Doctor of Computer Science
• Professor at University of South Florida

Human resource factors such as job stress and job satisfaction are important topics in both the science and practice of software development. However, existing studies use different conceptualizations of stress. In this paper, a new theoretical perspective on stress, the effort-reward imbalance framework, is presented and empirically investigated....

The development of effective socio-technical information systems requires designers to balance ethical goals with functional capabilities and business objectives. To address this challenge, we propose EDGE, a novel ethical design method that focuses on two key activities in the systems development process – ethical grounding and evaluation of ethic...

Research transparency promotes openness and trust in the process, evidence, contributions, and implications of scientific inquiry. Information Systems (IS), as a pluralistic research community, must address transparency in relation to its use of multiple research methods appropriate to complex socio-technical contexts and challenging research quest...

The introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities in business applications provides significant benefits but requires organizations to manage critical risks of AI ethical consequences. We survey a range of large organizations on their use of enterprise risk management (ERM) processes and toolsets to predict and control the ethical risks...

Research transparency promotes openness and trust in the performed process, produced evidence, claimed contributions, and actionable implications of scientific inquiry. The field of information systems (IS), as a pluralistic research community, must address transparency in relation to its use of multiple research methods appropriate to complex soci...

Design science research (DSR) produces knowledge via the design and evaluation of innovative solutions to real-world problems. DSR provides an improved understanding of how and why the solutions work. While DSR is being widely embraced in many research disciplines, its educational pedagogy so far remains immature with little guidance on how best to...

The goals of design science research (DSR) projects are to generate novel and useful artifacts and to produce rigorous and generalizable design knowledge. Often, DSR projects are conducted in collaborative, interdisciplinary project teams. Different disciplinary approaches to codifying design knowledge result in challenging project interactions. To...

Business process models are widely used artifacts in design activities to facilitate communication about business domains and processes. Despite being an extensively researched topic, some aspects of conceptual business modeling are yet to be fully explored and understood by academicians and practitioners alike. We study the attentional characteris...

Artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities are increasingly common components of all socio-technical information systems that integrate human and machine actions. The impacts of AI components on the design and use of application systems are evolving rapidly as improved deep learning techniques and fresh big data sources afford effective and efficien...

Lack of employee compliance with information security policies is a key factor driving security incidents. Information security practitioners struggle to enforce policy compliance while employees try to curtail controls in favor of expediency and other perceived business and personal goals. This research-in-progress project utilizes the Design Scie...

Patient locus of control (LOC) is a strong determinant of health outcomes, yet healthcare systems rarely use patient LOC to devise treatment plans. Our clinical research applies action design research methods to design and evaluate healthcare information systems to improve paths and outcomes of patient care. Socio-technical synergies between the in...

The wide use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has immediate business benefits for an organization and its stakeholders through efficiency gains, greater repeatability, and new business models; but the potential exists for unintended ethical consequences. Enterprise Risk Management systems focus on maximizing business value by balancing opportunities...

Researchers travel on paths of knowledge throughout life and the outcomes of rigorous scientific investigation result in contributions of new knowledge to the world. The Information Systems (IS) discipline is particularly suited for contributing to digital innovations and the corresponding knowledge growth. IS research develops not only knowledge i...

The success of design science research (DSR) projects depends upon substantial preparation and foresight. The externalities of DSR projects, however, are too often overlooked or given short shrift as the research team wants to ‘hit the ground running’ to design and build creative solutions to interesting, real-world problems. Frequently, this rush...

Online analytical processing (OLAP) engines display aggregated data to help business analysts compare data, observe trends, and make decisions. Issues of data quality and, in particular, issues with missing data impact the quality of the information. Key decision-makers who rely on these data typically make decisions based on what they assume to be...

The development of software applications on digital platforms requires both agility and restraint to meet rapidly changing user requirements while adding novel features to a platform-based application domain. User value creation focuses on exploring the solution space to innovate and attract new customers while retaining existing customers. In this...

The design of sensitive online healthcare systems must balance the requirements of privacy and accountability for the good of individuals, organizations, and society. Via a design science research approach, we build and evaluate a sophisticated software system for the online provision of psychosocial healthcare to distributed and vulnerable populat...

