The Field of Management's Devotion to Theory: Too Much of a Good Thing?

Abstract

The article examines whether the discipline of management science has placed an undue emphasis on the development of theory at the expense of research which observes and reports actual facts. It is well known that the leading scholarly periodicals in the field require articles to contribute to management science theory to be accepted for publication. This unnecessarily limits research, since the collection of previously unknown facts by itself will contribute to the development of theory. The bad effect forced theoretical discussion has on the comprehensibility and readability of academic writing is noted. Articles in scholarly periodicals in related fields such as marketing research and finance which introduce previously unknown facts are presented as a comparison. There is said to be an inherent contradiction in the emphasis of pure theory in a field devoted to the study of real world decision making.