Theory construction texts and materials

​The books that you will find in this page are about theory construction. Each of the texts cover different aspects of the theory construction process.  https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/series/TD2FV8C9TXA​

1. Theory Construction Series The Basics About Theory

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CONTENT

• What is theory?
• Characteristics of theory
• Levels of abstraction in theory
• Building theory from others' contributions
• Building local theories
• Stages of theory development
• Tools for theory construction  
•  Cumulative vs brand new theories

                                                             

2. Research questions for theory building

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CONTENT

• Types of research studies
• Types of research questions
• The process of writing a research question
• Selecting a topic
• Selecting the discipline(s) and framework
• Selecting the context
• Selecting the method
• Research questions for theory building
• Some problems with research questions
• Explicit vs implicit questions
• Question and sub-questions
• Assumptions in research questions

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3. Building theory from existing work

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_CONTENT

• Developing theory from existing literature
• Using reference software
• Visualizing within databases
• Visualizing the literature

4. Theory from concepts

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CONTENT

• Clarifying our vocabulary
• The process of concept development
• Visualization tools to aid the analysis and expansion phase
• Some problems with concept development and how to solve them
• Contributing to theory using concepts

5. Levels of theory

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CONTENT

• Understanding levels
• Background research about levels of analysis
• Why are they referred as levels?
• Types of levels
• Multi-level research
• Conditions for work with collectives
• Theorizing across levels
• Tools in multi-level research

6. Theory from the ground up

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CONTENT

• Methaphors
• Narratives
• Observational research
• Delphi - panel of experts

7. Theory from the top

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CONTENT

• What are models
• Simulations
• Game theory

8. The role of pilots in theory development

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CONTENT

• What is a pilot study
• Why are pilot studies necessary for theory construction?
• Reporting the pilot study