During the doctoral consortium, the ENT division will be sponsoring a PDW on Theory Development open to the entire conference. We invite you to join the PDW – the full description is below. The PDW takes place Friday, August 7 from 12:00 – 2:00 in Chicago Ballroom 8 at the Sheraton Chicago.
Theory Development: Lessons from Scholars that Fought the Theory Emerging Battle
Howard Aldrich
Jay Barney
Kim Cameron
David Whetten
Phenomena, theory, phenomena—the focus of research in an emerging field often evolves through these three different phases as it grows and becomes established. Initially, scholars in these emerging fields focus on describing a phenomena that doesn’t seem to fit with pre-existing paradigms (Kuhn, 1970). This descriptive work is essential if the dimensions along which these phenomena vary are to be understood. Good science often begins with good description. Over a period of time, after the phenomenon in question becomes more completely described, scholars shift their attention from simply describing phenomenon to explaining their existence and behavior. Early on, this is usually done by borrowing and modifying theories and frameworks developed elsewhere and applying them in this new emerging field. But this borrowing and modifying is usually not fully satisfactory. If it was possible to fully explain new phenomenon with borrowed and modified theories, it would not have been necessary for scholars to leave those pre-existing paradigms in the first place. Thus begins an often long search for theories and models that, while not necessarily inconsistent with prior work, are nevertheless distinct enough to be clearly identified with the emergence of a new field (Kuhn, 1970). The purpose of this theory session is to provide entrepreneurship scholars with various perspectives on theory development from a wide range of theorists who have gone through the process of developing theory in other emerging fields. We requested that these scholars reflect on their process as they developed theory in an emerging area.