Although integrating theories is often regarded as providing a more comprehensive understanding of a phenomenon, multi-theoretical studies are uncommon for three main reasons: deficient doctoral training, individual career considerations, and constraints of the journal review process. A multi-theoretical approach serves five functions. The first two − capturing the essence of complex strategic decisions and providing a more complete explanation of outcomes − are specifically related to the complexity of phenomena, while the remaining three − compensating for the explanatory deficiency of a single theory, exploiting the complementarity of theories and testing conflicting explanations − are mostly concerned with the limited scope and focus of a theory. The chapter offers some suggestions about promoting multi-theoretical studies, such as encouragement during doctoral training and by journal editors and reviewers, and collaboration with experts of different theories. Researchers should take precautions when adopting a multi-theoretical approach, such as reconciling inconsistent core assumptions of theories, addressing levels issues and beware of Ockham’s razor.

Although diversity in companies is a topic of great interest, significant aspects of the issue are often left out of the debate. The Corporate Diversity Jigsaw connects all the dots so that steps taken to address issues of diversity in business organisations can be more effective. Akshaya Kamalnath offers a nuanced justification of exactly what types of diversity are most useful for corporations, where they should be implemented, and how best to address diversity in ways that account for recent social movements such as #MeToo and Black Lives Matter. After a critical assessment of quotas and disclosure requirements across jurisdictions, she provides a different way to solve the problem, by encouraging companies to make improvements to their culture and internal processes. This timely book offers a balanced analysis, practical solutions, and fresh perspectives on how corporate culture and social movements impact diversity efforts.

This chapter first introduces Aristotle’s doctrine of the four causes: material cause, formal cause, efficient cause and final cause. It is followed by the covering law model with its two versions: the deductive-nomological model, which is deterministic, and the inductive-statistical model, which is probabilistic. There are a number of counterexamples revealing the flaws of the covering law model, and the chapter discusses three: the barometer, the birth-control pill and the flagpole. A key defect of the model is that it does not involve the notion of causal mechanism. In contrast, mechanismic explanation traces the causal chain that produces the effect of interest and avoids the problems represented by the three counterexamples. Intentional explanation attempts to explain human behavior by intentional causation that treats reasons as causes. Although the terms teleological explanation and functional explanation are often used interchangeably, teleological explanation deals with conscious intent to achieve goals and is only applicable to human actions whereas functional explanation is concerned with the contribution of an entity to the future maintenance of a system of which the entity is a part. Historical explanation focuses on explaining the occurrence of some particular event by describing how it came to be. Finally, in contrast to variance theorizing that only examines the covariation among independent and dependent variables, process organization studies take time sequencing and ordering of events to be critical in conjuring up an explanation.

Although diversity in companies is a topic of great interest, significant aspects of the issue are often left out of the debate. The Corporate Diversity Jigsaw connects all the dots so that steps taken to address issues of diversity in business organisations can be more effective. Akshaya Kamalnath offers a nuanced justification of exactly what types of diversity are most useful for corporations, where they should be implemented, and how best to address diversity in ways that account for recent social movements such as #MeToo and Black Lives Matter. After a critical assessment of quotas and disclosure requirements across jurisdictions, she provides a different way to solve the problem, by encouraging companies to make improvements to their culture and internal processes. This timely book offers a balanced analysis, practical solutions, and fresh perspectives on how corporate culture and social movements impact diversity efforts.

Although diversity in companies is a topic of great interest, significant aspects of the issue are often left out of the debate. The Corporate Diversity Jigsaw connects all the dots so that steps taken to address issues of diversity in business organisations can be more effective. Akshaya Kamalnath offers a nuanced justification of exactly what types of diversity are most useful for corporations, where they should be implemented, and how best to address diversity in ways that account for recent social movements such as #MeToo and Black Lives Matter. After a critical assessment of quotas and disclosure requirements across jurisdictions, she provides a different way to solve the problem, by encouraging companies to make improvements to their culture and internal processes. This timely book offers a balanced analysis, practical solutions, and fresh perspectives on how corporate culture and social movements impact diversity efforts.

Although diversity in companies is a topic of great interest, significant aspects of the issue are often left out of the debate. The Corporate Diversity Jigsaw connects all the dots so that steps taken to address issues of diversity in business organisations can be more effective. Akshaya Kamalnath offers a nuanced justification of exactly what types of diversity are most useful for corporations, where they should be implemented, and how best to address diversity in ways that account for recent social movements such as #MeToo and Black Lives Matter. After a critical assessment of quotas and disclosure requirements across jurisdictions, she provides a different way to solve the problem, by encouraging companies to make improvements to their culture and internal processes. This timely book offers a balanced analysis, practical solutions, and fresh perspectives on how corporate culture and social movements impact diversity efforts.

Although diversity in companies is a topic of great interest, significant aspects of the issue are often left out of the debate. The Corporate Diversity Jigsaw connects all the dots so that steps taken to address issues of diversity in business organisations can be more effective. Akshaya Kamalnath offers a nuanced justification of exactly what types of diversity are most useful for corporations, where they should be implemented, and how best to address diversity in ways that account for recent social movements such as #MeToo and Black Lives Matter. After a critical assessment of quotas and disclosure requirements across jurisdictions, she provides a different way to solve the problem, by encouraging companies to make improvements to their culture and internal processes. This timely book offers a balanced analysis, practical solutions, and fresh perspectives on how corporate culture and social movements impact diversity efforts.

This chapter starts with a discussion of empirical testing based on structural versus reduced models in quantitative studies. Structural models consist of formulas that represent the relation of every dependent variable to its independent variables on various levels, whereas reduced models exhibit the net or overall relation between the dependent variable and the ultimate independent variables. Many quantitative studies published in management journal, especially those that use archival databases, belong to the reduced model category and thus seldom directly test the mechanisms in question. Another popular practice by quantitative researchers is post hoc hypothesis development where they develop hypotheses after they have obtained the results of data analysis. In the process, they may fudge their arguments to fit the results. A replication avoids all the shortcomings of post hoc hypothesis development because its hypotheses, which are the hypotheses of the original study, pre-exist data collection and analysis. Moreover, a replication helps to identify errors in the original study. A multi-method approach enables researchers to study a phenomenon more rigorously and may reveal unanticipated phenomena.

A valid explanation may not be based on any theory, and luck can be a valid explanation of certain business events. Regression to the mean suggests that good performance (probably due to good luck) is likely to be followed by decline whereas poor performance (probably due to bad luck) is likely to be followed by improvement. When theory is used, there is a risk of theory-ladenness of observation, which challenges the traditional empiricist account of scientific observation as the passive reception of sense-data. The theory-laden view implies that different paradigms or theories may be incommensurable in the sense that their proponents may not be able to communicate with and understand each other meaningfully. However, both theory-ladenness and incommensurability are exaggerations and can be overcome. The example of yin-yang theory shows that it is important to distinguish between substantive theory (or theory in the usual meaning of the term) and metatheory. The former is used to explain empirical phenomena whereas the latter serves as the philosophical foundation for the former.