Advanced analytic techniques for theorizing from qualitative research

Lecturer: Tine Köhler & Michael Gibbert

Modality: In-presence

Week 1: 10-14 August 2026

Contents and objectives:

Qualitative research plays a vital role in our field’s knowledge generation cycle by offering theoretical advancements via theory development, refinement, and refutation. In order to achieve these strong theoretical contributions, qualitative researchers need to employ advanced analytic techniques that facilitate theorizing from their empirically grounded insights, contributing to a novel understanding and explanation of the theoretical meaning of their observations and interpretations (Klag & Langley, 2013; Locke, 2007; Richards, 2020). Advanced qualitative analysis includes the steps employed to generate theory from data, i.e., activities that are aimed at seeing, understanding, interpreting, refuting, challenging, integrating, and explaining patterns in data. They are the kind of qualitative analytic techniques that bring about a “conceptual leap” (Klag & Langley, 2013, p. 150).

It is this last step of deriving theoretical insight via employing advanced analytic techniques, though, that is the least well understood and rarely covered in methods textbooks. In the current workshop, we will explore and elaborate on the link between advanced analytic techniques for qualitative research and theorizing from qualitative research. The workshop is built around practical examples to demonstrate specific forms of advanced analytic techniques and how they support challenging, seeing, and articulating to derive the subsequent theoretical insights.

Key topics covered:

• What is theorizing?
• What is the role of abduction in theorizing?
• What are different forms of theorizing?
• How does theorizing differ across different epistemological and ontological foundations?
• What are advanced qualitative analytic techniques and how do they differ from more common qualitative analytic techniques targeted at getting to know one’s data?
• Introduction of different qualitative advanced analytic techniques across different qualitative methods, such as grounded theory, process research, case research, ethnography, and others
• How does the application of advanced analytic techniques facilitate theorizing from qualitative research?
• How to demonstrate the link between method and theory for the writing up of qualitative research for publication?

Lecture plan:

Day 1: Theorizing and the abductive process

Day 2: Different forms of theorizing; theorizing within different epistemologies and ontologies

Day 3: Advanced qualitative analytic techniques and their link to theorizing

Day 4: Advanced qualitative analytic techniques and their link to theorizing

Day 5: How to write methods and findings for publications that demonstrate the link between advanced qualitative techniques, abduction, and theorizing

Prerequisites and course level:

This course works best for participants who are already familiar with standard qualitative methods and analysis. We will focus exclusively on those techniques that facilitate theorizing from qualitative research and will thus not cover any standard coding or thematic analytic processes. Participants are encouraged to bring their own datasets and projects from which they wish to theorize to apply the course content to their own work.

Some core readings (more will be announced closer to the course date):

• Alvesson, M., & Kärreman, D. (2007). Constructing mystery: empirical matters in theory development. Academy of Management Review, 32, 1265–1281.
• Alvesson, M., & Sandberg, J. (2011). Generating research questions through problematization. Academy of Management Review, 36, 247–271.
• Cornelissen, J. (2017a). Editor’s comments: Developing propositions, a process model, or a typology? Addressing the challenges of writing theory without a boilerplate. Academy of Management Review, 42(1), 1-9.
• Cornelissen, J. P. (2017b). Preserving theoretical divergence in management research: Why the explanatory potential of qualitative research should be harnessed rather than suppressed. Journal of Management Studies, 54(3), 368-383.
• Cornelissen, J., Höllerer, M. A., & Seidl, D. (2021). What Theory Is and Can Be: Forms of Theorizing in Organizational Scholarship. Organization Theory, 2(3), 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1177/26317877211020328
• Cunliffe, A. L. (2022). Must I grow a pair of balls to theorize about theory in organization and management studies?. Organization Theory, 3(3), 26317877221109277.
• Delbridge, R., & Fiss, P. C. (2013). Editors' comments: Styles of theorizing and the social organization of knowledge. Academy of Management Review, 38(3), 325-331.
• Golden-Biddle, K. (2020). Discovery as an abductive mechanism for reorienting habits within organizational change. Academy of Management Journal, 63(6), 1951-1975.
• Harley, B., & Cornelissen, J. (2022). Rigor with or without templates? The pursuit of methodological rigor in qualitative research. Organizational Research Methods, 25(2), 239-261.
• Klag, M., & Langley, A. (2013). Approaching the conceptual leap in qualitative research. International Journal of Management Reviews, 15(2), 149–166.
• Köhler, T., Smith, A., & Bhakoo, V. (2022). Templates in qualitative research methods: Origins, limitations, and new directions. Organizational Research Methods, 25(2), 183-210.
• Langley, A. (1999). Strategies for theorizing from process data. Academy of Management Review, 24(4), 691-710.
• Locke, K. (2007). Rational control and irrational free play: dual-thinking modes as necessary tension in grounded theorizing. In Bryant, A. and Charmaz, K. (eds), The Sage Handbook of Grounded Theory. London: Sage Publications, pp. 565–579.
• Locke, K., Feldman, M. S., & Golden-Biddle, K. (2022). Coding practices and iterativity: Beyond templates for analyzing qualitative data. Organizational Research Methods, 25(2), 262–284.
• Locke, K., Golden-Biddle, K., & Feldman, M. S. (2008). Perspective—Making doubt generative: Rethinking the role of doubt in the research process. Organization Science, 19(6), 907-918.
• Peirce, C. S. (1931–1958). In: C. Hartshorne, P. Weiss, A. Burks, (Eds.), Collected Papers of Charles Sanders Peirce, Vols. 1–8. Cambridge University Press, Harvard, MA.
• Pratt, M. G., Sonenshein, S., & Feldman, M. S. (2022). Moving beyond templates: A bricolage approach to conducting trustworthy qualitative research. Organizational Research Methods, 25(2), 211-238.
• Van Maanen, J., Sørensen, J. B., & Mitchell, T. R. (2007). The interplay between theory and method. Academy of Management Review, 32, 1145–54.
• Weick, K. E. (1989). Theory construction as disciplined imagination. Academy of Management Review, 14, 516–531.