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Cited by 466

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 4 of the 4 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

The scientific theory‐building process: a primer using the case of TQM

Handfield, Robert B, Melnyk, Steven A·1998·Journal of Operations Management

Abstract

As Operations Management (OM) researchers begin to undertake and publish more empirical research, there is a need to understand the nature of the scientific theory‐building process implicit in this activity. This tutorial presents a process map approach to this process. We begin by defining the nature of scientific knowledge, and proceed through the stages of the theory‐building process, using illustrations from OM research in Total Quality Management. The tutorial ends with a discussion of the criteria for OM journal reviewers to consider in evaluating theory‐driven empirical research, and suggests a number of OM topic areas that require greater theory development.

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Metadata

Authors
Handfield, R. B., & Melnyk, S. A.
Venue
Journal of Operations Management
Publisher
Wiley
Published
1998-07
Volume
16
Issue
4
Pages
321-339
ISSN
  • 0272-6963 (ISSN-L)
  • 1873-1317
OpenAlex
W1974097914
Cited by
466
References
4
FWCI
3.58
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed

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CoChat. (2026). Citation check: The scientific theory‐building process: a primer using the case of TQM. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1016/s0272-6963(98)00017-5
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Handfield, R. B., & Melnyk, S. A. (1998). The scientific theory‐building process: a primer using the case of TQM. Journal of Operations Management. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0272-6963(98)00017-5

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Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).

Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.