The cycles of theory building in management research

Starting from the assumption that good theories are of practical value, this paper offers an account of what theory-building research is and how it is done. Rather than arguing on one side of a debate about deductive vs. inductive or qualitative vs. quantitative, this paper describes the cycle through which theory-building research continually passes. We argue that the cycle passes through three stages: description, categorization and causality. When new descriptions reveal anomalies the cycle is repeated and current theory can be potentially altered. By building a common understanding of the theory building process, we hope this will help avoid many of the debates that sidetrack our "collective" research efforts and identify potential changes in how we design research programs, evaluate each others' work and teach the craft of scholarship to our students.