The General Method of Theory-Building Research in Applied Disciplines

Abstract

The problem and the solution. One of the challenges of theory-building research in applied disciplines is making the logic used to build the theory explicit and accessible to the user of the developed theory. Although different methods of theory building advocate different theory-building research processes, there is an inherently generic nature to theory building. This chapter acts as a foundation for the journal by highlighting strategies commonly used in building theory and offers a generic, five-phase method of theory-building research.