Taking a Note from Music: Conceptual Sampling and the Creative Logic of Theory Development

How do scholars develop new theoretical explanations from existing ideas? Although management research has established clear criteria for evaluating theoretical contributions, it has devoted comparatively less attention to the creative processes through which those contributions are generated. In cumulative knowledge systems, theorists rarely develop ideas from entirely new conceptual materials. Instead, they build on existing concepts, mechanisms, and explanations to generate new theoretical insights. This review essay introduces conceptual sampling as a process framework for understanding creative theorizing in management. Drawing on scholarship on music sampling in jazz, electronic music, and hip-hop, we argue that theorizing often proceeds through three distinct processes of conceptual transformation: (1) rearticulation, (2) recombination, and (3) recontextualization. These processes respectively deepen existing theoretical frameworks, build new explanations by integrating ideas across literatures, and extend concepts into new contexts. By integrating scholarship on music sampling with work on theory development, this essay illuminates how scholars transform established conceptual resources into new theoretical explanations, thereby advancing insights on theory development in management.