The logic of an academic treatise in application oriented research

A PhD-thesis or any other academic contribution to knowledge should follow the so-called Huckin-steps: A. Domain A is important, because ...... (this step defines the academic debate to which the thesis intends to contribute) B. About A we know already the following ....... (this gives the results of the literature review on which you intend to build, also enabling the reader to position your contribution in the academic field and to judge to what extent it is new) C. However, we do not know yet.........., or there is the following controversy, or the present insight doesn't work yet....... (this is the crucial step in the definition of the research project: what is exactly the knowledge problem the thesis wants to address) D. This thesis will contribute the following to this problem (this step defines the research products the thesis will give: a causal model, a process model, a framework for analysis, more insight, certain design propositions, etc.) This logic should be incorporated, implicitly or explicitly, also in the research design, which is to govern the actions of the researcher which are to produce the material for the thesis. An example of these Huckin-steps is the following. A. The issue of technology development is an important one as this produces the foundations for new products and thus is crucial for the competitiveness of technology intensive companies. B. Unfortunately we know relatively little about this issue. Usually it is described by the funnel of Wheelwright and Clark (1992) as a process of successive selection of technology options until the choice of some final ones, which then are incorporated in main stream new product development. C. However, it is unclear where these options come from and there is little insight in the process of assessment, further development and selection of technology options. D. This thesis will produce a process model for technology development on the basis of a number of case studies, plus ideas on how to manage this process. For applied research the knowledge problem, step C, is triggered by a kind of field problem. A field problem is a situation in reality, which is problematic to some important stakeholders. This field problem is to be translated in a knowledge problem: what knowledge can help to solve the problem? (Of course there are also other issues at stake to solve field problems, like the resources or the social power needed to solve it, but in academic research the issue always is a knowledge problem). On the basis of the knowledge problem a specific research question (or in application oriented research possibly a design objective) is formulated. Step D of the Huckin-steps defines the intended research products. For sound applied research this should also include a utilization narrative. This narrative explains how, via what steps, the research products are expected to get applied in practice in order to help solving the field problem driving the research project. The narrative can show that utilization will be quite soon after finishing the research project in question, but there is also good applied research for

which actual application will still take many years of further research, development and testing. However long this period might be, the utilization narrative must give a credible account of how the intended research products will contribute to the eventual solution of the field problem. In application oriented research the output includes solution oriented research products, for example in the form of a protocol or design proposition, giving the process to solve the problem or the substantive knowledge needed. In that case, one may want to use in step D the so-called CIMO-logic to describe the intended research product. This CIMO-logic runs as follows: in this class of problematic Contexts, use this Intervention type to invoke these generative Mechanism(s), to deliver these Outcome(s). A specific example of a design proposition following CIMO-logic is: If you have a project assignment for a geographically distributed team (class of contexts), use a face-to-face kick-off meeting (intervention type) to create an effective team (intended outcome) through the development of collective task insight and commitment (generative mechanisms). Design propositions created in this way therefore contain information on what to do, in which situations, to produce what effect and offer understanding of why this happens. J E van Aken/13 July 2009