THEORY CONSTRUCTION SEMINAR - AJAY K. KOHLI

Dear Colleagues,

we are pleased to invite you to the research seminar, organized for PhD students.

The date of the research seminar: 29^th  May, 2026

The time of the seminar: 9.30-13.00

The venue of the seminar: E 3001 CUB

It is an honour to welcome Prof. Ajay K. Kohli, honorary doctor of the Corvinus University of Budapest, who accepted our invitation to deliver a research seminar!

Thank you for your cooperation for joining the seminar, see you on 29^th  May!

THEORY CONSTRUCTION SEMINAR

AJAY K. KOHLI

Gary T. and Elizabeth R. Jones Chair
Georgia Institute of Technology

The purpose of this seminar is to help participants understand theory, the theory construction process, and to develop skills in building interesting and impactful new theory. The focus of the workshop is on nuts and bolts of building new theory (and not on philosophy of science).

The workshop will discuss theory as comprised of three core components. It will bring into sharp focus three general structures of arguments that can be used to support different types of theoretical propositions (main effects, interaction effects, and non-linear effects). It will identify characteristics of impactful theories, map the process of constructing theories, and provide guidelines for constructing impactful theories.

Agenda

1. Purpose of a theory
   
   
2. Theory and its components
   
   
3. Developing persuasive arguments for supporting different types of theoretical propositions (i.e., what are the general structures of arguments for supporting different types of theoretical propositions)
   
   
4. Different types of theoretical contributions
   
   
5. Theory construction and theory application
   
   
6. Characteristics of theories that are more impactful (i.e., used more) than others
   
   
7. Theory construction process (what scholars can do during the theory construction process to develop more impactful theories)
   
   
8. Some common weaknesses in “theory” manuscripts.

OPTIONAL READINGS

It is not necessary to do any reading prior to the seminar. However, time permitting, reading the following may help participants get more value out of the seminar:

1. “Causality” – Zaltman, LeMasters and Heffring, Chapter 3, in Zaltman, Gerald, Karen LeMasters and Michael Heffring (1982), Theory Construction in Marketing: Some Thoughts on Thinking.  New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.
2. Zeithaml, V. A., Jaworski, B. J., Kohli, A. K., Tuli, K. R., Ulaga, W., & Zaltman, G. (2020). A theories-in-use approach to building marketing theory. Journal of Marketing, 84(1), 32-51.
3. Sutton, Robert I. and Barry M. Staw (1995), “What theory is Not,” Administrative Science Quarterly, 40, 371-384. 
4. Weick, Karl E. (1995), “What Theory is Not, Theorizing Is,” Administrative Science Quarterly, 40, 385-390.
5. “Deductive and Inductive Thinking” – Zaltman, LeMasters and Heffring Chapter 5.
6. Weick, Karl E. (1989), “Theory Construction as Disciplined Imagination,” Academy of Management Review, 14 (4) 516-531.
7. “Being Interesting,” – Zaltman, LeMasters, and Heffring, Chapter 2.
8. Kohli, Ajay K. (2011), “From the Editor: Reflections on the Review Process,” Journal of Marketing, 75 (November), 1-4.

The seminar is supported by the National Research, Development and Innovation Office - NKFIH, research project K 146356