WHAT IS THEORY? WHAT THEORY IS NOT AND WHAT IS THE EVALUATING CRITERIA FOR THROEIRATICAL CONTRIBUTION?
MUHAMMAD FAREED SHEIKH
REGISTRATION # 10031
NUST BUSINESS SCHOOL

What is theory? What theory is not and what is the evaluating criterion for theoretical contribution?
The purpose/objective of this easy is to describe what is theory? Kinds of theory? What are the constituents of theory? What is the standard against which theory is evaluated? What theory is not? Predictive success is stated as one of the important the success criteria and how much significance should be given to it for acceptance of theory? And how management theories are developed?
Definition of Theory
The debate on question what is theory is still enduring and we do not find unanimity on any definition that can be referred as universal. Theory is statement of concepts and the relationship of concepts that shows how and why phenomena occur (Gioia and Pitre 1990). Definition of theory as stated by (Bacharach 1989) that theory is set of assumptions and casual logic within the boundary of time space and value. Theory as cited by (Bacharach 1989) that it’s a linguistic tool to arrange a complex empirical world. Theory in its boundary of assumption takes the form of proposition and proposition derive hypothesis from construct and variables. Further, activities like abstracting, generalizing, relating, selecting, explaining, synthesizing, and idealizing is the way through which theory is formulated.
There are countless theories but they can be clearly classified into two groups: Scientific Theories which are considered “true” or “facts” because they have been found experimentally to work and we know the reason why they work, and unscientific theories which have been formulated wanting when similarly experimentally tested. Newton’s Theory of Gravity, Maxwell theory of Electromagnetism, Einstein