How Research Can Contribute to Theory

Case study matches theory and observation. It analyzes how efficiently a theory envisages aspects of precise cases. Case studies can contribute to theory. They offer additional information that adds or decreases the value of previous theorists. It is mainly because case studies can provide information that can either confirm or deny the existing theory.

In areas that haven’t been explored or studied previously, case studies offer new data. In this way, case studies can be seen to be creating a knowledge base for countless disciplines and theories. Another way that research contributes to theory is that research can prove or disapprove a theory. In research, observations change theories. It is mainly because observations can either confirm the theory or show variance between the theory and the actual observations. If the latter happens, the theory can either be abandoned or changed to fit the new confirmed observations. It is hence of great importance for researchers to observe how theory and observations match.

The work of any researcher is to undertake research and make observations and then proceed to see whether the observations correlate with theory. A third way that research contributes to theory is in the case where a theory requires to be expanded to a new phenomenon. Familiarity with the research and literature related to the problem, one can come across areas of further research or inquiry that prior research had not addressed. The new knowledge can be built upon to extend a theory to a whole new dimension.