Relevance through Consortium Research? A Case Study

The Information Systems (IS) community is discussing the relevance of its research. Design-oriented IS research is considered a promising approach since it combines practical relevance and scientific rigor. Only limited guidance, however, is available for the researcher to gain access to and exchange knowledge from the practitioners’ domain. Consortium research addresses this issue. It is research collaboration between academic research institutions and partner companies aiming at jointly developing IS artefacts. Consortium research as a method comprises four phases, namely analysis, design, evaluation, and diffusion. This paper presents a case study on consortium research in the area of Corporate Data Quality Management (CDQM). In doing so, it explains the characteristics of consortium research which facilitate the knowledge transfer between researchers and practitioners. The paper contributes to the debate on research relevance by identifying aspects which in further research might be incorporated into existing guidelines for the conduct of design-oriented IS research.