The Process of Building Theory

8/10/2019 The Process of Building Theory

1/18

GSM 6190

Theory in Management

Title : The Process of building Theory

Authors : Clayton M Christensen and

!a"id M Sundhal# $ar"ard %usiness School&'001(

%y : Megat Shari)udin b *ul+i,i &GM

0-9./( Mohamad aif b $a2i Abdul

Mubin &GM 0-9.6(


2/18

Pur3ose

Help defne the types o good topics orquestions to address in a productiveresearch agenda

Oer guidance in designing researchprogrammes to improve

understanding in management theory


3/18

A theory of theory building 4

5terati"e 3rocess

1stphase

Observe phenomena and describeproblems that we are acing

Careul description o the phenomena

in words and numbers Classiy the phenomena into

categories o similar thing


4/18

2ndPhase

uilding theories to e!plain thebehavior o the phenomena"

# statement o what causes what$

and why$ and under whatcircumstances

Contingent e!planation o causality$

to understand why things turn outthe way they do

e able to predict with confdence


5/18

The 3rocess of building better theory

%iscover new thing that a theory did not leadthem to e!pect i"e" parado! or anomaly

&espond'

(ore accurately describing what the phenomena areand are not

%efning a revised classifcation scheme$ orspeciying ways to measure more accurate attributes

#rticulating new statement o what causes what$and why$ and under what circumstances

)he cycle repeated again when new researcheround other anomalies


6/18

Observe$ describe * measurephenomena

Classifcation

)heory

paradigm

#nomaly

Confrm

)heory is a statement o

what causes what$ and why$and under whatcircumstances

Predictiv

e

+nductive

process

+nductiv

e

proc

ess

igure 1: The Process by 7hichtheory is built


7/18

Cycles o theory building

Pre,paradigmatic

-inding anomalies on the conceptual

defnition o categories

Post,paradigmatic

-iguring out how to measure thephenomena and predict


8/18

ole of anomaly in theory4building

%iscover things where prior theory

cannot account . alsifable o theory

/enerate more accurate theory"#ssert what causes what$ and why$and under what circumstances


9/18

Anomaly see+ing research 8 threemechanisms:

1"0oo at phenomena through the lenses oother academic disciplines

2"0oo at the phenomena within thephenomena

"0oo at a broader variety o phenomena3than previous researcher were able toe!amine4


10/18

1 lenses of other academicdisci3lines

(echanism that leads researchers toloo or dierent things than scholars

within the e!isting dominant disciplineintuitively loo or

5nables researchers to attach meaningand signifcance to phenomena which$when not viewed through new lenses$might appear inconsequential


11/18

2" 3henomena 7ithin the 3henomena

6ested research design 37in$ 189:4 , ;tudyhow individuals act and interact withingroups

How interaction amongst groups andcompanies eect the actions o individuals

#nomalies will only surace while studyingsecond,order interactions within a nesteddesign


12/18

" %roader "ariety of 3henomena


13/18

The im3ortance of categoriation

;hort,circuit the process o building a theory by leaping

rom phenomena to theory would lead to less value touture researchers and practitioners . the =theory> doesnot have contingent e!planatory power"

)wo stages o categori?ation' ;ubstantive classifcation

)he classifcation schemes tend to be defned by the attributes o thephenomena

Prerequisite to the emergence o theory grounded in ormal calssifcation

ut %i@cult to conclude that one scheme is superior to another becausethere are so many dimensions o the phenomena

-ormal classifcation -ormal categories tends to be defned in terms o circumstances in which

practitioners might fnd themselves rather than attributes o phenomena

(ap into the theory stage o theory building 3fgure 14

)he emergence o ormal categories$ to assert how causal chain 3whatcauses what$ and why4 might yield dierent outcomes in dierent situations


14/18

Classication and 3roducti"e researchuestions

)o improve a theory$ researchers couldas ever,deeper categori?ation questions

about the wor o prior writers

Classifcations questions can be a reliablemechanism by which anomalies are

uncovered$ enabling researchers to addvalue


15/18

A"oidance of classication

Categori?ation is the bedroc o meaningul theory"

&esearchers oten see categori?ation asoperationali?ing constructs$ that only allow them tostate =under this specifc circumstance these actionscause these results>" ;till useul i subsequentscholars can use those fndings to predict what areliely to see when they observed more phenomenawithin specifc circumstance"

ut$ i researchers defne hypothetical categories inorder to mae the mathematics o their analysistractable$ then subsequent scholars cannot use theirwor to build theory


16/18

Classication and the e;ternal "alidityof research

5!ternal validity arises when a reader as =A howcan we be sure these lessons can be applied tothis other situationB> 3e!ternal validity4

5!ternal validity is established throughclassifcation

Classifcation that is mutually e!clusive andcollectively e!haustive could e!plain what causeswhat$ and why$ and under what circumstances


17/18

Classication and nested research designs

;olid theory asserts what causes what and why

/rounded in a robust categori?ation scheme that candefne or specifc managers in specifc situationswhich courses o action would lead to the best results

6ested research . loo at phenomena withinphenomena . case studies o specifc situationswithin the population that are une!plained outliers3anomalies4

Help defne categories and can articulate a theorywith better e!ternal validity


18/18

Conclusion 8 the incongruity of actionsand 7ords

#cademicians> ob maret . emphasi?ed ondeep training in using tools o measurement

and analysis 0ittle emphasi?e about how to defne good

research questions

+nherent problem , lac o understanding3among the academicians4 on the problemo anomaly,discovery ' constitute theoundation o research wor"

Documents

The Process of Building Theory