On the theory measurement unit in the theory-based research gap-translation process

The first diagram produced in the academic-oriented dissertation project (of the agile literature review approach) is the research gap-translation diagram. There are three component in the diagram, for the MBA students' project work:

Component A. The real-world business domain

Component B: The theory-based research gap translation process

Component C: The academic literature domain.

The research gap translation diagram template is as follows:

This note focuses on component B; specifically it is on the theory measurement unit of the process (Component B). To illustrate the concept of the theory measurement unit, I would like to make use of the academic literature of Organizational Behavior. The examples of five theory measurement unit types as follows:

Theory measurement unit type	Examples in Organizational Behavior
Type 1: One single theory	Maslow’s theory of motivation
Type 2: One single approach (comprising a number of theories of the same approach)	The contingency approach of leadership (with more than 1 contingency theory of leadership)
Type 3: Two or more theories which are incompatible	Maslow’ theory of motivation (hierarchical) vs Alderfer’s ERG model of motivation (non-hierarchical)
Type 4: Two or more approaches which are incompatible	The scientific approach of management vs the contingency approach of management
Type 5: The overall academic theme in Organizational Behavior study	The organizational behavior’s academic theme of employee engagement has a number of academic issues related to conceptual clarity, conceptual obsolescence, theory adaptation and empirical finding adequacy with regard to the context of Hong Kong in 2023.

Note 1: the theory measurement unit decided on this case will also be reflected in the research gap statements of the dissertation project study, thus also explicitly indicated in Component C study (re: the research gap-translation diagram).

Note 2: for the MBA dissertation project students doing literature review on these theories, I suggest that your literature review should examines at least 9 direct academic references (academic textbooks, academic articles, academic conference papers, university white papers and dissertation reports) on these theories. Together with the indirect references on these targeted theories, the number of academic references at least reach 19. The full reference list of the dissertation report should at least reach 45 (which could also include professional journal articles, academic references on topics such as research methods, newspaper articles, policy and empirical reports of various kinds in the public domain, etc.).

Note 3: When deciding on the theory measurement unit to use for a student's dissertation project, the student should discuss with his/her dissertation project supervisor to assess whether such measurement unit selection indicates an adequate level of intellectual complexity for the Degree project requirement (notably at the Master Degree level, for the MBA programme).

Related readings: 

Reading 1: illustrative examples on the four deliverables of academic-oriented dissertation report (ALRA).

Reading 2: on research gap analysis.