Van specialisatie naar integratie in managementonderzoek

This article states that there is a need for lateral managerial research, in which the theories, methodologies and concepts of different managerial research domains are confronted. This should lead to a more integrated (holistic) research approach. The author shows that there is a lot of interdisciplinary analogy. Analogy is studied at three levels: – forms of causal analogies between theories, concepts and methodologies – forms of nested analogies – analogy in terminology The paper focuses on the value creation theory and shows important linkages with utility theory (psychology), risk management, chaos theory, etc.. Other illustrations are included as well. The need for a multidisciplinary research context is also driven by the observation that companies or company contexts no longer can be considered as a collection of functional domains that can be easily decomposed. Moreover today’s business environment shows simultaneous changes in terms of economic, social, technological and organizational aspects. Therefore a management research faculty should also invest in holistic research.