12365: Expanding and Extending the Community for Computational Theory Construction

Computational Theory Construction (CTC) leverages computational tools, such as social network analysis, sequence analysis, text analysis, and agent-based simulations, to identify patterns within social systems and develop theories around them. In the organizational and information systems domains, this approach is also referred to as "computational grounded theory," "interpretive data science," and "computationally intensive theory construction." Recent advancements in computational methods, including the adoption of large language models and Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI), broaden the possibilities for CTC. As this field continues to advance, an expanding community of scholars contributes to its growth and development. This PDW is a follow-up to the previous AOM PDWs on “Towards a Community of Computational Theory Construction Scholars” in 2024, “Towards a Craft of Computational Theory Construction” in 2023, “Computational Methods for Theory Building: Practices & Struggles” in 2022, and “The Rise of Computational Methods for Theory Development” in 2021. In these prior workshops, we focused on establishing the legitimacy of this new genre of research and providing a collaborative forum to help participants. As computational techniques continue to evolve, this follow-up workshop is dedicated to expanding and extending the community of CTC scholars around a core set of CTC practices. Building on the tradition of previous CTC PDWs, we aim to connect more computational and qualitative researchers, share insights behind CTC papers, and mentor junior scholars in advancing their CTC projects.

Part I of the PDW – the keynotes and panel discussion are open to all AOM registrants. Part II – roundtable discussions are only for participants who would like to receive feedback on their ongoing or planned projects and have been accepted to attend the roundtables. For those who are interested in participating in roundtables, please submit a short vignette before June 30th (max 2 pages in PDF format to ctcpdw21@gmail.com). The organizers will send out the notification of acceptance in the mid of July. Your vignette should cover the following aspects. • Brief introduction of the research project • Your use of computational techniques in combination with other methods, such as qualitative approaches, for theory construction. • What struggles have you faced in understanding, using, or considering using computational methods in your theory development work? Those who have not conducted any such research, but are planning to do so, can submit short descriptions of your intended work, also focusing on your planned combination of manual and computational techniques or related questions. These descriptions should focus on the CTC practices you plan to adopt and related challenges. We look forward to seeing you and engaging in fruitful discussions during the PDW!