Theoretical Significance

Fairly recently, I have come across many chairs who are now asking their students to establish the theoretical significance of their studies in the introduction chapter. Previously, most significance requests focused on positive social change (which we will cover in a later blog) or on practical and academic significance (which we covered in a previous blog post). As a result, many students wonder what theoretical significance actually means and how to present it to their chairs. I think I have come up with the answer.

Your theoretical significance deals with how your theory will gain new understanding when applied to your study. You accomplish this by reviewing earlier studies similar to yours; technically, you should do this anyway to establish the gap in the literature you are aiming to fill. Once you see how they expanded the understanding of the theory, you find the next logical step in how you will further this expansion. It is relatively simple.

Consider what you already know and identify what is missing. Does your study provide an answer to what is missing? If so, you already know how to expand it. If your study does not fit what is missing, you may want to consider how niche you want to go with defining your theoretical significance. What this means is that you are going to eventually have to narrow down the significance. While many common theories are easily applicable to a potential study (leadership theories, in particular), there is a downside to choosing one of these theories. These theories often expand to the point where you must resort to the most niche perspective to find the theoretical significance.