misq-theory-development
Use when building the theoretical engine of a MIS Quarterly manuscript — a behavioral mechanism and hypotheses, a design theory and testable design propositions for a design-science artifact, an economic mechanism for an economics-of-IS study, or an organizational process theory. Adapts the form of "theory" to the paper's IS tradition; does not run the analysis (misq-data-analysis) or frame the contribution (misq-contribution-framing).
Profile →npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill misq-theory-development --agent claude-code
Same command for any agent — swap --agent for codex, cursor, copilot.
Weekly change comes from our own snapshots, not the repository page — it measures attention, not adoption.
# Theory Development (misq-theory-development) ## When to trigger - Your claims are descriptive ("A is associated with B") with no IS mechanism - You built an IT artifact but cannot say what *design knowledge* it embodies - A Senior Editor or reviewer says "the theoretical contribution is unclear" or "this is a technical exercise" - You need hypotheses or design propositions derived *before* you look at results ## Theory takes a different shape in each MISQ tradition MISQ is pluralistic, so "develop theory" means different things. Pick the row that matches your tradition. | Tradition | What "theory" means here | What you must produce | |-----------|--------------------------|------------------------| | **Behavioral** | A causal mechanism linking IT to cognition, behavior, or outcomes | A priori hypotheses with an explicit mechanism, boundary conditions, and any mediation/moderation logic | | **Design science** | A *design theory*: the principles that make the artifact work | Justificatory (kernel) theory, design principles/requirements, and testable propositions about the artifact's utility | | **Economics of IS** | An economic mechanism (incentives, information, matching, network
- When to trigger
- Theory takes a different shape in each MISQ tradition
- Behavioral and economics: derive claims a priori
- Design science: ground the artifact in a design theory
- Make boundary conditions explicit
- Before/after: from correlation to IS mechanism
- Design-science worked chain (kernel → principle → proposition)
- Checklist
- Anti-patterns
- Output format
What does the misq-theory-development skill do?
Use when building the theoretical engine of a MIS Quarterly manuscript — a behavioral mechanism and hypotheses, a design theory and testable design propositions for a design-science artifact, an economic mechanism for an economics-of-IS study, or an organizational process theory. Adapts the form of "theory" to the paper's IS tradition; does not run the analysis (misq-data-analysis) or frame the contribution (misq-contribution-framing).
How do I install it?
Run `npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill misq-theory-development --agent claude-code` — it drops the skill into your project so the agent can pick it up. Swap the --agent value for codex, cursor or copilot if you use one of those.
Where does this skill come from?
From brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills, a repository with 909 stars. We read it straight from the repository tree rather than a submitted listing, so what you see here is what is actually published.
Is a popular skill a good skill?
Not necessarily. Stars measure attention, not adoption — a repository can trend for a week and be abandoned. That is why we show the weekly change from our own snapshots next to the total, instead of a single flattering number.