EXPRESS: The Colemanian Project in Management Research: A Pragmatic and Generative Account for Microfoundations

In the first chapter of Foundations of Social Theory, James Coleman advances a meta-theoretical framework that specifies an ideal explanatory structure for social science. This is often represented by the Coleman “bathtub,” which distinguishes three linked components: a macro-to-micro component, an individual-action component, and a micro-to-macro component. In management research, the bathtub has become a widely used heuristic for articulating microfoundational explanations. At the same time, a growing literature has criticized or rejected the bathtub as an inappropriate framework for management theorizing. This article responds to these critiques by reconstructing and defending the Colemanian project in management research. We begin by clarifying Coleman’s distinction between meta-theory and first-order theory and by situating the bathtub within his systems-oriented and interventionist conception of social explanation. We further argue that the bathtub embodies a pragmatic and generative meta-theoretical orientation that places relatively weak constraints on first-order theoretical commitments, allowing flexibility in how agency, social organization, and change are theorized.We then show how the microfoundations movement in management research exemplifies this generative potential by mobilizing the bathtub across a wide range of theoretical perspectives, extending beyond Coleman’s rational-choice assumptions. This diversity helps explain both the widespread uptake of the bathtub and its continued usefulness for management theorizing. Finally, we argue that many contemporary critiques overlook these explanatory payoffs by advancing ontology-first objections that neglect Coleman’s fundamentally methodological and explanatory concerns. Recasting the Colemanian project in this way clarifies both the value and limits of the bathtub as a heuristic for management research.