Theory Through Argument: Applying Argument Mapping To Facilitate Theory Building

This paper proposes an extension of Fletcher and Huff’s (1990) argument mapping technique, which focuses on an examination of individual arguments, to depict the broader argumentative terrain of a theoretical discourse. To illustrate the utility of argument mapping as a literature review technique, we demonstrate an application of this approach to the domain of Technology Frames of Reference (TFR) research. We then compare the insights derived from this approach to those derived from a more traditional literature review of this domain. Findings of this comparison suggest that an argument-centred approach could contribute the following new insights into a theoretical domain: (1) provide a means of weighting contributions to a theoretical discourse by depicting these contributions in terms of levels of argumentation; (2) identify new “types” of argument-centred gaps in the literature; (3) offer a structural and progressive view of theory development in a particular domain that could be used to could be used to link and compare insights derived from competing theoretical lenses; and (4) propose a closer linkage between theory testing and theory building by focusing the testing on “arguable” aspects of a theoretical claim.