The Practice of Theory Borrowing in Organizational Studies: Current Issues and Future Directions

2009 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 537-563 ◽  
Author(s):  
David A. Whetten ◽  
Teppo Felin ◽  
Brayden G. King
Keyword(s):  
Organization Theory ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Organizational Studies ◽  
Individual Identity ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Organizational Research ◽  
Distinctive Features ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
Organizational Social Context ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives

The borrowing and application of concepts and theories from underlying disciplines, such as psychology and sociology, is commonplace in organization theory. This article critically reviews this practice in organizational research. It discusses the borrowing of theoretical perspectives across vertical (cross-level) and horizontal (cross-context) boundaries and makes an associated distinction between theories in organizations and theories of organizations. It also explicates several unintended consequences and metatheoretical challenges associated with theory borrowing and highlights the legitimate reasons and ways for borrowing theories. By way of example, this article reviews how theories and concepts have been borrowed and applied in organizational research from two different literatures: individual identity and social movements. Overall, it is argued that treating organizations as social actors is the key to appropriate horizontal and vertical theory borrowing in organizational studies, in that it highlights the distinctive features of the organizational social form and organizational social context.

scholarly journals Career Transitions and Job Mobility

Management ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gina Dokko ◽  
Katharina Chudzikowski
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
Organizational Behavior ◽  
Organization Theory ◽  
Human Resources Management ◽  
Job Mobility ◽  
Organizational Studies ◽  
Career Transitions ◽  
Social Phenomena ◽  
New Ways Of Working ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives

Individual careers have been transformed by new ways of working within organizations and beyond, and specifically the imposition of market models on employment, the intensification of competition, and flexible employment contracts. As a result, the study of job mobility (i.e., individuals changing jobs within or between organizations) and career transitions (i.e., how the change is understood and managed by individuals and organizations) has become an increasingly important subject of study, with causes and implications that span multiple disciplines and subfields of management, such as careers, human resources management, organization theory, organizational behavior, and strategy. Although the roots of academic inquiry into job mobility and career transitions go back to the beginning of modern management studies, the past twenty years have seen an upsurge in these studies, enabled by new data sources (e.g., online resumes) and methods (e.g., text analysis and big data methods) that track individual careers, as well as recognition that job mobility and career transitions are important social phenomena. See also the separate Oxford Bibliographies in Management article “Career Studies” by Yehuda Branch, especially the section on Contemporary Careers. The perspective of this article is primarily based in careers and organizational studies, but other Oxford Bibliographies in Management articles that cover related phenomena from different theoretical perspectives are “Turnover” by Peter Hom; “Human Capital Resource Pipelines” by Anthony Nyberg, Dhuha Abdulsalam, and Ingo Weller; and “Strategic Human Capital” by Rhett Brymer, Janice Molloy, and Clint Chadwick.

Looking Backward, Moving Forward: Exploring Theoretical Foundations for Understanding Employee Resilience

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 491-497 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kate M. Conley ◽  
Malissa A. Clark ◽  
Olivia H. Vande Griek ◽  
Jay A. Mancini
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Models ◽  
Family Resilience ◽  
Organizational Studies ◽  
Organizational Research ◽  
Empirically Supported ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
Key Points ◽  
Conceptual Confusion ◽  
Theoretical Foundations ◽  
Work Domain

Britt, Shen, Sinclair, Grossman, and Klieger (2016) provide a summary of the conceptual confusion surrounding the construct of resilience as well as several key recommendations for spurring future organizational research on resilience. However, we feel that two key points were not adequately addressed in the focal article. First, we argue that we cannot fully understand the concept of resilience or apply it in our field of organizational studies without first understanding its fundamental theoretical groundings. Many of these underlying theoretical foundations on resilience were founded in and advanced through 50+ years of theory and research on family resilience literature; however, many of these perspectives were not addressed in the focal article. In this commentary, we outline and provide contextualized examples of how to apply one of the most widely used and empirically supported theoretical models of resilience—the ABC-X model (Hill, 1958)—to the work domain. Using the ABC-X model as a starting framework, we then highlight several additional theoretical perspectives that can inform research on employee resilience: Masten's (2001) ordinary magic, Antonovsky's (1979) sense of coherence, and Walsh's (2003) focus on strengths.

