Theories, models or frameworks

There are some researchers who like to play with concepts and ideas and formulate new ones.  Other researchers like to do things in the field.  Myself, I sit in the middle.  I like to know some concepts before going into the field.  I like to see what happens when I use them to ask questions or to interpret the data that I collect.

Whatever type of researcher you consider yourself, it is important to have some sort of theory, framework or model in mind.  It helps you to make sense of the data; it also helps you to understand what could be going on in the field where you are working.  And most importantly it can help you explain to other people what you see.  

For me a theory involves some statements about the world and how phenomena occur. A framework shows how these statements work in practice.  And a model encapsulates measures and in some cases hypotheses about these aspects to enable you to collect data about them.  

As is usually the case, you need to read in order to understand these elements.  It is also good to read how other people have used them in practice. Many students skip the first thing (read the raw theory, framework or model) because they like to see their practical application.  They miss on the building blocks of what they are about to use.  So you need to go back to the original sources.  

Life is hard...  

But of course no theory, model or framework is perfect.  They try to be generic enough to be applicable to a range of situations.  So it is part of your job as a researcher to understand and test them, and find out how and if their work as initially stated by whoever defined them.  This is your chance to contribute to knowledge in your own particular areas of interest.  

As you can see from the above figure,  theories, frameworks and models are powerful elements in research.  They give you a preliminary view of what you are going to study.  They give you some sort of guidance for your fieldwork. Your job as a researcher is to use, confirm, modify or challenge what these elements propose.  For your own particular research, you will need to adapt theories, frameworks or models.  When you use some sort of guidance you are more into the deductive style of research.   

You can also decide to be totally 'open' and say that your mind is like a blank canvas, so you are not biased by any of these elements when you are going to observe something in your fieldwork.  That is fine, only that this is also a particular view that you adopt.  Those using grounded theory or first principles would like this. They decide to build theories, models or frameworks from what they observe in the field or what they conceptualise.  This is more an inductive process rather than a deductive one.   

At the end of your research it is expected that you advance knowledge on your particular areas of interest but also on these elements.  This is part of your contribution to knowledge.  When you analyse your findings do not forget to reflect on how theories, frameworks or models have helped you interpret what you observe.  If you are going to produce a new element of this, think carefully of who is to benefit and what are the implications for action of the new knowledge.  These implications will affect the work of managers, users and other researchers. 

Remember, do not claim too much when analising your findings. But whatever you claim should be relevant and well constructed so that other people can use it in their own research or their working life.