Conceptual Foundations of Technoficing and Future Research Directions

This research seminar traces the journey from ideas to measurement, illustrating how meaningful research emerges when scholars integrate grounded inquiry, rich ethnography, and rigorous measurement development. Using the phenomenon of technoficing—the creative adaptation and repurposing of technology for social good (Qureshi et al., 2021)—as an example, the session highlights how compelling research ideas often originate in the field through close observation, immersion, and engagement with real-world practice. Ethnographic and case-based methods help researchers identify novel concepts and constructs that existing theories may overlook. Building on these grounded insights, the talk demonstrates how researchers can systematically conceptualize emerging phenomena and translate them into measurable constructs through a structured scale-development process. By connecting discovery-oriented qualitative work with robust quantitative validation, the seminar underscores how researchers can produce theoretically insightful, empirically sound, and practically relevant contributions. The seminar will also explore the future possibilities for further developing this construct and its nomological network. The goal is to inspire participants to move from observing meaningful patterns in practice to constructing rigorous tools that advance both academic knowledge and societal impact.