Abstract
Incompleteness of inductive reasoning presents an enduring dilemma for organizational researchers. We examine two practical reasoning strategies—idealization and contextualization—that can be used at the pinnacle of this dilemma: when theoretical conclusions are drawn from empirical data. Understanding the two strategies can lead to more effective argumentation and evaluation. Appreciating the methodological incompleteness of both strategies, in turn, helps us distinguish between the methodological and the policy dimensions of organization-scientific debates.
REFERENCES
- 2003. Beyond neopositivists, romantics, and localists: A reflexive approach to interviews in organizational research. Academy of Management Review, 28: 13–33.Link , Google Scholar
- 2007. Constructing mystery: Empirical matters in theory development. Academy of Management Review, 32: 1265–1281.Link , Google Scholar
- 2008. On the social nature of explicating mystery construction in theory development: A response to McKinley. Academy of Management Review, 32: 543–545. Google Scholar
- 2000. Reflexive methodology: New vistas for qualitative research. London: Sage. Google Scholar
- 1985. Administrative science as socially constructed truth. Administrative Science Quarterly, 30: 497–513. Google Scholar
- 2005. Where does inequality come from? The personal and intellectual roots of resource-based theory. In Smith K. G.Hitt M. A. (Eds.), Great minds in management: The process of theory development: 280–303. Oxford: Oxford University Publisher. Google Scholar
- 2001. Convention: Poincaré and some of his critics. British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 52: 471–514. Google Scholar
- 1995. Stories of the storytelling organization: A postmodern analysis of Disney as “Tamara-Land”. Academy of Management Journal, 38: 997–1035.Abstract , Google Scholar
- 1997. The art of continuous change: Linking complexity theory and time-paced evolution in relentlessly shifting organizations. Administrative Science Quarterly, 42: 1–34. Google Scholar
- 1994. Fading memories: A process theory of strategic business exit in dynamic environments. Administrative Science Quarterly, 39: 24–56. Google Scholar
- 1950. Logical foundations of probability. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Google Scholar
- 2006. The impact of empirical tests of transaction cost economics on the debate on the nature of the firm. Strategic Management Journal, 27: 461–476. Google Scholar
- 1983. How the laws of physics lie. New York: Clarendon Press. Google Scholar
- 2006. The conduct of economics: The example of Fisher Body and General Motors. Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, 15: 255–278. Google Scholar
- 1999. Bridging epistemologies: The generative dance between organizational knowledge and organizational knowing. Organization Science, 10: 381–400. Google Scholar
- 2004. Identity ambiguity and change in the wake of a corporate spin-off. Administrative Science Quarterly, 49: 173–208. Google Scholar
- 1995. Why I recommended that your manuscript be rejected and what you can do about it. In Frost P.Cummings L. L. (Eds.), Publishing in the organizational sciences (2nd ed.): 164–182. Homewood, IL: Irwin. Google Scholar
- 1996. Describing differences in approaches to organization science: Rethinking Burrell and Morgan and their legacy. Organization Science, 7: 191–205. Google Scholar
- 1976. Of grammatology. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. Google Scholar
- 2001. The contingency theory of organizations. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Google Scholar
- 1991. Better stories, not better constructs: A rejoinder to Eisenhardt. Academy of Management Review, 16: 613–619.Abstract , Google Scholar
- 1989. Building theories from case study research. Academy of Management Review, 14: 532–550.Link , Google Scholar
- 1991. Better stories and better constructs: The case for rigor and comparative logic. Academy of Management Review, 16: 620–627.Link , Google Scholar
- 2007. Theory building from cases: Opportunities and challenges. Academy of Management Journal, 50: 25–32.Link , Google Scholar
- 1973. Writing without teachers. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar
- 1999. Theorizing as the thickness of thin abstraction. Academy of Management Review, 24: 742–758.Link , Google Scholar
- 2006. Models in science. In Zalta E. N. (Ed.), The Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy. Accessed at http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2006/entries/models-science/. Google Scholar
- 1977. Interpretation of cultures. New York: Basic Books. Google Scholar
- 1992. Basics of grounded theory analysis. Mill Valley, CA: Sociology Press. Google Scholar
