مقاله سال ۲۰۱۶

 مجله تحقیقات بازاریابی – Journal of Business Research

Kurt Zadek Lewin was a German-American psychologist and one of the modern pioneers of social, organizational, and applied psychology. Lewin was born on September 9, 1890 in Mogilno (modern-day Poland, then part of the Kingdom of Prussia). He immigrated to the United States in August 1933 and became a naturalized citizen in 1940. There, he made a new life for himself, continuing his outstanding work on psychology research. He passed away on February 12, 1947 in Newtonville, Massachusetts, United States.

Researchers consider Kurt Lewin as the “father of social change theories” because contemporary models build on Lewin’s work (Kaminski, 2011). With Lewin’s massive contribution to science as an inspiration, this special issue of the Journal of Business Research (JBR) seeks studies embracing the following three steps: (1) deep observation of real-life practice (behavior); (2) inductive theory building from practice cases to models of multiple realities; and (3) testing the new inductive theory deductively using additional sample of 5 to 30 or more practice cases. Lewin (1945) famously stated, “Nothing is so practical as a good theory.” The objective of this JBR special issue is to provide theoretical and empirical evidence using multiple methods and to present conceptual studies that look at different theoretical perspectives. This special issue collects research demonstrating that the reverse thought is useful: good theory follows from bad or good practice and executives’ attempts to recognize and solve paradoxes in practice.

Lewin’s change management model still affects many recent studies, such as action research (Beaulieu, 2013), activity theory (Langemeyer, 2011), conflict resolution (Edmund, 2010), role playing in conflict resolution (Bowman, 2013), changing practice in early years settings (Davis, 2012), relationships of marriage (Lavner, Karney, & Bradbury, 2014), cultural–historical research (Chaiklin, 2011), experiential learning theory (Kolb & Kolb, 2012), and organizational development (Burnes, 2012). Key contributions on practice-to-theory provide useful insights and tools (Eisenhardt, 1989; Tsoukas, 1989; Van de Ven, 1989; Weick, 1989; Woodside, 2010).