BUILDING DIGITAL CAPABILITIES FOR TRIAL-BASED PROBLEM SOLVING: A DESIGN THEORY

摘要

Businesses in the networked digital industries face increasingly turbulent environments, characterized not only by rapid evolution but by unpredictable and disruptive change that devalues the knowledge built up through experience. In response, a number of prominent companies are beginning to employ a strategy of widespread and continuous experimentation, supported by new business intelligence technologies, as a better way to keep up with the changes in their markets. Despite a great deal of hype, however, there has been too little theoretical guidance about how to implement this kind of strategy or in what situations it might be appropriate. This paper draws on a recently-developed theory of trial-based problem solving (TBPS) to articulate a new design theory that may fill this gap. Using an information systems design theory (ISDT) framework, this work translates the new theory into a set of practical principles that can be applied across a number of problem domains.