- 1967. The discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for qualitative research. Hawthorne, NY: Aldine de Gruyter. Google Scholar
- 1993. Appealing work: An investigation of how ethnographic texts convince. Organization Science, 4: 595–616. Google Scholar
- 1954. Fact, fiction, and forecast. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Google Scholar
- 2004. The poverty of deductivism: A constructive realist model of sociological explanation. Sociological Methodology, 34: 1–33. Google Scholar
- 1958. The logic of discovery. Journal of Philosophy, 55: 1073–1089. Google Scholar
- Harlow L. L.Mulaik S. A.Steiger J. H. (Eds.). 1997. What if there were no significance tests? Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Google Scholar
- 1965. The inference to the best explanation. Philosophical Review, 74: 88–95. Google Scholar
- 1965. Aspects of scientific explanation and other essays in the philosophy of science. New York: Free Press. Google Scholar
- 1969. (First published in 1739–1740). A treatise of human nature. London: Penguin Classics. Google Scholar
- Josephson J. R.Josephson S. G. (Eds.). 1996. Abductive inference: Computation, philosophy, technology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar
- 1964. The conduct of inquiry. San Francisco: Chandler. Google Scholar
- 2003. A guide to econometrics (5th ed.). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Google Scholar
- 1993. Deconstructing organizations. Academy of Management Review, 18: 13–31.Link , Google Scholar
- 2007. Editor's comments: The top ten reasons why your paper might not be sent out for review. Academy of Management Review, 32: 700–702.Link , Google Scholar
- 2004. Deconstructing discourse. In Grant D.Hardy C.Oswick C.Putnam L. (Eds.), The Sage handbook of organizational discourse: 259–272. London: Sage. Google Scholar
- 1978. Vertical integration, appropriable rents, and the competitive contracting process. Journal of Law and Economics, 21: 297–326. Google Scholar
- 1996. The structure of scientific revolutions (3rd ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Google Scholar
- 2006. The sources of four commonly reported cutoff criteria: What did they really say? Organizational Research Methods, 9: 202–220. Google Scholar
- 1999. Strategies for theorizing from process data. Academy of Management Review, 24: 691–710.Link , Google Scholar
- 1981. A problem-solving approach to scientific progress. In Hacking I. (Ed.), Scientific revolutions: 144–155. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar
- 2004. Inference to the best explanation. London: Routledge. Google Scholar
- 1996. Rewriting the discovery of grounded theory after 25 years? Journal of Management Inquiry, 5: 239–245. Google Scholar
- 1997. Constructing opportunities for contribution: Structuring intertextual coherence and “problematizing” in organizational studies. Academy of Management Journal, 40: 1023–1062.Link , Google Scholar
- 2008. Making doubt generative: Rethinking the role of doubt in the research process. Organization Science, 19: 907–918. Google Scholar
- 2002. The fate of knowledge. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Google Scholar
- 1988. Judgment and justification. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar
- 1998. Theoretical (epistemic) value. In Craig E. (Ed.), Routledge encyclopedia of philosophy: 340–343. London: Routledge. Google Scholar
- 1998. Inductive inference. In Craig E. (Ed.), Routledge encyclopedia of philosophy: 755–759. London: Routledge. Google Scholar
- 2005. Economic foundations of strategy. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Google Scholar
- 1990. Deconstructing organizational taboos: The suppression of gender conflict in organizations. Organization Science, 1: 339–359. Google Scholar
- 2005. Metatheoretical controversies in studying organizational culture. In Tsoukas H.Knudsen C. (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of organization theory: 392–419. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar
- 1987. Statistical power in contemporary management research. Academy of Management Journal, 30: 369–380.Abstract , Google Scholar
- 1982. Judgment calls in research. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage. Google Scholar
- 1982. Dilemmatics: The study of research choices and dilemmas. In McGrath J. E.Martin J.Kulka R. A. (Eds.), Judgment calls in research: 69–102. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage. Google Scholar
- 1997. Quasi-natural organization science. Organization Science, 8: 352–380. Google Scholar
