Innovation and Ontologies

230 Empirical Approach
2.1 Research Methodology
A research methodology consists of […] the process, methods, and tools […]
used in conducting research in a research domain. (Nunamaker, Chen & Purdin, 1991)
The basis of the research methodology is a research framework which was adapted from Design
Science. The description of the research methodology starts with the presentation of this
framework in subsection 2.1.1.
In order to establish a repeatable process for ontology engineering, I elaborated a methodology
based on Design Science which integrates the insights documented by the community of
ontology engineers. Subsection 2.1.2 puts forward the resulting methodology for ontology
engineering, the Design Science Ontology Lifecycle (OntoLife). This section closes with a presentation
of the SME which formed the field of study (cf. 2.1.3).
2.1.1 Framework
The basis of development and evaluation of the OntoGate forms the research framework
proposed by Design Science. This approach transcends the theory base of Osterwalder (2004)
who primarily used Design Science for ontology engineering (cf. 1.2.3.2). He mainly built on the
works of March & Smith (1995) (cf. 1.2.2.4). For the Design Science Ontology Lifecycle
(OntoLife), the more comprehensive IS Design Science framework of Hevner et al. (2004) (cf.
1.2.2.6) serves as basis (cf. figure 78).
In the slightly adapted version of the Design Science framework in figure 79, develop/ build and
justify/ evaluate are merged into one block. This illustrates the importance I attribute to the cyclic
approach of continuous alternation between development and validation.
figure 79 Adapted generic research framework (based on Hevner, March, Park & Ram 2004)