guest article by Rod Brodie
I raised this question when in a workshop at the Karlstad at the International Network of Service Researchers Meeting that was focusing setting the agenda for service research.
In my discussion paper on enhancing theory development I argue that service researchers need to pay more attention to the process theorizing rather than focussing on theory as an outcome. This will involve a fuller empirical investigation of general theoretical structures and giving explicit consideration of the critical issue of bridging theory and practice. Thus it overcomes the disconnection between theory formulations and testing and the gap between theoretical advances and managerial usefulness.
Theorizing needs move beyond the positivistic perspective that focuses on theory testing and develop an emphasis on theory discovery. This means that there is a need for a broader range of theorizing skills, and also requires that conceptual work becomes intertwined with empirical research. The theorizing process has multifaceted roles in the sequence of discovery to justification of ideas. This process is facilitated through use of reasoning skills to envision, explicate, relate and debate ideas.
Within this theorizing process Middle Range Theory (MRT) serves as a bridge between theoretical and empirical domains. MRT links brings together theoretical reasoning and the empirical investigation. MRT provides for a multi-theory approach that facilitates moving out of the current paradigmatic ‘silos’ that constrain knowledge development in the marketing discipline; adopting a broader ontological and epistemological perspective that permits pluralism in the qualitative and quantitative methodological approaches
To avoid getting stuck in the middle (neither being firmly based in real world data, nor reaching a sufficient level of abstraction), I argue service researchers need focus firmly on how theorizing contributes to the advancing knowledge in the discipline. This involves rethinking the design, production and dissemination of marketing scholarship where practitioners need to be placed on an equal footing as collaborators in knowledge production. We need to theorize with managers and not just about them. However in doing I see the big challenge for service researchers is how to lead practice with theory and not get lost.
Access to my discussion paper Enhacing Theory Development in Service Research
What is your perspective on this? Do you see the same gap? Would you suggest something different?
Rod Brodieis is Professor in the Department of Marketing at the University of Auckland of Business School, New Zealand (r.brodie@auackland.ac.nz)
