IS Design Thinking in Disaster Management Research

Disasters caused by natural hazards continue to threaten millions of humans and various infrastructure capabilities each year. In their efforts to address disasters, aid organizations, national authorities and researchers have acknowledged that natural disaster management (NDM) poses diverse and immense challenges that are different from those in the management of most daily life situations. NDM has been addressed in different disciplines, including management science, operations research, the social sciences, and information systems. Having reviewed large parts of the literature, we identified a strong focus on either descriptive or explanatory research, and on the construction and evaluation of prototypic artifacts. However, what NDM research widely lacks is generic and abstract design knowledge. Such contributions are recognized in IS design science (ISDS) research as design principles and design theories. Given the experience of ISDS research to produce high-level design knowledge, we derive implications for future research in a key area of NDM.