Marketing

Business marketing

Grounded theory

Negotiation

Philosophy

Communication

Pure mathematics

Qualitative marketing research

Public relations

Field (mathematics)

Scholarship

Practice theory

Conversation

Originality

Business

Qualitative research

Marketing research

Mathematics

Political science

Epistemology

Sociology

Quantitative marketing research

Social science

Marketing Theory

“Enabled theorizing” is a common practice in marketing scholarship. Nevertheless, this practice has recently been criticized for constraining the creation of novel theory. To advance this conversation, we conduct a grounded analysis of papers that feature enabled theorizing with the aim of describing and analyzing how enabled theorizing is practiced. Our analysis suggests that enabled theorizing marries data with analytical tools and ontological perspectives in ways that advance ongoing conversations in marketing theory and practice, as well as informing policy and methods. Based on interviews with marketing and consumer research scholars who practice enabled theorizing, we explain how researchers use enabling theories to shape research projects, how researchers select enabling lenses, and how they negotiate the review process. We discuss the implications of our analyses for theory-building in our field, and we question the notion of originality in relation to theory more generally.

Something old, something new: Enabled theory building in qualitative marketing research