What Is Theory in Research? Examples and Common Misconceptions

You have a hypothesis. Does that mean you have a theory? In lesson 5 of Research Basics, we take a made-up workplace example and ask what it needs before it explains anything. We look at Bhattacherjee's definition of theory, the five things Sutton and Staw say are often used in place of an explanation, Weick's reply about theorizing as a process, and Gregor's five types of theory in Information Systems. The technostress example and its possible explanation are for practice, not findings from a study. The authors do not all define theory the same way, and the lesson keeps their views separate. Try it with your own project: pick one relationship in your model and write a sentence that begins "I expect this because...". Then ask what idea supports it, where it might apply, and what evidence could challenge it. Watch the previous lesson: Propositions and Hypotheses    • Proposition vs Hypothesis: What's the Diff...   Research Basics playlist    • Research Basics   Chapters 0:00 Introduction 1:02 Explanatory theory 2:03 Five things that are not theory 2:31 References 2:46 Data 3:09 Lists and diagrams 3:36 Hypotheses 4:02 Weick: theorizing as a process 4:46 What theory gives us, and its limits 5:19 Gregor: different types of theory 6:24 Try it with your own project 6:47 Recap Sources Anol Bhattacherjee (2012). Social Science Research: Principles, Methods, and Practices. Chapter 4. https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/oa_tex... Textbook excerpts: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0. The excerpts are cropped, enlarged and highlighted; these excerpt adaptations are shared under the same license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Robert I. Sutton and Barry M. Staw (1995). What Theory Is Not. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2393788 Karl E. Weick (1995). What Theory Is Not, Theorizing Is. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2393789 Shirley Gregor (2006). The Nature of Theory in Information Systems. https://aisel.aisnet.org/misq/vol30/i... Illustrative footage from Pexels, not footage of a study: Malte Luk, https://www.pexels.com/video/a-person... ArtHouse Studio, https://www.pexels.com/video/woman-wr... ArtHouse Studio, https://www.pexels.com/video/a-person... Yan Krukau, https://www.pexels.com/video/man-usin... Jakub Zerdzicki, https://www.pexels.com/video/producti... https://www.pexels.com/license/