Companies like Ritz Carlton, Disney and Verizon are among many who have invested in analytics to improve their customers' service experiences with the firms. Extensive data are collected on all aspects of how customers interact or experience the products or services. Research has shown the importance of the “peak-end” rule in service design; that i...

Design Science Research (DSR) is a problem-solving paradigm that seeks to enhance human knowledge via the creation of innovative artifacts. Simply stated, DSR seeks to enhance technology and science knowledge bases via the creation of innovative artifacts that solve problems and improve the environment in which they are instantiated. The results of...

Rigorous research in Information Systems requires an understanding of how scientific foundations drive both the process and outcome. This science duality addresses the effective application of the scientific method (process) as well as the advance of knowledge (outcome) from the research project. This commentary responds to Siponen and Klaavuniemi’...

Design Science Research (DSR) in the information systems (IS) field is, at its essence, about Digital Innovation (DI). Innovative sociotechnical design artifacts involve digital information technologies (IT) being used in ways that result in profound disruptions to traditional ways of doing business and to widespread societal changes. The pervasive...

Sir Isaac Newton famously said, "If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." Research is a collaborative, evolutionary endeavor-and it is no different with design science research (DSR) which builds upon existing design knowledge and creates new design knowledge to pass on to future projects. However, despite the vast, gro...

Design Science Research is a powerful paradigm enabling researchers to make important contributions to society and industry. Simply stated, the goal of DSR is to generate knowledge on how to find innovative solutions to important problems in the form of models, methods, constructs and instantiations. Over the past 20 years, the design science resea...

Software development processes are defined by control practices such as daily stand-ups or burndown charts. Although previous research has thoroughly investigated the antecedents of control selection and the consequences of control enactment, there is a lack of research into the dynamic changes that are made to a control portfolio throughout a proj...

On the 10th anniversary of the NeuroIS field, we reflect on accomplishments but, more importantly, on the future of the field. This commentary presents our thoughts on a future NeuroIS research agenda with the potential for high impact societal contributions. Four key areas for future information systems (IS) research are: (1) IS design, (2) IS use...

In software development projects, control mechanisms are implemented to ensure that expectations related to software qualities and project management efficiencies are met [1]. These control mechanisms, which manifest in the form of development practices (e.g. burndown charts, daily stand-up meetings), are used to regulate the behavior of individual...

Firms are seeking to gain greater understanding of and insights into more and more massive quantities of data collected and stored in disparate public and private databases. To effectively and efficiently deploy project resources to the data science search activity and to consequently build and evaluate innovative artifacts, firms are finding that...

The development of novel software applications on digital platforms differs radically from traditional software development. In this position paper, we posit that software development managers and teams face unique challenges in platform environments and require new development approaches to be successful. While traditional software development app...

We use eye tracking to better understand the attentional characteristics specific to successful error detection in conceptual models. This phase of our multi-step research project describes the visual comportments associated with successful semantic and syntactic error identification and diagnosis. We test our predictions, based on prior studies on...

Existing IoT reference architectures specify system structures, but provide little guidance for the semantic foundations required to create and verify system functionality and quality (e.g. security, performance) attributes. Three types of semantics are investigated: (1) Flow Semantics, (2) Quality Semantics, and (3) Evolution Semantics. We propose...

There has been a surge of interest in the design science research (DSR) paradigm as central to information systems (IS) studies in the past 20 years. The goal of a DSR research project is to extend the boundaries of human and organizational capabilities by designing new and innovative artifacts represented by constructs, models, methods, and instan...

We use eye-tracking to better understand the notion of expertise in conceptual modeling of complex systems. This research-in-progress paper describes an ongoing experiment to exploit the capacity of eye-tracking to explore the significance of expertise as a mediating factor in conceptual modeling. The proposed methodology highlights the applicabili...

We distinguish several design knowledge types in IS research and examine different modes of utilizing and contributing design knowledge that can take place during design science research (DSR) projects. DSR projects produce project design knowledge, which is project-specific, possibly untested, conjectural, and temporary; thus, distinct from the mo...

We build and evaluate an innovative artifact for the investigation of social content derived-platforms specifically to gain a unique understanding of the content shared and underlying behaviors of the contributors to these technology platforms. The artifact‘s innovation is derived from the solution’s unique approach to converting and analyzing the...

