Table 2 Theoretical constructions for... | Emerald Publishing

Table 2

Theoretical constructions for the stage Problem Formulation

Theoretical construction		Evaluation of theoretical construction
Task in the ADR method	Integrated method support in the ADR project	Empirical evidence
Identify and conceptualise the research opportunity	Root-cause analysis (Wilson et al., 1993)	Enabled researchers and practitioners to: (1) jointly identify a generic problem valid for all organisations (2) visualise relationships between of organisation-specific problems
Formulate initial research questions	Formulation of research question (Gregor and Hevner, 2013)	Supported the ADR project to formulate and reformulate the research question with respect to emerging insights gained from empirical data and theoretical insights. The suggested questions “What do we know already?” and “From what existing knowledge can we draw?” were found useful
Cast the problem as an instance of a class of problems	UML class diagrams (Object Management Group, 2020)	Increased the understanding of the relationships between the instance and the class of problems by illustrating how attributes of the instance were passed on to the class
Identify contributing theoretical bases and prior technology advances	Literature review method (Webster and Watson, 2002)	Supported the ADR project to conduct an organised literature review to identify kernel theories concerning what is already known and what we need to know
Identify contributing theoretical bases and prior technology advances	Multidimensional market analysis (Day, 1981)	Supported the ADR project to systematically identify and evaluate technology advances (digital tools) that belonged to the same class of solutions

Theoretical construction		Evaluation of theoretical construction
Task in the ADR method	Integrated method support in the ADR project	Empirical evidence
Identify and conceptualise the research opportunity	Root-cause analysis (Wilson et al., 1993)	Enabled researchers and practitioners to: (1) jointly identify a generic problem valid for all organisations(2) visualise relationships between of organisation-specific problems
Formulate initial research questions	Formulation of research question (Gregor and Hevner, 2013)	Supported the ADR project to formulate and reformulate the research question with respect to emerging insights gained from empirical data and theoretical insights. The suggested questions “What do we know already?” and “From what existing knowledge can we draw?” were found useful
Cast the problem as an instance of a class of problems	UML class diagrams (Object Management Group, 2020)	Increased the understanding of the relationships between the instance and the class of problems by illustrating how attributes of the instance were passed on to the class
Identify contributing theoretical bases and prior technology advances	Literature review method (Webster and Watson, 2002)	Supported the ADR project to conduct an organised literature review to identify kernel theories concerning what is already known and what we need to know
Identify contributing theoretical bases and prior technology advances	Multidimensional market analysis (Day, 1981)	Supported the ADR project to systematically identify and evaluate technology advances (digital tools) that belonged to the same class of solutions