Towards design theory for community collaboration support system during crises: from conceptualisation to validation

ABSTRACT

This research conceptualises and validates a design theory for developing Community Collaboration Support Systems (CCSS) to enhance supply chain (SC) resilience during crises. We constructed a knowledge base to derive kernel theories, following the Design Science Research (DSR) methodology. Utilising exploratory and confirmatory focus groups as the primary data collection methods, we refined and validated the proposed CCSS design theory, ensuring its robustness, applicability, and validity. This study not only contributes to the field of information collaborative systems through the theoretical conceptualisation of CCSS theory but also provides practical insights for researchers and practitioners, fostering advancements in crisis management and community collaboration support systems.

KEYWORDS:

• Community collaboration support systems
• crisis management IS
• design science research
• supply chain resilience

1. Introduction

According to the 2024 Climate and Catastrophe Insight Report (Case, 2024), the year 2023 witnessed nearly 400 notable natural disaster events worldwide, resulting in economic losses totalling $380 billion. This figure is equivalent to the GDP of such countries as South Africa or Egypt. The impact of natural disasters, such as floods and earthquakes, extended beyond economic losses, with 95,000 recorded fatalities, 2023 has been the deadliest year for natural disasters since 2010. The year 2023 also hit the record as the hottest year since the beginning of observation in 1850, setting the stage for future escalating challenges resulting from climate change. Projections from the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction anticipate a 40% increase in notable disasters, reaching a number of 560 or 1.5 disasters every day by 2030 (UN, 2022).

In 2023, the WHO chief declared the end of the devastating COVID-19 pandemic as a public health emergency (UN, 2023). About 768 million cases, with nearly 7 million deaths, were registered worldwide by the end of 2023 since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020. However, the global landscape is further marred by a surge in wars and armed conflicts, giving rise to humanitarian and refugee crises. In 2023, 117.2 million individuals (including 40% children) found themselves displaced and stateless across 134 countries (UNHCR, 2023). Among these displaced people, over 36 million became refugees, predominantly from Afghanistan, Syria, and Ukraine. Adding to the gravity of the situation, nearly 2 million children were born into the harsh reality of refugee status.

These sobering statistics and predictions underscore an alarming reality – natural disasters and humanitarian crises are not anomalies but an integral part of our existence. Their numbers, frequency, and impact continue to surge every year. It is essential for society to find more effective ways to prepare, predict, proactively respond, and provide support to communities when these crises inevitably hit us. Governments deploy different crisis management policies and strategies; however, they face various challenges that make them inefficient. For instance, these policies often are not flexible in strategies and executions, have communication gaps, and serious issues in resource allocation, further hindering an effective and timely response to crises and could make communities vulnerable. Addressing these issues requires a comprehensive and adaptive approach emphasising collaboration and community involvement. Such an approach is crucial to address the challenges and problems of the existing crisis management systems and policies, ultimately leveraging effort in crisis management and enhancing the resilience of supply chains (SC) for diverse stakeholders. Collaboration has been declared as an essential approach to developing effective solutions (Case, 2024).

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have been widely acknowledged as a potentially highly effective tool in addressing crisis management issues, promoting collaborations among all stakeholders, and eliminating communication gaps. Information Technologies (ITs) can help manage the impact of crises in organisations and communities efficiently when focused on collaboration and sharing resources (Ivanov, 2020). However, the exciting IT solutions are limited and don’t show the expected efficiency in community crisis management. One of the potential reasons for this is that most of the existing solutions were designed and developed as ad hoc and not theory-driven approaches (Ludwig et al., 2017). The existing understanding is limited regarding how to design Information Systems (IS) to help crisis-centric communities (e.g. groups of individuals and organisations formed during a crisis) collaboratively overcome natural or humanitarian crisis consequences like SC disbalances (Anderson et al., 2020). The literature emphasises the critical need for theoretical advancements (Fertier et al., 2018; Lukosch & Comes, 2019). There is a recognised knowledge gap regarding designing an efficient community collaborative IS for mitigating SC disruptions during crises (Anderson et al., 2020; Sakurai & Kokuryo, 2014).

