Relevance through Consortium Research? A Case Study

The Information Systems (IS) community is discussing the relevance of its research. Design-orientedIS research is considered a promising approach since it combines practical relevance and scientificrigor. Only limited guidance, however, is available for the researcher to gain access to and exchangeknowledge from the practitioners' domain. Consortium research addresses this issue. It is researchcollaboration between academic research institutions and partner companies aiming at jointlydeveloping IS artefacts. Consortium research as a method comprises four phases, namely analysis,design, evaluation, and diffusion. This paper presents a case study on consortium research in the areaof Corporate Data Quality Management (CDQM). In doing so, it explains the characteristics ofconsortium research which facilitate the knowledge transfer between researchers and practitioners.The paper contributes to the debate on research relevance by identifying aspects which - in furtherresearch - might be incorporated into existing guidelines for the conduct of design-oriented ISresearch.