What are the siblings of design science research

There is no common agreement on how to characterize and positioning design science research. This makes it difficult for design science researchers to communicate the ideas of design science research to students, young researchers, and researchers outside the design science research community. In this paper, we present an approach for supporting the positioning of design science research in respect to key notions such as social science, research strategies, practice research, and action research. The approach is based on Wittgenstein’s notion of family resemblance, and the question addressed in the paper is: What are the siblings to design science research? Four sibling groups are presented, and the paper suggests how design science research can be compared and contrasted to its siblings within these groups.