Abductive Theory Construction

Abstract Consumer research is characterized by two types of research contributions: qualitative researchers propose original theory and quantitative researchers test existing theory. We describe a novel research approach that uses quantitative research methods to propose original theory. The method relies on an iterative investigate‐learn‐update research process that generates, but does not test, original theory. The method places a special emphasis on conducting informed exploratory studies that rely on a breadth of domains, procedures, populations, and analyses. This research approach has three benefits. First, it promotes the discovery of original theory in understudied domains. Second, the method encourages broad, boundary‐expanding exploration, hence, has the potential to propose original theories that encompasses a large set of relationships. Third, the iterative nature of the method mitigates the inclusion of idiosyncratic construct relationships in the proposed theory. We provide a hypothetical illustration of the method and provide examples of research topics that might benefit from the approach.