Exploration of practice for confirming the relevance of a proposition

a replication loop is significant. This means that, although a single project that contributes to theory development will have an end see Flowchart 1, there is usually no end to the further development of a theory see Flowchart 2. Theory-oriented research is hardly ever “fin- ished”. This also means that every contribution in any place in Flowchart 2 is relevant. Contributing to the development of a theory entails always adding a small brick to a large building. Many theory-oriented research proposals mention as their objective to “fill a gap” in our theoretical knowledge. Usually this means that the authors have found that a relevant proposition has not yet been for- mulated. “Filling the gap”, then, means formulating a new proposition: theory-building research. Flowchart 2 helps to identify other types of “gap” in a theory. It is, for instance, also a “gap” if a proposition is not, or not yet, sufficiently tested. Thus, theory-testing research can also be seen as “filling a gap” in our theoretical knowledge, and perhaps an even more important one.

3.3 Principles of practice-oriented research

The objective of practice-oriented research is to contribute to the knowledge of a practitioner not practitioners in general. A practi- tioner is a person or group of persons with either a formal or an infor- mal responsibility for a real life situation in which heshe acts or must act. A practitioner can be a person a manager, an entrepreneur, a pol- icy maker, a staff member, etc. or a group of persons a team, a com- pany, a business sector, a nation, etc.. A practitioner needs knowledge to solve or clarify a “problem” in an identified practice. Before we dis- cuss in 3.3.2 the different types of contribution to a practice that practice-oriented research can make, we first discuss the concept of a practice 3.3.1.

3.3.1 Practice

We define a practice as the real life situation for which a practitioner has either a formal or an informal responsibility and in which heshe acts or must act. A practice cannot be defined “objectively” but is defined through and by the perspective of the practitioner a person or an organization and by how he conceives his duties and responsi- bilities. The idea of practice-oriented research is based on the assump- tion that practitioners can make use of knowledge about their practice