A concordance of "Theory" in MISQ and ISR

v2026-08-03

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What does “theory” mean in DSR papers from MISQ and ISR?

Top IS journals emphasize “theory.” But there is an inherent mismatch between the design science research method and canonical approaches to “theory” in management research (Walls et al., 1992).

Standard approaches to theory building focus on describing empirical relationships between constructs (Whetten, 1989). But in DSR, researchers focus on helping achieve goals rather than describing the world (Hevner et al., 2004). Given this core discontinuity, how should DSR authors fulfill the strong preference for “theory” at MISQ and ISR?

This resource is intended to help DSR authors sort this out. The application organizes every instance of “theory” in self-described DSR papers from MISQ and ISR using a data structure called a KWIC view or concordance. I hope it helps DSR authors position their work. Good luck!

Some ways to use this

↪Reviewer 2 says my paper has no theory. Show me all the DSR papers from ISR that don’t even include the word “theory.”

↪I think my project is a good fit for Walls et al. (1992). Show me some examples applying this framework.

↪Does statistical learning theory like from ML count as “theory”? Show me some papers that use “theory” in the more technical sense of the word.

A concordance of the word “theory” in DSR papers from MISQ and ISR