Multiple Disciplinarity in Management Research
Uolevi Lehtinen 1
Citation : Uolevi Lehtinen, Multiple Disciplinarity in Management Research International Journal of Managerial Studies and Research 2015 , 3(8) : 42-47
The objective of this article is to describe the possibilities, problems and challenges of multiple disciplinarity in management research. Multiple disciplinarity i.e. multitidisciplinarity, interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity as well as its methods i.e. blending, borrowing and combining are first depicted. A new concept of multiple modeling is introduced in this connection. The empirical studies that illustrate the utilization of multiple disciplinarity and modeling in managerial research,especially in marketing management are then examined. The empirical results of the author's four studies and three secondary studies show that there are some gaps between marketing practice and current theories, there is a significant parallel i.e. multidisciplinary use of both approaches, often some kind of intermodeling use of the combinations of the approaches and a strong need to find out how to combine the approaches properly. The possibilities of borrowing and blending as methods towards multiple disciplinarity and modeling are also discussed. Then there is a concluding discussion about the nature and reasons of multiple disciplinarity and modeling. Some generalizations and challenges are raised concerning the utilization possibilities of multiple disciplinarity and multiple modeling which extend throughout the fields of science