With the rising interest in design science research (DSR), it is crucial to engage in the ongoing debate on what constitutes an acceptable contribution for publishing DSR—the design artifact, the design theory, or both. In this editorial, we provide some constructive guidance across different positioning statements with actionable recommendations f...

This research essay proposes an elaborated process model for applying the action design research (ADR) approach to immersive industry-based projects. Building on the original ADR concepts, we identify four distinct types of ADR cycles for diagnosis, design, implementation, and evolution of the growing artefact-based solution. Each ADR cycle moves t...

Design science research (DSR) seeks to grow technology and science knowledge bases via the creation of innovative artifacts that solve problems and improve the environments in which they are instantiated. The field of healthcare offers many opportunities for the use of DSR to design innovations with a goal of improving the effectiveness and efficie...

Effective decision making is critical for operation and control of Internet of Things (IoT) systems. These systems are comprised of massive numbers of hardware, software and network components; all sensing, computing, communicating and controlling in dynamic architectures and state spaces of extraordinary complexity. Components, connections and use...

As software and information systems (IS) increase in functional sophistication, perceptions of IS quality are changing. Moving beyond issues of performance efficiency, essential qualities such as fitness for purpose, sustainability, and overall effectiveness become more complex. Creating software and information systems represents a highly intercon...

A thriving information and communication technology (ICT) economy is an aspiration for developing countries. This research identifies the factors that can motivate or inhibit ICT opportunities in a developing country to grow a sustainable economy. We build an ICT4D decision framework that provides a three-dimensional view based on (1) key factors (...

The authors' scrutiny-management technique supports managers and IT developers to systematically address privacy and accountability issues when designing software for the online delivery of health services--specifically, psychosocial care. Their technique is based on scrutinizing two core information flows in the organization: privacy expectations...

Motivated by the long-standing debate on rationality in behavioral economics and the potential of theory-driven predictive analytics, this paper examines the link between service quality and B2B churn. Using longitudinal B2B transactional data with service quality indicators provided by a large company, we present evidence that both rationality and...

The development of novel software applications on digital platforms differs from traditional software development and provides unique challenges to software development managers and teams. Platform-based applications must achieve application-platform match, application-market match, value propositions exceeding platform’s core value propositions, a...

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Design Science Research in Information Systems and Technology, DESRIST 2017, held in May/June 2017 in Karlsruhe, Germany. The 25 full and 11 short papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 66 full and 19 short papers. The contributions are...

We propose to extend the well-known three-cycle view for design science research (DSR) with a fourth cycle (change and impact cycle) that captures the dynamic nature of IS artifact design for volatile environments. The appropriation of innovative designs results in organizational changes that happen outside the new artifacts’ immediate application...

We explore the research resonance concept in the context of the Information Systems (IS) design science research (DSR) literature. Resonance is a concept that complements research rigor and relevance and addresses how researchers can effectively communicate research outcomes to suitable audiences and, thus, achieve practical impact. We operationali...

Motivated by the long-standing debate on rationality in behavioral economics and the potential of theory-driven predictive analytics, this paper examines the link between service quality and B2B churn. We exploit a large repository of longitudinal B2B transactional data with service quality indicators provided by a Fortune 500 company and present e...

With the rising interest in Design Science Research (DSR), it has become crucial to understand what the acceptable components of a DSR paper are, in order to get published. Central to this is the ongoing debate on what constitutes an acceptable contribution in DSR-the artifact, the design theory or both? Two camps have emerged in this debate, and t...

Compared to positivist survey and interpretive case study research, design science research (DSR) is a relatively novel and unfamiliar research paradigm within the computing field in South Africa. In light of recent interest in the DSR paradigm, this study sought to investigate how local computing researchers familiarise themselves with an unfamili...

While the importance of innovation as a dominant driver of societal and economic progress is well established, the processes and outcomes of innovation remain distressingly ad-hoc and unpredictable. In particular, the Front End of Innovation (FEI) provides many open questions as innovators are challenged to understand the opportunity context, gener...

