TheoryHub

Theories: 17

Affordances Theory

Affordance Theory describes the possible actions an actor can perform based on the properties of objects in an environment. These properties, such as shape and size, combined with the actor’s needs, goals, and abilities, shape how the object can be perceived and used.

Agency Theory

Agency theory explains how contracts, incentives, and monitoring align the interests of principals and agents with differing goals and unequal information to minimise agency costs.

Diffusion of Innovations

Diffusion of innovation studies aim to understand what stimulates the adoption of a resource, such as an idea or product, and how such a decision can affect a social structure and context.

Dynamic Capabilities Theory

Dynamic capabilities (DCs) are higher-level competences enabling organisations to integrate, build, and reconfigure resources to address and shape dynamic environments.

Evolutionary Economic Theory

Evolutionary economics explains change over time with respect to economic development.

Protection Motivation Theory

Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) is a theory explaining the impact of persuasive communication on protective behaviour with an emphasis on cognitive mechanisms mediating fear appeals and behaviour change.

Resource-Based Theory

The resource-based theory (RBT) is an influential approach in strategic management. It has been widely applied as a managerial framework to determine vital resources for a firm to achieve a sustained competitive advantage. The theory provides an essential framework to explain and predict the fundamentals of a company’s performance and competitive advantage.

Self-Determination Theory

Self-Determination Theory aims to understand the interplay between personality, motivation and optimal functioning, highlighting how both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation foster behavioural patterns and psychological performance.

Self-Presentation Theory

Self-presentation is an influential theory in sociology, aiming to explain how individuals develop, shape, and maintain their impressions in society.

Social Capital Theory

Social capital refers to the structure and quality of social relationships and constitutes a positive product of social interactions that can be a source of benefits for individuals, social groups and the society as a whole.

Social Exchange Theory

Social exchange theory explains the social behaviour in dyadic and collective relations by applying a principle of a cost-benefit analysis of relations.

Social Influence Theory

Social Influence Theory explains the impact of social influence on individuals through three processes of influence acceptance, namely compliance, identification and internalisation, and considers the conditions necessary for these processes to occur.

Socio-Technical Theory

Socio-technical theory is an organisational theory that conceptualises a given work or other system in view of its constituent social and technical subsystems, with the goal of achieving system success through joint optimisation.

Task-Technology Fit

The Task-Technology Fit model postulates that the match between task requirements and technology characteristics predicts the utilisation of the technology and individuals’ performance.

Theory of Planned Behaviour

The Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) is one of the most influential theories of human behaviour. It posits that individual behaviour is driven by intention, which is influenced by attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioural control. It has been applied across many research domains.

Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology

The Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) examines the acceptance of technology, determined by the effects of performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence and facilitating conditions.

Upper Echelons Theory

The Upper Echelons Theory postulates that the idiosyncratic characteristics (e.g., cognitive base and values) of a firm’s top-level managers play a key role in explaining and/or predicting strategic decisions and organisational performance. Top-level managers’ cognitive base and values exert influence on how they interpret strategic situations, shaping their decisions and resulting in market and financial performance outcomes.

Operationalised:	Qualitatively Quantitatively
Theory Level:	Micro Meso Macro
Theory Level:	Theory for Analysing Theory for Explaining Theory for Predicting Theory for Explaining and Predicting Theory for Design and Action

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