Paradigm prison, or in praise of atheoretic research
以青霉素发现为例，批判当前管理学研究过度强调范式和理论，贬低无理论研究的倾向，并论证无理论研究在自然科学和管理学中的积极作用。
Alexander Fleming might well have cursed the mysterious spore that had entered his lab and killed his bacterial cultures. His colleagues considered the agent a nuisance and source of delay. But Fleming thought it a possible godsend. At once, he abandoned his original research and research domain, and spent untold hours trying to isolate and culture the troublesome spore – penicillin. Mankind will be forever grateful. Sadly, the current institutional setting within which administrative studies develop has evolved to de-legitimize Fleming’s type of research. Specifically, it degrades and discourages research that is non-paradigmatic or atheoretical. This essay demonstrates the dark side of that tendency and points to the salutary effects of atheoretical research, both in the natural sciences and within our own discipline.