Misunderstanding Metatheorizing

Metatheorizing is an important but generally poorly understood genre of social science inquiry that has particular relevance to systems research. In this paper, I define and present the major characteristics of metatheoretical research, discuss why it is neglected as a form of research and how it is often misunderstood and inadequately represented in the systems and management science literature. I illustrate the discussion with some examples of misunderstanding of metatheorizing from the systems science literature. I also make some recommendations for how researchers can improve their own metatheorizing and so, hopefully, help this important form of research become more widely acknowledged and critically appreciated. Copyright (c) 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.