Academy of Management Discoveries paper development workshop

THE "TOO MUCH THEORY" PROBLEM IN MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATIONAL RESEARCH: A SHORT WORKSHOP ON ABDUCTIVE REASONING AND THE ROLE OF ACADEMY OF MANAGEMENT DISCOVERIES

Hosted by the Chair of Strategic Management and Innovation, ETH Zurich

With:

Peter Bamberger, Incoming Editor-in-Chief, Academy of Management Discoveries

Chris Tucci, Incoming Associate Editor, Academy of Management Discoveries

Thomas Dyllick, Guest Editor, Academy of Management Discoveries Special Issue on Sustainable Development

Participation in this workshop requires pre-registration. Registration is now closed due to capacity limitations.

Date: Tuesday 31 October 2017

Time Plenary workshop (requires pre-registration): 8:30-10:30

Location Plenary: LEE E 101, Leonhardstrasse 21, Zurich

Time Paper development workshop (requires application): 10:45-13:00

Location PDW: F109-111, Weinbergstrasse 56/58, Zurich
 

Management and Organizational research is largely grounded on two basic logics or epistemological approaches, namely induction and deduction. However, increasingly scholars have begun to question whether the grounding of our field in these two logics alone may be overly restrictive, generating obtuse and abstract results and limiting our relevance to the broader community which our science seeks to serve. In this workshop, Professors Bamberger and Tucci will present a complementary scientific logic, one grounded on abductive reasoning (i.e., inference to the best plausible explanation). Building upon Mantere and Ketokivi’s (2013: 72) statement that, “we predict, confirm, and disconfirm through deduction, generalize through induction, and theorize through abduction,” they will distinguish the latter from these other two, more established scientific logics. After demonstrating how abduction serves as the basis for many other scientific fields, they will argue that it also serves as the under-recognized (and often maligned) basis upon much of what we do as management scholars. They will also discuss the three types of situations for which such an approach may be most suitable, namely to:

·         Surface significant new or emerging phenomenon using any number of empirical approaches including rich description, quantitative construct validation, and/or empirical taxonomic analyses.    

·         Identify and explore surprising relationships using rigorous qualitative and/or quantitative methods in order to develop plausible explanations for those relationships and provide a grounded basis for innovative theorizing.  

·         Leverage original, secondary or “big” data and any number of alternative approaches (including lab and field/quasi-experiments, meta-analyses and replication studies) in order to offer empirically-driven insights into and/or a plausible resolution of critical anomalies and discrepant findings.  

They will also discuss how such research is reviewed, evaluated and constructively developed when submitted to Academy of Management Discoveries.

Please note that participation in this workshop requires pre-registration. The workshop is currently full. Waiting list applications can be emailed to .

In the second part of the session, there will be a paper development workshop in which Professors Bamberger, Tucci, and Dyllick will provide feedback on papers that authors are considering for submission to Academy of Management Discoveries.

If you would like your paper to be considered for review in this workshop, please send your extended abstract or draft manuscript to Peter Bamberger () indicating in the subject line "paper for review – ETH Workshop" no later than Sunday 15 October, 2017