Design Science Across Disciplines: Building Bridges for Advancing Impactful Business Research

Abstract Design science offers a powerful yet underutilized approach for generating practically relevant and rigorous knowledge in business research. Although design science has strong disciplinary roots and has received renewed attention across fields such as information systems, strategy, business ethics & sustainability, entrepreneurship, and accounting, it often remains confined within disciplinary silos. This paper addresses that issue by presenting a comparative, interdisciplinary analysis of design science across five core fields. To foster a broad and inclusive understanding, we draw on the Bridge Model of Design Science, which positions design science as playing a vital bridging role between explanatory business research and business practice. We then examine how various disciplines engage in design science, highlighting unique strengths and shared challenges. By promoting an interdisciplinary dialogue, this paper contributes to a more interdisciplinary design science approach—one even better equipped to tackle the complex challenges facing business and society today. We also envision a future for design science in business research and outline a path toward realizing it.