Theory Building Using Abductive Search Strategies

Theory building is part of the academic endeavor, more emphasized in some contexts than in others. Knowing how to build theory—by either establishing new theoretical approaches or adjusting and developing already known theories—is part of the researcher’s competence profile. The concepts of induction and deduction often anchor and justify the theory-building process but cannot always explain how new ideas are created. This chapter discusses the concept of abduction to address commonly envisaged abnormalities in the theory-building process. Abduction is best conceptualized as making guesses. Continually, in a theory-building process, researchers make assumptions when they undertake observations in surprising ways that depart from existing theory. Accordingly, abduction is the more profound understanding of theory building. This chapter seeks to explain abduction, going beyond existing frameworks to embrace the systematic combining of theory and the empirical world and arguing that abduction can help better comprehend how theory emerges in specific phases of theory testing, development, and creation. Some argue that the strategies are helpful in both realist and interpretive research and in understanding collaborative research design activities in the business field.