Developing dynamic organizational theories; three system dynamics based research strategies

Abstract

There is an increasing attention for dynamic organizational theories. The system dynamics methodology, although originally developed for practical contributions, is increasingly used to develop dynamic theoretical contributions. However, these studies differ substantially in the research designs they apply. Some of these studies adopt a quantitative approach while others adopt a qualitative approach. Some of these studies focus on testing existing theories, while other studies focus on building theory or combine both theory testing and building. This variety hinders an effective understanding of the methodology. To increase clarity, this paper provides a systematic review of system dynamics based theoretical contributions in organizational theory between 1990 and 2016. By looking at differences and commonalities I show how various methodological decisions combine into three distinctive internally consistent system dynamics based research strategies for theoretical contributions. These results support making methodological decisions in future research designs when applying system dynamics to develop dynamic organizational theories.