“Goldilocks” Theorizing in Supply Chain Research: Balancing Scientific and Practical Utility via Middle-Range Theory

While supply chain scholars have made considerable progress in theory building and testing, there has been a relative dearth of middle range theory. Middle-range theory (MRT) is context-specific conceptualization providing theoretically grounded insights readily applicable to an empirical context. It promotes rigorous and relevant research, bridges practice and theory, and conveys deeper understanding of how and why phenomena occur. The lack of significant MRT is surprising given the considerable efforts supply chain scholars exert to stay grounded in industry practices. As a result, we put forth a broad call for more middle-range theorizing and provide guidance on how supply chain scholars may meet this call. Specifically, we describe a MRT lever—theoretical contextualization—that strikes a balance between theory and industry and then present two overarching strategies (bottom-up and top-down) for MRT development. We discuss these strategies in the supply chain domain and identify how middle-range theorizing may be undertaken in four emerging, yet important, topics.