“So You Already Have a Survey Database? A Seven-Step Methodology for Theory Building from Survey Databases: An Illustration from Incremental Innovation Generation in Buyer-Seller Relationships,”

Authors: Subroto Roy

Across business disciplines, the importance of database research for theory
testing continues to increase. The availability of data also has increased,
though methods to analyze and interpret these data lag. This research proposes
a method for extracting strong measures from survey databases by a
progression from qualitative to quantitative techniques. To test the proposed
method, this study uses the Industrial Marketing and Purchasing (IMP) survey
database, which includes data from firms in several European countries. The
proposed method consists of two phases and seven steps, as illustrated in the
context of the firm’s incremental innovation generation for buyer–seller relationships.
This systematic progression moves from a broad but valid empirical
case study to the development of a narrow and reliable measure of
incremental innovation generation in the IMP database. The proposed
method can use supply chain survey databases for theory development without
requiring primary data collection, assuming certain conditions.

Journal: Journal of Supply Chain Management (46, Issue 4 – 12-24)

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Publish Year: 2010

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