In other words, a valid concept implies that it is well-grounded, sound or capable of being justified. This paradox and the absence of a such an organized basis for use by IS researchers and philosophers in their scientific endeavors is key motivation for this article. A concept or conceptual model is plausible if it has face validity. This criterion is useful to assess the apparent reasonableness of an idea. This could be demonstrated by tautologous corroboration or deduction from past research or theories, or, it could be developed on the basis of observation or induction.
Plausibility establishes that a concept or model is more than just a belief or conjecture.
This criterion dictates that a concept or conceptual model, at the least, has the quality of being workable or operationalizable. In addition to being plausible, a feasible concept or conceptual model would be operational in that it would be amenable to verbal, graphical, mathematical, illustrative, prototypical characterization. An effective concept not only represents the phenomenon in question parsimoniously, it also guides and stimulates other scientific inquiries. The pragmatism criterion dictates that a concept or conceptual model not be restrictive to the extent of logically excluding previously valid concepts or conceptual models. Thus, this criterion provides that concepts or conceptual models should subsume, for obviously practical reasons, any conceptual structures that previously explained related phenomenon.