Combining Topic Modeling with Grounded Theory: Case Studies of Project Collaboration

TL;DR

This paper introduces an AI Grounded Theory approach combining topic modeling with grounded theory, demonstrated through 51 project collaboration case studies, leading to new insights and theories in project management.

Contribution

It presents a novel abductive method integrating topic modeling with grounded theory for management research, validated with extensive case studies.

Findings

40 topics identified in case studies

4 core categories of project collaboration

Two new theories of project collaboration

Abstract

This paper proposes an Artificial Intelligence (AI) Grounded Theory for management studies. We argue that this novel and rigorous approach that embeds topic modelling will lead to the latent knowledge to be found. We illustrate this abductive method using 51 case studies of collaborative innovation published by Project Management Institute (PMI). Initial results are presented and discussed that include 40 topics, 6 categories, 4 of which are core categories, and two new theories of project collaboration.