"Theorizing and theory building skills are essential for any researcher. Yet, it is rare to find a PhD course that offers to teach these skills to a sufficient degree. I found the TBRP course very useful – if not necessary – for three reasons: (1) The content, structure and exercises were very well planned and coordinated to enhance the learning process for the participants. (2) The instructors were very experienced, knowledgeable and able to provide context to the theoretical and philosophical discussions. (3) The group work assignments provided a foundation for fertile interdisciplinary discussions about the nature of theorizing and theory building that helped to open my eyes for new perspectives on my own PhD research. The TBRP course proved to be fundamental for my understanding of theory building, and expanded my belief in the power of data."
- Kjeld Hansen, Copenhagen Business School
"I took the TBRP course at the end of my PhD. On the one hand I believe having taken the course earlier could have been invaluable and saved me a great deal of confusion. On the other hand, being at the stage I am now enabled me to recognize many of the challenges discussed in my own experience and data. This helped me to apply what I learned immediately to the problems I have been facing. Although I had taken other courses of qualitative methods I still felt insecure about making conjectures and theorizing. The course was very explicit about how to go from description to theory building. The interaction with the other participants and the professors was excellent. I also enjoyed the opportunity of discussing my own research one-on-one with experienced researchers. I recommend the course to anyone interested in qualitative research and theory building."
- Letícia Antunes Nogueira, Aalborg University
"The TBRP PhD preparation work and the course contributed to a better understanding of philosophy and approaches to research as well as for research methods and methodologies and how to build relationships between the abstract and the empirical. I have gained a firm grasp of how my specific theory needs to be constructed (for example going up a chain of abstraction from the specific to the general), how to better formulize my conceptual thoughts and to add more significance, conceptualization and methodology in my research aim. The TBRP PhD course provided to me a moment of sudden realization, enlightenment, inspiration – and confidence for my ongoing research journey."
- Chris Stäubli, University of Gloucestershire
"This is one of the best courses I have attended. I learnt so much in a little time. I had the opportunity to network with smart graduate students from all over the world. And the icing on the cake.... we had a chance to talk to the famous grounded theory expert.. Barney Glaser. Watch out for the this course when it is advertised the next time."
- Fortune Abla Nyamadaxe, University of Ghana
"The TBRP course was a gainful event; I particularly liked the combination out of focused lectures and informal exchange with professors. The content provided during lectures and practical exercises stimulated various informal discussions with the professors in the course of the 5 days. This interaction helped me tremendously in the tricky phase of theorising."
- Matthias Zach, University of Gloucestershire
"TBRP PhD course is one of the courses I would encourage anyone to participate regardless of the stage of the dissertation. It was interesting for me to learn new things about theory building from literature and new methods for theory building from data. I recommend this course not only for the knowledge one acquires from the facilitators but also from group discussions, presentations and feedback, sharing of experiences and last but not least, the one-to-one discussions with the facilitators. It was also my first time to learn about Grounded Theory methods and techniques and how the processes can be useful during data collection, data analysis and theory development. In summary, it was an excellent arrangement with the course content, facilitators’ presentations, and discussions with both facilitators and other attendees. Not to forget; there were delicious lunches and perfect dinners."
- Philip Mampukia Yakubu, Aalborg University
"It was a great opportunity for me to participate in the TBRP PhD course – a course for PhD student with full of joy and useful knowledge. Although my PhD work had just been started only two months before joining this class, it means that I still at the very first stage of my research, but this course helped me a lot in understanding how to apply necessary methods, tools and techniques to develop theories from the extant knowledge and empirical data. The structure and content of the course was a good combination between lecture teaching with group work activities and this allowed us to apply what we learnt into practice. During the course, time was set up purposefully for networking and discussing between PhD students from diverse research domains not only in classroom but also in cosy lunches and dinners. Moreover, the enthusiasm and wholeheartedness of all Professors in organizing and teaching this class also made a very good impression on me. Therefore, I would like to recommend this course for any PhD students, including who are still in the stage that we often call as 'PhD starters'."
- Minh Quang Truong, Vietnam University of Commerce
"What I really liked about these 5 day-course in Aalborg was the intense training on the usage of Grounded Theory methods and tools for different fields of empirical research. Additionally I appreciated the final conversations with the different lecturers about applying GT in my PhD and my further academic endavour. I was happy to attend this course at an early stage of my PhD journey."
- Natalie Grubić , University of Gloucestershire
“Attending the TBRP PhD course was a valuable and unforgettable experience. The course gives a clear view of how to use grounded theory methods on different levels. What I really liked about this course was the group work, where people from different disciplines could work together on the assignments. I have learned a lot from their experience of data analysis and building theory from data. Having three teachers in the same class all the time was an amazing job. I really enjoyed the discussion with the teachers and how they were giving us sometimes three different views on an issue or question. I highly recommend this course to all PhD students.”
- Ali Naef Mohammad, Aalborg University
"Theory Building and Theorizing in Management Research course was an invlauable asset to my research in the following PhD studies and research career. Perfect mixture of five day lectures, public debate, skype talk with Barney Glaser and two assignments, where PhD students could implement gained knowledge, helped to built foundational research skills and understand the significance of data. The lecturers were very comprehensive and provided by very experienced and knowledgeable professors in the field. Group assignments helped to build the team spirit, which in turn lead to good relationship with PhD candidates from all over the world."
- Raushan Aman, University of International Business, Almaty, Kazakhstan
"Even though I work with social consequences related to childhood cancer and thereby not engaged with business and management, the TBRP course was inspiring and educative as I received invaluable knowledge about theory building, grounded theory methods and techniques as well as a clarification about how to deal with it in practice."
- Line Thoft Carlsen, Danish Cancer Society