Therefore, to respond to the recent developments and the need for theory-driven design, this study aims to conceptualise and validate a theory for designing a Community Collaboration Support System (CCSS) that enhances SC resilience during crises.

In the next section, we provide a concise background summarising existing IS solutions aiming at collaboration to help crisis-centric communities. Then, we explain how we developed a theory for CCSS by employing the design science research (DSR) methodology. The conceptualised CCSS theory was then empirically refined and validated through specifically organised exploratory and confirmatory focus groups. Finally, we provide our conclusions.

2. Background

A thorough literature search found that multiple attempts have been made to develop and implement community crisis-centric IS solutions over the last 15 years. Some of the most successful applications available for communities worldwide are web-based platforms like Ushahidi (e.g., Besaleva & Weaver, 2013), OpenStreetMap (e.g., Soden et al., 2014), Disasters 2.0 (e.g., Camarero & Iglesias, 2009), Sahana (e.g., Sakurai & Kokuryo, 2014), and eBayanihan (e.g., Estuar et al., 2014). Ushahidi, for instance, is a crowdsourcing platform that was originally developed in Africa to monitor post-election violence in Kenya in 2008, but then it was successfully used for multiple applications to help communities worldwide overcome consequences of natural disasters and crises, including earthquakes, floods, wildfires, etc. (Besaleva & Weaver, 2013). In addition, the literature suggests several prototypes of community crisis management systems, such as City-Share (Ludwig et al., 2017), ManuChain system (Leng et al., 2022), Message Query Telemetry Transport (Pradhan, 2021), and FloodHippo (Johnson et al., 2018). Their functionalities include alerting, reporting, process control and monitoring, messaging, and real-time mapping. For instance, ManuChain is a decentralised solution for manufacturing resilience (Leng et al., 2022), while FloodHippo is a cloud-based geographic IS providing personal and interactive disaster alerts for floods (Johnson et al., 2018).

The analysis revealed that the majority of IT solutions and prototypes were geared towards supporting post-crisis response and routine operations within supply chains. Additionally, these solutions were often ad hoc and needed a theoretical foundation in their design and development. Although the key functionalities encompass alerting, reporting, and messaging mechanisms, as well as process control features to coordinate post-crisis operations, these solutions and prototypes might prove to be ineffective, lacking the essential characteristics required for the CCSS systems to fully support the resilience of SCs (Fertier et al., 2018). This deficiency may manifest in inadequate features such as limited visibility and accessibility to information, insufficient decentralisation, and a lack of collaborative tools and specialised knowledge availability (Ludwig et al., 2017). As a result, the existing solutions fail to provide full resilience to SCs and collaborative disruptions of different kinds in communities (Appiah et al., 2021). In addition, the existing applications and prototypes are incompatible with the systems being used in organisations (Sakurai & Kokuryo, 2014).

The above-mentioned solutions and prototypes do not demonstrate a foundation in theory-driven development for an IS precisely tailored to enhance community SC resilience in crisis situations (Appiah et al., 2021; Ludwig et al., 2017; Sakurai & Kokuryo, 2014). Crucially, these solutions overlook many potential benefits inherent in a theoretical approach (Gregor & Hevner, 2013), which could significantly contribute to resolving issues in the design of a community-based IS. The advantages of a theoretical framework are largely omitted, emphasising the need for a more comprehensive and theoretically grounded development strategy to address the intricacies of community SC resilience during crises (Anderson et al., 2020; Sakurai & Kokuryo, 2014).

