Multi-Methodological Approaches in Design Science: A Review, Proposal and Application

Multi-methodological research approaches have been strongly recommended for adoption to guide information systems (IS) research and deal with the complexities involved in the research. These research approaches require appropriate mapping and integration of multiple research methodologies. However, this is not an easy task to accomplish due to a series of philosophical, cultural and psychological issues involved. By reviewing and analyzing existing representative multimethodological design science approaches, we identify that each approach has its own strengths and weaknesses. There is a clear gap between the need of multi-methodological approaches and the support from the existing research frameworks. To address these problems and issues, we propose an integrated multi-methodological research framework, which integrates strengths of the representative multi-methodological approaches and remedies their deficiencies. We demonstrate the application of the proposed framework by applying it to guide a research project in the field of information visualization, and discuss how the framework is deployed to address research problems/issues/ requirements and fulfill research objectives.