Exploration of practice Exploration for practice-oriented research

the researcher with a number of such hypotheses, which could be parts of larger “theories-in-use”, similar to how exploration of practice in theory-oriented research will provide for a set of such theories. As in theory-oriented research, these “theories-in-use” can be formulated as hypotheses.

3.3.3.2 Exploration of theory for finding a hypothesis

If no hypothesis has been formulated as part of the exploration of prac- tice, theory might be explored that is related to the problem at hand. This exploration of theory would be aimed at finding hypotheses or, more correctly, of finding propositions on which hypotheses regarding relevant aspects of the current problem can be based. This exploration will, as with any exploration of theory, consist of conducting a literature review in order to identify and read potentially relevant texts such as books, overview articles, research articles, and theoretical articles. It is useful also to talk to experts in relevant theories in order to find out whether new developments in those theories have occurred or are emerging, which might be relevant to the problem at hand. If this exploration has been successful and has resulted in the for- mulation of one or more hypotheses regarding the practice problem at hand, hypothesis-testing practice-oriented research should be designed and conducted. If no hypothesis has been identified, it needs to be decided whether the practitioner needs knowledge about relations between aspects of the practice in order to be able to act effectively or whether it is sufficient to get descriptive knowledge. If knowledge about relations is needed, hypothesis-building research needs to be designed and conducted.

3.3.3.3 Exploration of theory for confirming relevance of a hypothesis

If a hypothesis is formulated in practice-oriented research, support for that hypothesis should be sought in an exploration of theory. There might already be much theoretical knowledge that might be relevant to the practice to which the research is oriented. The hypothesis might already have been discarded in theory after a series of tests in which the corresponding proposition had been rejected. It might also be the case that new, additional propositions are emerging in the theory and that it is useful for the solution of the problem at hand to test the cor- responding hypotheses in this practice. This exploration will, again, consist of conducting a literature review and communicating with experts. If this exploration has been successful and has resulted in the for- mulation of one or more additional hypotheses or in the belief that the current hypothesis is worth testing hypothesis-testing research should be designed and conducted.

3.3.4 Contributions to a practitioner’s knowledge

A contribution to a practitioner’s knowledge is, thus, any activity that can be located in Flowchart 3. Some of them, such as exploration of practice and exploration of theory, do not entail “research”. Practice- oriented research is descriptive, hypothesis-building, or hypothesis- testing. The fact that there is a clear output at two ends of the flow- chart, labelled “Contributions to a practitioner’s knowledge”, means that practice-oriented research is finished if the specific knowledge need of the practitioner is satisfied. In Chapter 10 “Practice-oriented research general” we give more information on these three types of research.

3.4 References

Davidsson, P. 2004, Researching entrepreneurship. New York: Springer. George, A.L. and Bennett, A. 2005, Case studies and theory development in the social sciences. Cambridge MA: MIT Press. Hubbard, R., Vetter, D.E. and Little, E.L. 1998, Replication in strategic management: scientific testing for validity, generalizability, and usefulness. Strategic Management Journal, 193: 243–254. Van de Ven, A.H. 1989, Nothing is quite so practical as a good theory. Academy of Management Review, 144: 486–489. Yin, R.K. 2003, Case study research: design and methods 3rd, revised edn. Thousand Oaks CA: Sage.