Field Research Methods in Strategic Management: Contributions to Theory Building and Testing*

ABSTRACT This article discusses the contributions that field methods have made to the theory‐development process in strategic management. Field studies drawn from the literature are classified according to their research goal (description, explanation, or prediction) and according to whether they built or tested theory. the overall conclusion is that field research methods will continue to be used heavily to develop strategy theory. However, certain conditions must be met to maximize the contribution of field methods to strategy research. These conditions include a balanced research agenda, multifaceted research approaches, innovative datagathering techniques, and an applied futuristic orientation.