BUILDING THEORY ABOUT THEORY BUILDING: WHAT CONSTITUTES A THEORETICAL CONTRIBUTION?

We distill existing literature on theoretical contribution into two dimensions, originality (incremental or revelatory) and utility (scientific or practical). We argue for a revision in the way scholars approach the utility dimension by calling for a view of theorizing that would enable theories with more scope (both scientific and practical utility). We also argue for an orientation toward prescience as a way of achieving scope and fulfilling our scholarly role of facilitating organizational and societal adaptiveness.