From Thought to Theory to School: The Role of Contextual Factors in the Evolution of Schools of Management Thought

Abstract

The process by which theories form into schools of thought has been the focus of much scholarly attention, but the current model of McKinley et al. (1999) focuses primarily on theory content attributes. In this paper, we introduce theory context attributes that also influence the school formation process. Specifically, we suggest that factors such as the quality of the publication outlet, the reputation of the theory originator and the reputation of the theory originator’s university will all influence the likelihood of a theory being detected and assimilated and, consequently, evolving into a school of thought. We further highlight the effects of different combinations of theory and context attributes on the probability of a theory developing into a theory school. We suggest that theories with high content and high context attributes are more likely to evolve into a school of thought than theories with low content or low context attributes. Finally, we discuss future research implications.

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