In the execution of an Action Design Research (ADR) project, we experienced challenges in how to enter into the ADR research stages effectively. In this paper, we present how we addressed these challenges by extending the ADR model with two expanded up-front activities and multiple entry points. Our research on inter-organizational social networks...

Creative design activities in the development of software-intensive systems involve the wide use of visual tools, such as flowcharts and UML diagrams. In this research-in-progress paper, we explore the potential of eye fixation related potential (EFRP) as a method to assess the efficacy of visual notations used to build and evaluate IT artifacts. D...

We study the implications of the effectuation concept for socio-tech-nical artifact design as part of the design science research (DSR) process in in-formation systems (IS). Effectuation logic is the opposite of causal logic. Effec-tuation does not focus on causes to achieve a particular effect, but on the possi-bilities that can be achieved with e...

Background The purpose of this study was to explore the quality attributes required for effective telemedicine encounters from the perspective of the patient. Methods We used a multi-method (direct observation, focus groups, survey) field study to collect data from patients who had experienced telemedicine encounters. Multi-perspectives (researche...

Open-ended questions on patient validating survey.

Patient concerns and issues survey questions and response summaries. Abbreviations: SA, strongly agree; A, agree; D, disagree; SD, strongly disagree.

The genesis of the Neuro-Information Systems (NeuroIS) field took place in 2007. Since then, a considerable number of IS scholars and academics from related disciplines have started to use theories, methods, and tools from neuroscience and psychophysiology to better understand human cognition, emotion, and behavior in IS contexts, and to develop ne...

Information systems design must balance requirements of privacy and accountability for the good of individuals and society. Drawing from an evolving theory of scrutiny, we propose a multi-layer protocol to support the rigorous application of privacy rules and accountability rules in sensitive online applications. We ground our study in the context...

Information systems design must balance requirements of privacy and accountability for the good of individuals and society. We ground our study in the context of the design and development of a eHealth system for psychosocial care. Multi-level privacy protections are balanced with the need to provide for accountable interventions in well-defined cr...

Can agile software development methods handle time pressure effectively? In this research-in-progress paper we examine the sources and remedies for time pressure in an agile software development project. We draw upon research on emergent outcome controls to understand how they can be used effectively to handle time pressure. In particular, we use E...

Current innovation practice demonstrates many of the ideas of design thinking. In this paper, we explore the readiness of innovation practice to include design science concepts and processes. At a recent conference, an initial round of a Delphi study engaged a number of innovation practitioners in a discussion around the question, “Is design scienc...

Two paradigms characterize much of the research in the Information Systems discipline: behavioral science and design science. The behavioral-science paradigm seeks to develop and verify theories that explain or predict human or organizational behavior. The design-science paradigm seeks to extend the boundaries of human and organizational capabiliti...

Current thinking in design science research (DSR) defines the usefulness of the design artifact in a relevant problem environment as the primary research goal. Here we propose a complementary evaluation model for DSR. Drawing from evolutionary economics, we define a fitness-utility model that better captures the evolutionary nature of design improv...

Design science research (DSR) has staked its rightful ground as an important and legitimate Information Systems (IS) research paradigm. We contend that DSR has yet to attain its full potential impact on the development and use of information systems due to gaps in the understanding and application of DSR concepts and methods. This essay aims to hel...

Do organizations demonstrate judgment biases in decision making? Or do they rationally consider the actual total utility they have experienced as a basis for evaluating a business relationship? We address these questions by exploring a set of temporally extensive empirical datasets on business transactions between one of the world's leading service...

We propose a new innovation model that leverages Design Science Research concepts and principles. The goal of this paper is to outline the six stages of DRIVES with brief descriptions of the activities performed during the stages. An industrial consortium provides some observations on the application of DRIVES for innovation.

Current thinking in design science research (DSR) defines utility as the primary research goal (e.g. [1, p. 80]). In this context, the close relationship of utility to practical usefulness is emphasized. With a goal to increase the impacts of DSR, the search for the dependent variable in DSR requires some rethinking. A pair of alternative dependent...

Health care decision makers and researchers often use reporting tools (e.g. Online Analytical Processing (OLAP)) that present data aggregated from multiple medical registries and electronic medical records to gain insights into health care practices and to understand and improve patient outcomes and quality of care. An important limitation is that...

