Grounding Theory from Delphi Studies

The Delphi method is recommended for exploratory research in emerging research areas. Despite earlier suggestions for using the Delphi method for theory creation, few analytical tools are provided for this purpose. However, Grounded Theory is especially devoted to creating theories from qualitative data. This paper describes an enhanced Delphi method which integrates data analysis techniques from Grounded Theory. The resulting Grounded Delphi Method (GDM) improves Delphi studies by bringing in a data collection technique that focuses explicitly on the identification of the reasons and consequences for issues, ranked by experts. Moreover, the techniques of open and axial coding support the discovery of theoretical concepts from the initial Delphi issues. In turn, the ranking process of the Delphi method provides a rigorous means for selecting core categories for theory development, which decreases researcher interference on this issue.