Value co-creation: a review of literature and future research agenda

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Victor Saha ◽  
Praveen Goyal ◽  
Charles Jebarajakirthy
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Review Of Literature ◽  
Relevant Research ◽  
Research Papers ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Extant Literature ◽  
Future Research Agenda ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present a systematic review of the available literature on value co-creation (VCC) and provide insightful future directions for research in this domain. Design/methodology/approach The extant literature on VCC has been reviewed by collecting relevant research papers based on certain specified delimiting criteria. A total of 110 research papers have been analysed to gain useful insights into VCC literature. Findings The study analyses the literature on VCC and provides a clear distinction between VCC and its closely related constructs in the literature. The study also draws significant insights from the VCC literature based on some specific parameters. Some frequently used theoretical perspectives have been discussed in the study, thus pointing towards a few alternative theories that can be used for future research. Finally, specific trends emerging from the literature have been discussed that provide a comprehensive understanding of the research inclinations of this concept, along with future scopes of research in the VCC domain. Research limitations/implications The papers were selected for this study based on some delimiting criteria. Thus, the findings cannot be generalised for the entire research on VCC. Originality/value This paper fulfils the need for a systematic review of the extant literature on VCC. The study synthesises literature and bibliography on VCC from 2004 to 2019 to benefit both academics and practitioners and gives some directions to advance this domain of literature.

A Review of Measurement Equivalence in Organizational Research: What's Old, What's New, What's Next?

2021 ◽  
pp. 109442812110565
Author(s):  
Ajay V. Somaraju ◽  
Christopher D. Nye ◽  
Jeffrey Olenick
Keyword(s):  
Review Paper ◽  
Measurement Equivalence ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Organizational Research ◽  
Potential Sources ◽  
Organizational Constructs ◽  
Organizational Literature ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Made In ◽  
Highly Cited

The study of measurement equivalence has important implications for organizational research. Nonequivalence across groups or over time can affect the results of a study and the conclusions that are drawn from it. As a result, the review paper by Vandenberg & Lance (2000) has been highly cited and has played an important role in understanding the measurement of organizational constructs. However, that paper is now 20 years old, and a number of advances have been made in the application and interpretation of measurement equivalence (ME) since its publication. Therefore, the goal of the present paper is to provide an updated review of ME techniques that describes recent advances in testing for ME and proposes a taxonomy of potential sources of nonequivalence. Finally, we articulate recommendations for applying these newer methods and consider future directions for measurement equivalence research in the organizational literature.

Culture, Context, and Development

2019 ◽  
pp. 187-208
Author(s):  
Harry W. Gardiner
Keyword(s):  
Cross Cultural Psychology ◽  
Human Development ◽  
Cultural Psychology ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Contextual Influences ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Future Path

Cross-cultural psychology and human development are currently experiencing an exciting period of growth. Segall, Lonner, and Berry have noted that when all psychology finally takes into account the effects of culture on human behavior (and vice versa), terms like cross-cultural and cultural psychology will become unnecessary. At that point, all psychology will be truly cultural. In this chapter, the author defines cross-cultural human development; theoretical perspectives and models; emerging themes, such as contextual influences; applications to social issues; and future directions. As the author has earlier stated, tremendous challenges and opportunities lie ahead and speculating about the future path of cross-cultural psychology is difficult.

Victim Selection

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margit Averdijk
Keyword(s):  
Final Section ◽  
Choice Model ◽  
Methodological Innovation ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Victim Selection ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
Structural Choice ◽  
Crime Types ◽  
Social Interactionism

This chapter reviews what is known about victim selection—that is, the question of why offenders select some people, but not others, to be victims of crime. It first addresses theoretical perspectives on victim selection, namely the structural–choice model of victim selection, social interactionism, and target congruence. It then describes three data sources that have been used in prior research to study victim selection: police reports, victimization surveys, and offender interviews. Subsequently, empirical findings on victim selection are reviewed and organized into nine subsections: victims’ demographic characteristics, psychological characteristics, physical characteristics, behavior, biological characteristics, prior victimization, relationship to the offender, behavior during the offense, and the role of randomness. The final section discusses research gaps and potential future directions in the field, including an emphasis on theoretical explanations and mediators, cross-cultural studies, methodological innovation and diversity, interactions between victim and offender characteristics, and generality across crime types and subpopulations.

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