Oct, 15th 2024

Tuesday

Frithjof Wegener

(Northumbria University)

Title: A Pragmatist Critique of Cognitive Design Science

Abstract: Design Science Research has largely built on Simon’s design science, which provides a cognitive and goal-oriented framework for addressing structured problems. Simon’s framework importantly acknowledges Knightian uncertainty, recognizing the limits of predictability in complex environments. However, despite this acknowledgment, Design Science Research struggles to effectively navigate the full extent of such uncertainty. The procedural and rational focus of Simon’s design science often leads to linear processes that are not well-suited for emergent, unpredictable contexts. Pragmatism, particularly Dewey’s view of inquiry, offers a distinct alternative by framing science and design as iterative, experimental, and socially embedded processes. This perspective aligns with design studies, where design is seen as adaptive, emergent, and collaborative. While Simon’s contributions remain foundational, this paper critiques the cognitive constraints of Design Science Research and argues for a shift toward a pragmatist perspective that better accommodates complexity and uncertainty through iterative learning, stakeholder co-design, and experimental inquiry.

Oct, 29th 2024

Tuesday

Manuel Wiesche

(TU Dortmund)

Title: Bad Client Feedback on Digital Labor Platforms: How Freelancers Cope with the Peril Posed by Negative Reviews

Abstract: Freelancing on digital labor platforms is an important source of income for an increasing number of workers. As self-employed professionals, freelancers rely on positive reviews to attract new jobs and clients. It is well-known that positive reviews help to attract clients by reducing uncertainty about freelancers' ability to deliver services; however, we do not know how negative reviews affect freelancers' performance. Nor, if they receive them, what strategies freelancers can use to mitigate the impact of negative reviews. This is especially important because we know from other online domains that negative reviews can undermine product sales. We use feedback intervention theory (FIT) to identify coping strategies that freelancers use to overcome negative feedback. We then conducted fuzzy set qualitative comparative analyses (fsQCA) of 1,712 freelancer profiles to identify sets of coping strategies like communication skills, collaboration skills, and sharing complete information influence freelancers' performance relevant to different types of negative feedback. First, we identify one general pathway to high performance despite negative reviews. Second, we used a subsample analysis of negatively rated freelancers to reveal how different coping strategy combinations are more or less relevant to different types of negative feedback on digital labor platforms. We conclude with implications for research and practice.

Dec, 12th 2024

Tuesday

Jan Recker

(Uni Hamburg)

Title: AI Development as a Sense Exchanging Process

Abstract: We report on a 16-month ethnographic field study of a German software development company that decided to build and implement its first AI-based software product, a smart assistant tool for HR queries. Using inductive analysis, we develop a new process theory that conceptualizes AI development as a composite teleological and dialectical process during which initial and exogenously “given sense” of the abstract problem and solution space of AI technology is gradually exchanged through a new and recursively formed sensemaking process that involves dialectical actions of sense hiding and sense specification that is eventually materializes in an implemented AI product. This process unfolds in different iterative stages that progress through both abstracting and concretizing practices. Our new theory offers new perspectives on the differences between AI development and traditional software development and provides several implications for how firms can better manage emerging versatile, general purpose technologies in the future.