ANZAM Doctoral Workshop 5 December 2011 Professor Trish Corner Auckland University of Technology...
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MAKING A CONTRIBUTION TO THEORY ANZAM Doctoral Workshop 5 December 2011 Professor Trish Corner Auckland University of Technology (AUT)
Transcript of ANZAM Doctoral Workshop 5 December 2011 Professor Trish Corner Auckland University of Technology...
MAKING A CONTRIBUTION TO THEORY
ANZAM Doctoral Workshop 5 December 2011
Professor Trish CornerAuckland University of Technology
(AUT)
Where are You?
How many using quantitative methods? How many using qualitative methods? How many using a pre-existing theory/
conceptual framework to guide thesis research?
How many generated a “novel” conceptual framework to guide thesis research?
ANZAM Doctoral Workshop 5 December 2011
Some tips
Borrowed some from “resources for authors” on Academy of Management Journal website
ANZAM Doctoral Workshop 5 December 2011
Choose an interesting topic
•Examine relationships or phenomena where the end isn’t obvious or predictable
ANZAM Doctoral Workshop 5 December 2011
Common Pitfalls
•Paper summarizes findings, but not what we learn from them
•Paper makes a narrow or incremental contribution
•Paper makes an empirical contribution, but not a
theoretical contribution (new knowledge gained)•Supports dominant theories•Replicates previous findings•Fails to surprise, challenge assumptions, or
question intuitionsANZAM Doctoral Workshop 5
December 2011
Suggestion #1:Join Multiple Conversations
What other theoretical perspectives have addressed your research question? How do your findings change, challenge,
complicate, or advance these perspectives? How do your findings alter the theoretical
perspective on which you draw?
ANZAM Doctoral Workshop 5 December 2011
Suggestion #2:Perspective-Taking
• What would the experts say? – Who are the 3 most important contributors to
your topic, and what would they find most interesting about your research?
• What problem are you solving? – What puzzle, tension, or controversy has
plagued others in your domain, and how does your research address it?
• As the audience..– If you were a reviewer of this paper, what
would surprise you the most?ANZAM Doctoral Workshop 5
December 2011
Suggestion # 3:See Murray Davis “what is interesting”
• http://www.sfu.ca/~palys/interest.htm• Davis is the one who said that a good
theory is not a true theory but an interesting one.
• Examples– What we thought was organized is really
unorganized– What we thought was a homogeneous, holistic
phenomenon is really made up of multiple, heterogeneous constituents
ANZAM Doctoral Workshop 5 December 2011
Examples from my research (Qualitative)
Qualitative Example Corner, P. and Wu, S. 2011. Dynamic
capability emergence in the venture creation process. International Small Business Journal. DOI:10.1177/0266242611431092. (an “A” journal on the ABDC list)
ANZAM Doctoral Workshop 5 December 2011
Example (Qualitative)
• Original title “Action and agency: microprocesses in new venture capability and product market co-emergence”
• Submitted to AMJ special issue on Process Studies of Change in Organization and Management (31 August 2010)
• Rejected 3 November 2010• Revised substantially and submitted to
ISBJ on 10 February 2011 (spent my summer revising this)
ANZAM Doctoral Workshop 5 December 2011
FIGURE 1The Process of Venture, Capability, and Market Creation
ConnectionsExploratory contextcreated througheffectual stakeholder commitments
EntrepreneurialSpace
Product Market/ Industry Space
Elaboration/ Refinementof shared context through new means-endframework
Time
Venture Capabilities
Product Market/Industry Outcomes
Capability accumulation, technology elaboration
Supply chains altered, diverse products proliferated, industries expanded/ created
Connections, boring everyone says that.You say you want to look at microprocess but don’t identify any by name.Trying to look at too many outcomes , focus.Theory is surprising, counter-intuitive and you repeat the obvious.Here is a good example to look at.
FIGURE 1The Process of Venture, Capability, and Market Creation
ConnectionsExploratory contextcreated througheffectual stakeholder commitments
EntrepreneurialSpace
Product Market/ Industry Space
Elaboration/ Refinementof shared context through new means-endframework
Time
Venture Capabilities
Product Market/Industry Outcomes
Capability accumulation, technology elaboration
Supply chains altered, diverse products proliferated, industries expanded/ created
Figure 1: Dyadic and Industry Level Effects of Microprocesses
Microprocess Level Dyad level: SAM & Customer Industry level
Revealing Technology: Pattern of revealing/ applying TFC’s properties to customercontext
Prospecting Problems: Pattern of looking for industries with quality / cost issue to resolve
SAM: Changes in venture and TFC
Customers:Changes in products, costs, firm size TV Tube
Domestic Industryfor “bottom of the pyramid” segmentof China
Solar Panel/ Energy Industry
Solar panel company enters industry challenging mainstream providers
Dynamic Capability of Product Development
-refined prospecting pattern-improved ability to apply TFC to customer context -improved capacity for joint prototype and design
Capacity for low cost production of solar panels
Capacity to produce low cost,poreless glass TV tubes
Quantitative Example
• Developed a theoretical framework to test for my PhD dissertation (I was interested in collective cognition that might be happening among TMT members when making strategic decisions, early 90s)
• Turned it into a manuscript, sent to AMR, got invited for revision but ultimately rejected
• Revised it for Organization Science based on feedback I got 2/ 3 people who had published on topic of “cognition” in strategy area
ANZAM Doctoral Workshop 5 December 2011
ANZAM Doctoral Workshop 5 December 2011
Figure 1: A Parallel Process Model of Strategic Decision Making
Attention Encoding Storage
Attention Encoding Storage
Decision
(Organizational Level)
(Individual Level)
Information
-I thought it was an extension of existing theory because it used a cognition process from psychology (individual level) and showed how there was an analogous process going on at the collective level. -But feedback said, we know this already, what we don’t know are what the linking mechanisms between levels are.
ANZAM Doctoral Workshop 5 December 2011
Figure 1: A Parallel Process Model of Strategic Decision Making
Attention Encoding Storage
Attention Encoding Storage
Decision
(Organizational Level)
(Individual Level)
Information Shared Meanings
Frame Construction Socialization
Outcome
Corner, P., Kinicki, A., Keats, B., 1994. Integrating organizational and individual information processing perspectives on choice. Organization Science. 294-308. (A* journal)
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