Theory Development (jms-theory-development)

When to trigger

• Hypotheses read as bald predictions ("A is positively related to B") with no mechanism
• An inductive study produces rich description but no abstracted theoretical model
• The argument leans on one borrowed citation rather than a developed logic
• A reviewer says "the theory is thin," "this is description, not theory," or "what is the contribution to theory?"
• You are unsure whether to write a priori hypotheses or emergent propositions

The JMS theory bar

JMS exists to advance management and organization theory, and — unlike a US empirical journal — it treats the deductive and inductive paths as equally legitimate. The bar is the same for both: a reader must finish understanding why the relationship or pattern holds and under what conditions it changes. Pick the path the design demands; do not force a qualitative study into a hypothetico-deductive template or write post-hoc hypotheses around quantitative results.

Path A — Deductive: build a hypothesis as a mechanism chain

For each hypothesis, write the explicit chain and skip no step: