Relationship Management Maturity

Abstract

When building a theory, two strategies are generally available to management scholars: the interpretative-symbolistic contextualization and the neo-positivistic functionalistic-systemic idealization strategy (Czakon 2015). In the contextualization strategy, the inference and explanation are an interrelated, context-dependent process. The researcher is an active "interrogator of the data" who seeks to find the best theoretical explanation based on empirical evidence and preferred epistemic virtues (Easterby-Smith et al. 2012; Strauss and Corbin 1998). In consequence, the primary mode of reasoning is induction, and the developed theory is grounded in empirical data (Charmaz 2004). The idealization strategy assumes the opposite direction of scientific inquiry. By appealing to deductive reasoning, theoretical propositions are formed and then empirically verified in search of objective, universally observable causal rules (Czakon 2015). These inductive arguments are reinforced by normative guidelines. The latter, in turn, rely on the hypotheses which were earlier analytically derived from the theory (Sprenger 2011). A specific product of such a hypothetico-deductive (H-D) theory confirmation method is so-called ideal organizational types and profiles. Ideal types are complex theoretical constructs, which describe a model