3. Conceptualising a design theory for CCSS

To develop a design theory, we employed Design Science Research (DSR) as an appropriate methodology for developing a theory-driven design of an IS (Gregor & Hevner, 2013; Hevner et al., 2004; Vaishnavi et al., 2004). The rationale behind this choice is that DSR is a problem-solvent-oriented approach that helps theory-building within the IS domain. Through the iterative process of design, implementation, and evaluation, DSR generates insights and knowledge that can contribute to the development of theoretical frameworks and models. The DSR suggests rigorous steps to follow for the development of theoretical knowledge and empirical evidence or logical proof holistically and comprehensively to ensure that the system is effective and relevant to the community’s needs (Wilson et al., 2018). The framework for theory development in the DSR includes the selection of kernel theories and knowledge translation to develop mid-range theories (Vaishnavi et al., 2004). To conceptualise a design theory, we followed the DSR guidelines specified by Gregor and Hevner (2013) and used the DSR ‘mapping process’ and logical reasoning to translate the kernel theories’ constructs into a design theory (Kuechler & Vaishnavi, 2015). To create the knowledge base for the CCSS theory conceptualisation, we selected the following three kernel theories, as shown in Table 1.

Table 1. Kernel theories for CCSS theory conceptualisation.

Kernel Theories	Source
The Community of Practice (CoP) theory explains how organisational factors (goals, norms, values, knowledge, and practice) impact the formation of participation through social interactions in communities with shared interests or purposes.	(Hsu et al., 2018; Wenger, 1999)
The Commons-Based Peer-Production (CBPP) theory explains community collaboration for a common good, in which large groups work collaboratively online, producing common goods.	(Andreev et al., 2010; Benkler & Nissenbaum, 2006)
The Information System Success (ISS) theory is used to assess the success of an IS from the user’s perspective, e.g. information, system, and service quality.	(DeLone & McLean, 1992)

The Community of Practice (CoP) was selected as a fundamental kernel theory because the cultivation of trust and mutual understanding among community members are the core motivational and driving forces of communities (Hsu et al., 2018). To correspond with the context of our theory, we adopted and adjusted three key components of the CoP (Domain, Community, and Practice); Domain – Crisis Formation and Problem Identification (CFPI), Community – Community Formation (CF), and Practice – Collaborative Community of Practice (CCoP). Given the emphasis of the CoP theory on the influential role of users (stakeholders of a crisis-centric community) interactions with an IS for all three components, there is a natural alignment with the Commons-Based Peer Production (CBPP) theory for the social production of common goods. Main CBPP constructs will be translated for IS-enabled techniques to drive all three components of CoP. It becomes pertinent to underline the significance of autonomous and voluntary social production and resource sharing within this framework, placing a deliberate focus on fostering trust and transparency (Andreev et al., 2010; Benkler & Nissenbaum, 2006). Since a theory-driven IS that enables agreeable access, sharing, and exchange of information in a compatible and standardised manner has not been fully developed (Ludwig et al., 2017; Lukosch & Comes, 2019), Trust (TR), information sharing (InS), and Compatibility (COM) stand as important constructs borrowed in the CBPP. All CBPP IS-enabled techniques can be found in Figure 1 within three CoP components.

Figure 1. Visual representation of the initial CCSS design theory.

In order for the CCSS to be sustainable, we proposed to include system quality (SQ), information quality (IQ), and user satisfaction (US) constructs borrowed from the Information System Success (ISS) theory as critical for CCSS design theory (DeLone & McLean, 1992). We designated the central role for the formation of the relationships among the constructs to the ISS because it includes quality factors, e.g. IQ and SQ, which can positively affect US (Lwoga et al., 2020). To ensure that users improve their performance by relying on the system’s functions, the SQ is an essential construct in the design theory (Aboaoga et al., 2020; Lai & Yang, 2009). IQ plays a significant role in the usefulness of the entire system impacting IS usage and success (Lai & Yang, 2009). According to the literature, US can affect the degree of their involvement in the processes and increase the desire to collaborate (DeLone & McLean, 1992; Lwoga et al., 2020). Essentially, the US measures the perception of the system’s influence on the IS usage, as it can directly affect further collaboration among the IS users (Lwoga et al., 2020).

The ultimate outcome of the CCSS design theory is Community Support Supply Chain Resilience (CSSCR), indicating that the community overcomes the consequences of the crisis and SC disbalance is resolved with the help of the CCSS system. Hence, CCoP positively affects the CSSCR, engaging the communities in flexible and efficient decision-making processes, which is one of the tenets of the resilience theory (Raassens et al., 2022). A visual representation of the CCSS theory is shown in Figure 1.

