Theory Building Process

The Foundation Of
Theory Development 3:

Recap?
How to Come Out with The
Gap
Deep understanding is built through careful
and systematic study of the area of interest.

Having a deep understanding of the area of
inquiry makes a difference in terms of whether
authors are able to articulate a meaningful
gap in the literature, or whether they are
perceived as setting up a straw man
(Rindova, 2011).
Rindova, V. (2011). Moving from ideas to theoretical contribution: Comments on the process of developing
theory in organizational research, Journal of Supply Chain Management, 47(2), 19-21.
What is The Gap
Problematizing the literature as either:
Incomplete, in that it does not account for important
features of a phenomenon,
inadequate, in that it does not include all relevant
perspectives,
misdirected, in that it emphasizes the wrong set of
issues.
It is essential to know and recognize what others
have already accomplished and to build on it.
Meaningful gap or not? - depends on the authors
depth of understanding and skill in articulating the
issues.

Rindova, V. (2011). Moving from ideas to theoretical contribution: Comments on the process of
developing theory in organizational research, Journal of Supply Chain Management, 47(2), 19-21.
In order to develop an original insight into a motivated
research question, authors need to simultaneously
problematize a given area of research and recognize the
accomplishments they build on.
To be able to simultaneously claim originality and
usefulness, authors need to articulate how what they
offer builds on what is already there.
I highlight the paradoxical nature of the process of
theory development because it is my personal belief that
living through these paradoxical demands poses a
bigger challenge for most authors than the development
of the theoretical content does.
(Rindova, 2011, p. 21)
The Process by which theory is
built
Paradigm

Theory/model

Classification/categorization/framework

Observe, describe & measure
Christensen, C.M. and Sandahl, D. (2001) The Process of Building Theory, Working Paper 02-016 Division
of Research, Harvard Business School (HBS).
Observe, describe and measure - careful
description of the phenomena, in words and
numbers.
Classification/Categorization simplify and
organize the world, & to measure the phenomena,
i.e. constructs / variables organizational culture,
competitive advantage, organizational
performance etc.
Theory built upon the categorizations
circumstances under which they will have cause
and effects on each other.
Paradigm collectively exhaustive and mutually
exclusive categories by which the theory have
been tested and retested under different
circumstances.


The role of anomalies
Anomalies things for which prior theory
cannot account for (Christensen & Sundahl,
2001)
E.g. Michael Porters Competitive Advantage of
Nations model / Diamond model
How to do anomaly-seeking research
Look at the phenomena from the lenses of other
disciplines
Look at the phenomena within the phenomena -
Look at broader variety of phenomena
Theory building from cases
Research strategy that involves using one or more
cases to create theoretical constructs,
propositions and or theory from case-based,
empirical evidence (Eisenhardt & Graebner,
2007).
To develop theory inductively why the need?
Justify.
Multiple cases replication, contrasts, and
extensions to the emerging theory
Emphasize the rich, real world context in which
the phenomena occur
Answers the questions how and why?

Can create more
complicated theories
Case chosen
because of
uniqueness,
extreme example,
etc.
Can richly describe
the existence of
phenomenon
Parsimonious theory
(more generalizable,
robust and testable)
Theory better
grounded, more
accurate
Broader exploration
of research
questions

Single case study Multiple case study