Big Ideas. Another characteristic that is prominent among our scholars is
their focus on big ideas. Repeatedly, they express scorn for small ideas and ideas
that are not based on real phenomena. They search for and encourage doctoral
students and colleagues who ask important research questions. Critically, they cope
eVectively with ambiguity and are capable of working with questions that don’t
require immediate answers. They seem to thrive trying to answer important
questions. It is, perhaps, because their ideas are so big, that many of our scholars
have spent their entire research careers developing and elaborating their theories.
Figure 26.1 summarizes our conclusions about the theory development process.