The Case for Inductive Theory Building†

By Edwin A. Locke. 2007

396 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Subfields: Management Science and Operations Research

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/7ec4810b653440ea004f5cb35a06c99ff6672f52

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In Management Science and Operations Research

Citations in the corpus

The effect of primed goals on employee performance: Implications for human resource management (2011, background): “This is not necessarily a criticism because numerous researchers have argued that proper theory building is inductive rather than deductive (e.g., Locke, 2007; Mischel, 2009; Roe, 2009; Tversky cited by Mischel, 2009).”
Leadership behaviors and follower performance: Deductive and inductive examination of theoretical rationales and underlying mechanisms (2017, neutral): “Although underutilized, inductive theorizing and testing can lead to and is often necessary for theoretical progress (Locke, 2007).”
A Network Analysis of Leadership Theory (2016, background): “Inductive approaches are distinguishable from deductive approaches as they are descriptive in nature (Locke, 2007) and are therefore useful for describing the status of the field (e.g., Hiller, DeChurch, Murase, & Doty, 2011).”
Experiencing Work: An Essay on a Person-Centric Work Psychology (2011, background): “Some have even advocated for this approach, calling for an explicit acknowledgment and practice of inductive theory building, with researchers taking their cues from organizational needs and issues (Locke, 2007). with collective purpose.”
The development of goal setting theory: A half century retrospective. (2019, background): “Proximal goals are especially important for attaining sequentially interdependent distal goals that are long term and are complex for an individual or team (Latham & Locke, 2007; Locke, 2018b).”
Telling Active Learning Pedagogies Apart: from theory to practice (2017, neutral): “…case studies and quantitative research to develop theories in education, is a mode of research that aims to move past theory defining to construction (i.e., theory building literature see Hoon [2013], Locke [2007] or Eisenhardt and Graebner [2007], amongst others, for a discussion on this subject).”
Saudi women entrepreneurs: A growing economic segment (2014, background): “Due to the paucity of research on Saudi women entrepreneurs, an inductive theory-building approach provides a good study method (Locke, 2007).”
Answers to 18 Questions About Open Science Practices (2018, neutral): “Underlying this claim is the idea that editors and reviewers may not always be supportive of researchers who explore their data (Locke, 2007; Spector, Rogelberg, Ryan, Schmitt, & Zedeck, 2014).”
Best-Practice Recommendations for Defining, Identifying, and Handling Outliers (2013, background): “In other words, respecifying models post hoc is beneficial in terms of helping researchers engage in theory building (Locke, 2007), which is a type of contribution that is underutilized in many domains in the organizational sciences (Aguinis, Forcum, & Joo, in press; Shepherd & Sutcliffe, 2011).”
The Too-Much-of-a-Good-Thing Effect in Management (2013, background): “Although meta-theories of both types have potential to help advance the field of management, management scholars have focused more on philosophical meta-theories (e.g., deductive vs. inductive theorizing; Locke, 2007) than on formalized meta-theories.”
Editorial: Evidence on Questionable Research Practices: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (2016, background): “When interpreting the good, the bad, and the ugly results from the current review, we want to note that there are many examples of sound research practice in our literature (e.g., Becker 2005; Locke 2007).”
Has Goal Setting Gone Wild, or Have Its Attackers Abandoned Good Scholarship? (2009, methodology): “ments against the use of goal setting, Ordonez et al. (2009) imply that Deci and Ryan's (1990) self-determination theory should be used as a framework for the motivation of employees.”