14872 - Design Science in Entrepreneurship and Management Modulübersicht

Module Number: 14872
Module Title:Design Science in Entrepreneurship and Management
  Designwissenschaft in Unternehmertum und Management
Department: Faculty 5 - Business, Law and Social Sciences
Responsible Staff Member:
  • Prof. Dr. rer. pol. habil. Müller, David
Language of Teaching / Examination:English
Duration:1 semester
Frequency of Offer: Every winter semester
Credits: 6
Learning Outcome:Successfully completing this course means, students will be able to apply design science in both scientific and practical projects. They will understand how design science differs from traditional explanatory research and know how to develop practical, research-based solutions to pressing challenges.
Students will be able to identify design problems worth solving and use qualitative methods such as interviews to understand real-world problems. Based on this, they will be able to derive design requirements and create useful solutions, such as tools, processes, or frameworks. They will be competent in how to co-design these solutions with relevant stakeholders as well as how to evaluate these solutions.

Contents:The course Design Science in Management introduces students to an innovative, impact-oriented approach that bridges academic theorizing with real-world problem solving. Design science is a problem-solving and scientific research approach that focuses on designing and evaluating solutions to pressing, complex problems. Unlike traditional academic research, which typically aims to understand and explain phenomena (“how and why” things happen), design science aims to shape and improve reality, answering “how can” and “how should things be” questions.
The students will work in small teams and engage with a real-world problem. This problem will be introduced through a design brief, which outlines the problem they are asked to solve. Each team will plan and conduct their own design science mini-project. They will derive design requirements, that are, insights into what a solution must achieve in order to be useful. Based on these design requirements, they will co-create artifacts and evaluate them. Drawing on both their artifact evaluation and academic literature, students will formulate design principles, that are, prescriptive knowledge that explains how to change an existing situation into a preferred one. Throughout their project, students will engage with relevant stakeholders to collect data, for example to understand the problem better or evaluate their solutions.The results of the project will be presented in two formats: a written report and an oral presentation.


By completing their own mini design science projects, students will gain hands-on experience in planning and conducting such projects. They will also learn how to communicate with relevant stakeholders, both in written reports and in oral presentations.
Recommended Prerequisites:
  • Experience in reading and engaging with academic literature as well as 
  • an interest in problem-solving are advantageous. 
  • Basic knowledge of qualitative approaches such as case studies are helpful.
Mandatory Prerequisites:None
Forms of Teaching and Proportion:
  • Seminar / 4 Hours per Week per Semester
  • Self organised studies / 120 Hours
Teaching Materials and Literature:
  • Denyer, D., Tranfield, D., & Van Aken, J. E. (2008). Developing design propositions through research synthesis. Organization studies, 29(3), 393-413.
  • Gregor, S., Chandra Kruse, L., & Seidel, S. (2020). Research perspectives: the anatomy of a design principle. Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 21(6), 2.
  • Opdenakker, R., & Cuijpers, C. (2025). Design Science Methodology for the Management Sciences. Springer Texts in Business and Economics.
  • Seckler, C., Mauer, R., & vom Brocke, J. (2021). Design science in entrepreneurship: Conceptual foundations and guiding principles. Journal of Business Venturing Design, 1(1-2), 100004.
  • Thuan, N. H., Drechsler, A., & Antunes, P. (2019). Construction of design science research questions. Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 44(1), 20.
  • Romme, A. G. L., & Holmström, J. (2023). From theories to tools: calling for research on technological innovation informed by design science. Technovation, 121, 102692.
  • Romme, A. G. L., & Reymen, I. M. (2018). Entrepreneurship at the interface of design and science: Toward an inclusive framework. Journal of Business Venturing Insights, 10, e00094.
  • Venable, J., Pries-Heje, J., & Baskerville, R. (2016). FEDS: a framework for evaluation in design science research. European Journal of Information Systems, 25(1), 77-89.
Module Examination:Continuous Assessment (MCA)
Assessment Mode for Module Examination:
  • Presentation including discussion, max. 10 minutes, group-based (50 %)
  • Term paper, 15 pages, group-based (50 %)
Evaluation of Module Examination:Performance Verification – graded
Limited Number of Participants:None
Part of the Study Programme:
  • Master (research-oriented) / Wirtschaftsingenieurwesen / PO 2025
  • Master (research-oriented) - Reduced Semester / Wirtschaftsingenieurwesen / PO 2025
  • Master (research-oriented) - Reduced Semester / Wirtschaftsingenieurwesen - dual / PO 2025
  • Master (research-oriented) - Co-Op Programme with Practical Place / Wirtschaftsingenieurwesen - dual / PO 2025
Remarks:None
Module Components:
  • Seminar 530505 
Components to be offered in the Current Semester:
  • no assignment