Speaker: Professor Jorgen Sandberg
Title: “What’s your theoretical contribution?” Unpacking, problematizing, and rethinking theoretical contributions
Date: Thursday, 11 September 2025
Time: 10:00am – 12:00pm
Venue: Building 21, PAP Moran, G058, Seminar Room
Samira Nazar and Alessandra Capezio are the hosts of this visitor
Abstract
A core aim of management and organization research is to produce theoretical contributions that enhance our understanding of social and organizational phenomena. Yet the meaning of ‘theoretical contribution’—even in published work—remains highly ambiguous, often causing confusion among authors, reviewers, editors, and readers. This seminar seeks to unpack that ambiguity and makes two key contributions. First, it offers a more comprehensive understanding of what constitutes a theoretical contribution, while also providing new clarifications and distinctions. Rather than being defined solely by characteristics such as originality and usefulness, as is often assumed, we show that contributions consist of four interrelated components: what contributes; what is contributed to; the characteristics that demonstrate a contribution; and how the contribution is constructed in the research text. Second, it identifies three major problems that exacerbate and sustain the ambiguity in both the production and evaluation of theoretical contributions: a failure to distinguish between categories of existing understanding (e.g., body of knowledge, scholarly conversation); ambiguity about the nature of contributions tied to each category; and the practice of contribution camouflaging. Drawing on these insights, I propose an intellectual toolbox—a more differentiated vocabulary to help researchers more effectively identify, articulate, and demonstrate their theoretical contributions.
Bio
Jörgen Sandberg Emeritus Professor in the University of Queensland (UQ) Business School, Australia, Research Professor at Lund University, Sweden, Honorary Professor at Warwick Business School, UK, and co-founder of the international conference Philosophy and Organization Studies (PHILOS). He has researched extensively in the areas of competence and learning in organizations; practice, process and sensemaking theory; theory development; philosophy of science; and research methodology, published in journals such as Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Organization Behavior, Organization Theory, Organization Research Methods, Journal of Management Studies and Harvard Business Review. His most recent books include Constructing research questions: Doing interesting research (2nd edition, with Mats Alvesson, Sage, 2024); Re-imagining the research process: Conventional and alternative metaphors (with Mats Alvesson, Sage, 2021).