What is the relationship between design science research and innovation? Our industry-academic collaboration poses this intriguing question and suggests a context and an experimental design for its study. We wish to understand the synergies between the active research areas of DSR and innovation by exploring their overlapping concepts and identifyi...

The use of information markets as a business intelligence (BI) technique for collecting dispersed intelligence and forming knowledge to support decision making is growing rapidly in many application fields. The objective of this chapter is to present a focused survey of how information markets work and why they produce accurate and actionable knowl...

In business, information is abundant. Yet, effective use of that information to inform and drive business operations is a challenge. Our industry-university collaborative project draws from a rich dataset of commercial demographics, transaction history, product features, and Service Quality Index (SQI) factors on shipping transactions at FedEx. We...

Current thinking in design science research (DSR) defines the usefulness of the design artifact in a relevant problem environment as the primary research goal. Here we propose a complementary evaluation model for DSR. Drawing from evolutionary economics, we define a fitness-utility model that better captures the evolutionary nature of design improv...

The rigorous application of design science in information and communications technology (ICT) research is growing rapidly and producing exciting results. The five papers published in this special issue reflect some of the most recent ideas and research projects in ICT design science research (DSR). This introduction begins with concise summaries of...

In business, information is abundant. Yet, effective use of that information to inform and drive business operations is a challenge. Our industry-university collaborative project draws from a rich dataset of commercial demographics, transaction history, product features, and Service Quality Index (SQI) factors on shipping transactions at FedEx. We...

Innovation in any field comes from disruption in normal behaviors, patterns, and methods of performing work. Software engineering can benefit from innovative technologies to improve quality and productivity in software development. However, it is often difficult to provide convincing evidence to key stakeholders, as a basis for understanding and in...

Design activities are central to most applied disciplines. Research in design has a long history in many fields including architecture, engineering, education, psychology, and the fine arts (Cross 2001). The computing and information technology (CIT) field since its advent in the late 1940s has appropriated many of the ideas, concepts, and methods...

Information systems (IS) research has serious utilization and relevance problems. To increase IS research utilization and relevance, scholars argue that the dominating behavioral IS research paradigm should be complemented with IS design science research. The most influential IS design science research schools have a strong focus on the IT artifact...

Science progresses because of advancement in theories. Dictionary definitions show that the word theory can take on many meanings, including “a mental view” or “contemplation,” “a concept or mental scheme of something to be done, or the method of doing it; a systematic statement of rules or principles to be followed,” a “system of ideas or statemen...

This essay discusses 12 theses for guiding design science research. They are aimed at strengthening the design science orientation of Information Systems, clarifying future discourses on design science research aspects of the discipline, and giving some further guidelines for design science research in Information Systems.

Focus groups to investigate new ideas are widely used in many research fields. The use of focus groups in design science research poses interesting opportunities and challenges. Traditional focus group methods must be adapted to meet two specific goals of design research. For the evaluation of an artifact design, exploratory focus groups (EFGs) stu...

The previous chapters have taken you through the fundamentals of design science research, the problems, solutions space, design process, frameworks, outputs and artifacts, theories and dissemination of the research results. The design science research paradigm is highly relevant to information systems (IS) research because it directly addresses two...

Future complex software-intensive systems (SIS) will be vastly different from the software systems that run today’s world. Revolutionary advances in hardware, networking, information, and human interface technologies will require entirely new ways of thinking about how software-intensive systems are conceptualized, built, and evaluated. As we envis...

The design of software has been one of the greatest challenges in the development of information systems. From its fairly primitive beginnings in the form of toggling on/off switches and punching holes in paper tapes, software has come to dominate the cost of all forms of information systems. Yet, instead of gaining increasing mastery over the proc...

There has been a gigantic shift from a product-based economy to one based on services, specifically digital services. From every indication it is likely to be more than a passing fad and the changes these emerging digital services represent will continue to transform commerce and have yet to reach market saturation. Digital services are being desig...

As you near the completion of a design science research project, your thoughts are now diverted to what to do next? Every researcher wants to publish their finding to the scientific community and in particular to their peer group. While academic publishing is certainly a preferred outcome of DSR, we would also like to mention that another possible...