A Fitness-Utility Model for Design Science Research

Current thinking in design science research (DSR) defines the usefulness of the design artifact in a relevant problem environment as the primary research goal. Here we propose a complementary evaluation model for DSR. Drawing from evolutionary economics, we define a fitness-utility model that better captures the evolutionary nature of design improvements and the essential DSR nature of searching for a satisfactory design across a fitness landscape. Our goal is to move DSR to more meaningful evaluations of design artifacts for sustainable impacts. A key premise of this new thinking is that the evolutionary fitness of a design artifact is more valuable than its immediate usefulness. We conclude with a discussion of the strengths and challenges of the fitness-utility model for the performance of rigorous and relevant DSR.