When a crisis hits, a new CCSS system related to this crisis emerges. The CFPI construct is the initial driver helping individuals register and share the needs they could have due to the crisis as well as resources they can share to help. As a result, the crisis, its related problems, and needs are formalised. A geographical mapping localisation tool can be used (by analogy with Ushahidi) to map and systemise the crisis volume, its needs, and locations. There are various IS-enabled techniques borrowed from CBPP that allow the identification of the crisis, formulate the problems, and split them into smaller modular and granular tasks, due to which the system starts to function. The CFPI construct is crucial since it indicates the crisis and its severity. The system is active while the crisis exists and becomes obsolete when problems and needs disappear.

As soon as a crisis and its problems are formalised, it becomes essential to form a crisis-centric community. The CF construct includes IS techniques facilitating the formation of a community. The CF creates an environment with broad and inclusive participation, monitors and captivates motivation, a sense of belonging and mutual commitment, and trust to form a crisis-centric community effectively. The third main and most actionable from the user’s perspective is the Collaborative Community of Practice, which allows for mitigating crises via self-assignment, filtering, development of routines, and sharing of information. Community stakeholders contribute their skills and resources to help allocate, secure, and distribute vital items to those in need. Self-assignment to tasks and projects will be enabled via the decentralised status of the system, fostering collaborative engagement.

4. Refinement and validation of the design CCSS theory

We followed the procedure for conducting the focus groups (FGs) specially designed for theory refinement and validation in the DSR (Tremblay et al., 2010). Following guidelines for evaluating and developing theories in IS research, the FGs evaluated the theory’s parts (constructs, associations, states, and events) and the theory quality (importance, novelty, parsimony, trialability and falsifiability) (Weber, 2012). We sourced FG candidates via LinkedIn, selecting scholars with over three years of experience in IS design, supply chain management, business technology management, crisis management and community resilience. FGs were conducted on ZOOM platform on June 1 and 26 June 2023; participants in the exploratory focus group (EFG) averaged 45 years old with 9 years of expertise, while the confirmatory focus group (CFG) averaged 55 years old with 23 years of expertise. One of the authors moderated the FGs to guide the discussion following the FG protocol of Tremblay et al. (2010).

First, we conducted an EFG with five scholars with expertise in IS design to refine the design theory. Most of the participants in the EFG demonstrated consensus regarding the constructs for the design theory for CCSS, emphasising the relevance and coherence of the selected constructs. Several suggestions were made in EFG for considering additional kernel theories, e.g. theories focusing on equity, solution, part dynamics, and recovery time scale. The propositions were considered and incorporated in the subsequent FG. Owing to the simplicity and parsimony of the Community Collaboration Support System (CCSS) theory, coupled with the absence of a significant impact from other proposed theories, the original CCSS kernel theories were retained. Participants mostly agreed on the associations to be dynamic. While evaluating the states of the theory to see the dynamics of network growth due to disruption or crisis, some participants could not decide on the states of the theory, and some expressed their concerns. The events were found to be covered and well-defined. The importance of the proposed theory was acknowledged as relevant for supporting communities during crises. The novelty of the theory was well recognised, i.e. a combination of constructs from different theories was unique and had not been encountered previously. Suggestions were made to enhance the parsimony of the theory by reducing (or combining) some constructs if possible. The theory was categorised as a middle-range design theory. While being challenging to evaluate, participants generally agreed on the trialability and falsifiability of the theory.

