OPTIMIZING CONCEPTS: CONCEPTUAL ENGINEERING IN THE FIELD OF MANAGEMENT--THE CASE OF ROUTINES RESEARCH.

The paper out lines an ovel perspective for theory building by showing howme thods of conceptual engineering enable systematic development of conceptual competences. Conceptual engineering is a hot topic in philosophy, with many interesting achievements and applications. Using it in organization and management theory may shed new light on the most typical conceptual strategies in theory building, so-called conceptualization sandre conceptualizations, and help systematically improve them. Focusing on organization and management theory, the paper introduces conceptual engineering as a tool toopt imizeconceptsin the management field,and builds a proof of concept on two selected examples from routinesre search. Besidespaving a new wayin theory development, conceptual engineering gives an interesting solution to the rigor-relevance problemas it shows that the scientificper spectiveon the practical relevance of a theory requiresrigoronthe level of concepts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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