Unleashing the Power of Abductive Theorizing: A Practical Guide
Article
Kim, E, Marakas, G. (2026). Unleashing the Power of Abductive Theorizing: A Practical Guide
. Data Base for Advances in Information Systems, 57(3), 100-125. 10.1145/3822165.3822170
Kim, E, Marakas, G. (2026). Unleashing the Power of Abductive Theorizing: A Practical Guide
. Data Base for Advances in Information Systems, 57(3), 100-125. 10.1145/3822165.3822170
Contemporary IS phenomena, shaped by rapidly evolving, disruptive technologies, are increasingly complex and often diverge from established explanations, emphasizing the need for next-generation theories. This article advances abduction as a practical approach to knowledge discovery and theory building in IS. This research aims to clarify the role of abduction within IS scholarship and to provide actionable guidance for researchers seeking to construct creative and novel explanations of emerging phenomena. Building on Sætre and Van de Ven (2021), we refine abductive theorizing by repurposing the coding techniques of the grounded theory method as a toolbox, offering a more systematic approach to implementing abduction in IS research. The resulting model specifies steps and artifacts for anomaly identification, confirmation, explanation generation, and evaluation of explanation. We offer in this essay a new toolset for IS working with poorly understood or fast-moving socio-technical settings, complementing inductive and deductive approaches.
