Creative destruction in science

• Main Authors: TIERNEY, Warren, HARDY, Jay H. III, EBERSOLE, Charles R., LEAVITT, Keith, Viganola, D., HARTANTO, Andree, du PLESSIS, Christilene, JHA, Nilotpal, MASTERS-WAAGE, Theodore C., SCHAERER, Michael
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2020
• Subjects: Replication; Theory pruning; Theory testing; Conceptual replication; Cultural differences; Direct replication; Falsification; Gender discrimination; Hiring decisions; Protestant work ethic; Work values; Work-family conflict; Industrial and Organizational Psychology; Science and Technology Studies; Social Psychology
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/3600; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soss_research/article/4858/viewcontent/CreativeDestructioninScience_pvoa.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

Drawing on the concept of a gale of creative destruction in a capitalistic economy, we argue that initiatives to assess the robustness of findings in the organizational literature should aim to simultaneously test competing ideas operating in the same theoretical space. In other words, replication efforts should seek not just to support or question the original findings, but also to replace them with revised, stronger theories with greater explanatory power. Achieving this will typically require adding new measures, conditions, and subject populations to research designs, in order to carry out conceptual tests of multiple theories in addition to directly replicating the original findings. To illustrate the value of the creative destruction approach for theory pruning in organizational scholarship, we describe recent replication initiatives re-examining culture and work morality, working parents’ reasoning