Classifying Design Science Research in Terms of Types of Reasoning from an Epistemological Perspective

Design science research (DSR) is now an established branch of the artificial sciences. However, the nature of the logical reasoning and the epistemological foundations have so far received little attention. In this paper, based on a systematic literature review with quantitative and qualitative analysis of the results, an in-depth investigation of the meta-scientific view of DSR is conducted. Induction, deduction, and abduction are explained in detail with regard to general and DSR-specific applications and underpinned with suitable examples from this field. After assessing the justification for the existence of all three types of reasoning in DSR, a generalized framework is constructed to depict the end-to-end process of DSR projects and position superficial activities as falling under either type. Given the fairly small number of efforts to consider DSR directly from a meta-scientific perspective, this work offers a new point of discussion in this relatively young field of science compared to the natural and human sciences.