Day 4 — How to move from a half-baked theory to a real one
Theory development is a deep topic. Why should I get into that already at this stage?
Well, one of the objectives of doctoral studies is to contribute to scientific knowledge or, in other words, to theory.
So if this is the objective, then let’s get right to the point from the beginning.
What is a theory? This is a practical question for my job as a full-time post-graduate researcher. More importantly, it is also relevant for anyone who makes decisions or needs to make projections about the future and acts in complex environment. I’m hinting that theory is relevant for managers. (This is not new idea — read more from “Why Hard-Nosed Executives Should Care About Management Theory”).
Now, speaking with my own words and without looking at references. Theory is a simplified representation of the world or, more likely, a subset of the world — typically a specific phenomenon. Furthermore, this representation identifies why and how the phenomenon happens, who or what is taking part in it or is subject to it, and in what conditions or context it happens.
Theory helps us not only make sense of the world, as different things are happening, but it also makes it possible for us to make predictions about the future. Therefore, anyone who develops own logic about the functioning of the world or makes (non-random) predictions about the future is actively using own theory.
But how to move beyond informal theories that we all carry in our heads? This question was bothering me for a few days already.
Luckily, my first course (Theory Building and Research Design in Strategy and Venturing) has a session dedicated to that topic. The readings have been really instructive and revealing (I’ll share my favorite ones at the end).
One key realization (which at this point is just a proposition) about how to learn theory development is to fake it until you make it.
I’ll write more about this next time, because I have a practical experience from moving on the continuum of faking-to-making in the right direction.
Favorite readings:
- Developing Theory about the Development of Theory by Henry Mintzberg (not included on my reading list for the class, but still super relevant)
- Weick, K. E. 1989. Theory Construction as Disciplined Imagination. Academy of Management Review 14(4): 516–531.
- Bonus: good explanation by Andrew Van de Ven in his videos here: https://sites.google.com/a/umn.edu/avandeven/course-websites/mgmt-8101-theory-building-and-research-design/session-06