After analysing and considering all the suggestions, the theory was refined and offered for a CFG with five academics and university professors researching in the IS design and development field to validate the CCSS design theory. CFG’s participants demonstrated consensus on the chosen constructs. For example, ‘ … I understand what you’re trying to do with IS success, we say that it’s the cornerstone of your framework development and makes perfect sense, it’s in the IS system … I don’t really see an issue with the community formation here … ’ Most of the participants agreed that the associations were to be both, static and dynamic phenomena. In their words, ‘ … I would say potentially it could be both’. Participants agreed that the states of the theory are well-defined and covered. Consensus was reached that events that a thing undergoes are covered and well defined. All participants acknowledged the importance of the proposed theory: ‘I like what you’re doing because I definitely think that practitioners can learn from disaster, relief, and vice versa, because the sense of urgency that happens in crisis applies to what you need in businesses … ’; ‘I think it’s a relevant research framework’; “Yes, I think this is a very commendable effort, and it is very important to have a theory-driven design eventually … “. The participants recognised the novelty of the theory, emphasising contribution and relevancy: ‘I think novelty goes hand in hand with theoretical contribution and practical relevance and the previous point actually touches on that’. Improvement of the parsimony of the theory was recommended. It was agreed that the theory is a middle-range theory. While being challenging to evaluate, participants generally agreed on the trialability and falsifiability of the theory.

The collected data was transcribed, summarised, and analysed using Tremblay et al. (2010) constant comparison analysis for theory development and keywords-in-context for contextualisation. The transcribed data was coded, categorised, and thematically analysed with NVivo 12. Utilising Weber’s (2012) framework, top-level codes such as Constructs, Associations, and Falsifiability were independently generated, with sub-codes like ‘Agreement’ under ‘Associations’. Discrepancies in coding were resolved through discussion, achieving a Cohen’s Kappa coefficient of 0.8, indicating strong agreement. The findings were then integrated to refine the CCSS theory. We renamed the information system success to IS beneficial use, crisis formation and problem identification to crisis awareness, community formation to crisis-centric community development, and collaborative community of practice to crisis-centric community engagement. We replaced the Sense of belonging and mutual commitments with Shared macroculture in the crisis-centric Community Development construct, changed the Development of routines to the Development of solutions, and removed Compatibility and Decentralisation for parsimony. We split Identifying needs into the Realisation of the problem and the Needs for action. All main suggestions were elicited for analysis, considered, and implemented in the refined theory. As a result, we propose a validated conceptualisation of the design theory for the CCSS, as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Visual representation of the refined and validated design theory for CSSS.

5. Conclusion

This study proposes a conceptualisation, refinement, and validation of a novel design theory for developing a Community Collaboration Support System (CCSS) during crises. Using the DSR methodology, we formalised our theory by adopting the theory of Community of Practice, Common Peer Production, and Information System Success. We refined and validated the CCSS theory through exploratory and confirmatory focus groups, respectively. The proposed theory of CCSS enhances IS design research by expanding theoretical understanding and guiding the evolution of theory within the field. This framework furthers theoretical development and bridges practical applications, helping IS designers and developers focus on key design features crucial for addressing community challenges during crises. The study’s implications extend beyond academia, offering actionable strategies for stakeholders like businesses, governments, and NGOs, improving their crisis management capabilities and fostering continuous innovation and resilience in supply chain operations. It should be noted that this study has limitations. Even though DSR has no strict constraints on the selection of kernel theories, there is a possibility that the potential kernel theories were identified and included only partially. Some aspects that could affect the design theory might have been omitted, slightly weakening the internal validity.

This study was approved by the Office of Research Ethics and Integrity of University of Ottawa (Ethics File Number S-05-23-8808).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Alexander Nejinski

Alexander Nejinski is a PhD candidate in Digital Transformation and Innovation at Telfer School of Management, University of Ottawa. Alexander Nejinski’s academic specialty and interests lie at the intersection of Digital Transformation and Innovation and Business Technology Management. Within this interdisciplinary space, his research focuses on designing and developing an innovative information system for community supply chain resilience during different crises.

Pavel Andreev

Pavel Andreev is an Associate Professor of Business Analytics and Performance Management at the Telfer School of Management, University of Ottawa. His research interests focus on understanding and implementing digital transformation (DX) associated with how individuals, teams, and organisations use digital technologies to reshape the status quo with processes and outcomes, creating new options enabled by digital technology-driven innovations and/or optimised data-driven decision-making.