Looking for inspiration what a potential contribution may be? Here are a few ways you can convince others about the importance of your research. These ways are extremely important when reviewing your literature (and later on stating how you contribute to the literature).

Test the assumptions

• …on which a significant stream of research relies
• Taking a step back and identify core assumptions

Probe the external validity

• …of what we take to be true
• Common background factors?

The next new thing

• Open new domains of inquiry
• Make sure that this domain has significant implications if it was better understood

Work backward in the causal chain

• Examine a variable, that if understood better, has major implications for a vast nest of relationships

Intervene in an accepted causal chain

• Taken-for-granted relationships? But really, really? What happens if they disappear?

Challenging conventional managerial practices/beliefs

• For example, most managers to [A], while they should be doing [B]

Resolve inconsistent findings

• Requires taking a step back…
• Examine a stream of research in a holistic fashion
• Focus on subtleties, that may have not so subtle implications