Tight Mapping: A Concrete Procedure for Borrowing from Radical Traveling Theories

• Published date: 01 March 2020
• Author: Philippe Accard
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/emre.12335
• Date: 01 March 2020

Tight Mapping: A Concrete Procedure for

Borrowing from Radical Traveling Theories

PHILIPPE ACCARD

LAREQUOI, laboratoire de recherche en Management, Université Versailles-Saint-Quentin, 47, Boulevard Vauban, F-78 047,

Guyancourt, France

The scientificdomain of organizationand management is multidisciplinary; its theoristshave borrowed extensively

from otherdomains such as biology, psychology and sociology. Many ofthe borrowed theories areradical traveling

theories, i.e., abstract, general theories that have made groundbreaking contributions to theirdomain of origin, and

that have great potential for organization and management. Theory borrowing has received considerable attention

over the past thirty years, during which time fundamental epistemological issues have been addressed, but little

attention has been paid to the difficulties that are involved in carrying out borrowing. More pragmatic works are

needed, andwith this in mind, we suggest tight mappingtransformative analogicalreasoning. This mode of reasoning

creatively and rigorously reduces the abstraction of radical traveling theories so that they provide accurate and

coherentorganization and managementtheories. Tightmapping facilitates borrowingand can be helpful to the many

organization and management theorists who borrow from radical traveling theories. We hope that our concrete

suggestion for tight mapping will serve asa starting point for further pragmatic research on theory borrowing.

Keywords: Epistemology; methodology; theory building; organizational structures; organization

Introduction

The scientific domain of organization andmanagement is

multidisciplinary. It has developed because its theorists

have drawn extensively from other scientific disciplines

(Huff, 2000; Floyd, 2009; Whetten et al., 2009; Zahra

and Newey, 2009; Oswick et al., 2011; Suddaby et al.,

2011; Sheppherd and Suddaby, 2017, Markoczy and

Deeds, 2009). They have borrowed from neighboring

scientific domains such as sociology, psychology and

economics, but also from more distant domains such as

philosophy,cultural studies, linguistics,and even biology,

physics and chemistry (Whetten et al., 2009; Zahra and

Newey, 2009; Oswick et al., 2011; Sheppherd and

Suddaby, 2017).

Organization and management theorists often borrow

from abstract, general theories that have contributed

significantly to their scientific domain of origin, and

which suggest great potential for organization and

management. It is precisely their abstract and general

character that makes it possible for these theories to

‘travel’from their initial domain to that of organization

and management. They are called ‘radical traveling

theories’(Osigweh, 1989; Oswick et al., 2011); some

examples are post-modern philosophies, evolutionism,

complex system theories, and psychoanalytic theories.

When they borrow, organization theorists think in

metaphorical terms –they develop an analogy between

the radical traveling theory and organizations. They apply

analogical reasoning to the theory so that it can be

accurately transferred to their domain of organization

and management theories (Morgan, 1980, 1983; Oswick

et al., 2002; Cornelissen, 2004, 2005a,b; Van Udden,

2005; Cornelissen et al., 2008; Cornelissen and Kafouros,

2008; Boxenbaum and Rouleau, 2011; Oswick et al.,

2011; Ketokivi et al., 2017).

Although a great number of works on metaphorical

thinking have been developed over the last thirty years,

only a few, as emphasizedby Cornelissen (2004), provide

organization theorists with concrete guidelines for

accurately performing analogical reasoning. Due to this

gap in current works, theorists have few indications for

concrete procedures for carrying out analogical reasoning

and borrowing from radical traveling theories. This is

regrettable, not only because radical traveling theories

are rich sources for creating and developing organization

and management theories, but also because organization

Correspondence: Philippe Accard, Associate Professor, Université

Versailles-Saint-Quentin, LAREQUOI, laboratoire de recherche en

Management,47, Boulevard Vauban, F-78 047 Guyancourt, France. Tel:

+(33) 0139255518. E-mail philippe.accard@uvsq.fr

DOI: 10.1111/emre.12335

©2018 European Academy of Management

European Management Review, Vol. 17, –, (2020)

3 7 368

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