- 2002. Model-centered organization science epistemology. In Baum J. A. C. (Ed.), The Blackwell companion to organizations: 752–780. Oxford: Blackwell. Google Scholar
- 2008. The mystery about mysteries: A commentary on Alvesson and Kärreman. Academy of Management Review, 33: 541–543.Abstract , Google Scholar
- 2002. Contemporary debates in organizational epistemology. In Baum J. A. C. (Ed.), The Blackwell companion to organizations: 733–751. Oxford: Blackwell. Google Scholar
- 1965. Induction and its justification. In Nagel E.Brandt R. B. (Eds.), Meaning and knowledge: Systematic readings in epistemology: 315–370. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World. Google Scholar
- 1999. Defending abduction. Philosophy of Science, 66 (Supplement): S436–S451. Google Scholar
- 1994. Psychometric theory (3rd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. Google Scholar
- 1991. Strategic responses to institutional processes. Academy of Management Review, 16: 145–179.Link , Google Scholar
- 1878. Deduction, induction, and hypothesis. Popular Science Monthly, 13: 470–482. Google Scholar
- 1993. Barriers to the advance of organizational science: Paradigm development as a dependent variable. Academy of Management Review, 18: 599–620.Link , Google Scholar
- 1958. Personal knowledge: Towards a post-critical philosophy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Google Scholar
- 1959. The logic of scientific discovery. London: Hutchinson. Google Scholar
- 2008. Tensions in evaluating and publishing qualitative research in top-tier North American journals. Organizational Research Methods, 11: 481–509. Google Scholar
- 1951. Main trends in recent philosophy: Two dogmas of empiricism. Philosophical Review, 60: 20–43. Google Scholar
- 1970. The web of belief. New York: Random House. Google Scholar
- 1997. Good science is abductive, not hypothetico-deductive. In Harlow L. L.Mulaik S. A.Steiger J. H. (Eds.), What if there were no significance tests?: 335–391. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Google Scholar
- 1966. The foundations of scientific inference. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. Google Scholar
- 1971. Statistical explanation and statistical relevance. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. Google Scholar
- 2005. Organizational boundaries and theories of organization. Organization Science, 16: 491–508. Google Scholar
- 1956. Empiricism and the philosophy of mind. In Feigl H.Scriven M. (Eds.), Minnesota studies in the philosophy of science, vol. 1: 253–329. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Google Scholar
- 1997. Administrative behavior (4th ed.). New York: Macmillan. Google Scholar
- 1975. Methodological conservatism. Philosophical Review, 84: 374–400. Google Scholar
- 1901. The works of Francis Bacon, vol. IV. London: Routledge. Google Scholar (Eds.).
- 2006. The production of knowledge. New York: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar
- 1987. Qualitative analysis for social scientists. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar
- 1990. Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures and techniques. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Google Scholar
- 2003. The uses of argument (updated ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar
- 2006. Knowledge for theory and practice. Academy of Management Review, 31: 802–821.Link , Google Scholar
- 1980. The scientific image. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Google Scholar
- 1988. Tales of the field: On writing ethnography. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Google Scholar
- 1991. The smile factory: Work at Disneyland. In Frost P. J.Moore L. F.Louis M. R.Lundberg C. C. (Eds.), Reframing organizational culture: 58–76. London: Sage. Google Scholar
- 1995. Style as theory. Organization Science, 6: 133–143. Google Scholar
- 1989. Theory construction as disciplined imagination. Academy of Management Review, 14: 516–531.Link , Google Scholar
- 1989. What constitutes a theoretical contribution? Academy of Management Review, 14: 490–495.Link , Google Scholar
- 1840. The philosophy of the inductive sciences, founded upon their history. London: John W. Parker and Son. Google Scholar
- 1985. The economic institutions of capitalism. New York: Free Press. Google Scholar
- 2004. Critical discourse analysis. In Seale C.Gobo G.Gubrium J. F. (Eds.), Qualitative research practice: 197–213. London: Sage. Google Scholar
- 1995. Progress and cumulation in the human sciences after the fall. Sociological Forum, 10: 455–479. Google Scholar
- 2008. The cult of statistical significance: How the standard error costs us jobs, justice, and lives. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. Google Scholar