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All researchers want to produce interesting and influential theories. However, the increased use of research assessment reviews in many countries (e.g., REF/RAE in the UK, and ERA in Australia) and of designated journal lists for evaluating research performance have significantly intensified the demand to publish regularly – ideally in top-tier journals. But despite a huge increase in the number of management articles published during the three last decades, there is a serious shortage of high-impact research in management studies.

A key step in all theory development is formulating innovative research questions that will result in interesting and significant research. Based on several recent publications (co-authored with Mats Alvesson), I present in the seminar a problematization methodology for identifying and challenging the assumptions underlying existing theories and for generating research questions that can lead to more interesting and influential theories, using examples from across the social sciences. Established methods of generating research questions in the social sciences tend to focus on 'gap-spotting', which means that existing literature remains largely unchallenged. We show the dangers of conventional approaches, providing detailed ideas for how one can work through such problems and formulate novel research questions that challenge existing theories and produce more imaginative empirical studies

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