The grounded theory method and case study data in IS research: issues and design - Information Systems Foundations: Constructing and Criticising - page 51

The researcher achieves theoretical saturation when the main concern of the research
can be accounted for, and further sampling fails to add significant value to the study
through adding new categories or properties.
At this stage, when the theory becomes dense with concepts and enriched by relevant
extant literature, the researcher has 'discovered' a substantive theory . Substantive theories
are applicable to the particular area of empirical enquiry from which they emerged
(Glaser and Strauss, 1967). They can be classified as 'middle-range' theories; that is,
between 'minor working hypotheses' and 'grand theories' and they are relevant to the
people concerned as well as being readily modifiable (Glaser and Strauss, 1967).
The objective of this section was to present an overview of the activities involved in
this study. However, some concepts require further explanation, as discussed in the
next section.
Particular characteristics of the method
While the grounded theory method has been in use for many years in the social sciences,
it still has a minority status in IS research (Lehmann, 2001b). Thus, some critical and
perhaps more obscure methodological aspects need to be discussed if one wants to dispel
misconceptions. These characteristics are discussed next.
Role of the extant literature
As has already been mentioned, in grounded theory methodology the bulk of the liter-
ature review is conducted after the emergence of substantive theory. It is then, and not
before, that data from the extant literature contributes to the study (Eisenhardt, 1989,
p. 278; Urquhart, 2001, p. 366). The approach of reading the literature first with the
objective of identifying gaps and relevant theories is opposite to the role that the liter-
ature has in grounded theory. Glaser (1998, p. 67) cannot be more specific in this regard:
Grounded theory's very strong dicta are a) do not do a literature review in the
substantive area and related areas where the research is done , and b) when the
grounded theory is nearly completed during sorting and writing up, then the
literature search in the substantive area can be accomplished and woven into
the theory as more data for constant comparison (Glaser, 1998 p. 360:67). 7
While uninformed observers of the grounded theory method may construe these dicta
as a neglect of the literature (Glaser, 1998 p. 360), nothing can be farther from the truth.
The purpose of the dicta above is to keep the researcher as free as possible of influences
that could restrict the freedom required for theoretical discovery, not to ignore extant
and relevant knowledge (Glaser, 1998). Adopting a grounded theory method commits
the researcher to a rigorous and constant literature review process that occurs at two
levels:
1. the researcher must be constantly reading in other substantive areas to increase
their theoretical sensitivity, and
2. conceptual emergence forces the researcher to review convergent and diverging
literature in the field related to the developing concept.
Because emerging theoretical construction drives the literature review, the extant liter-
ature is incorporated into the study as data. Therefore, most of the relevant reviewed
literature will be presented, as it finds its way into, and becomes integrated with, the
substantive theory. This closely reflects the nature of the method and the role and place
7
Italic text in the original.