A Meta-model for Inferring Inter-theory Relationships of Causal Theories

This paper suggests a new way of comparing and analyzing causal theories. The main contribution is a meta-model that represents causal theories and a taxonomy of inter-theory relationships. The inter-theory relationships can be automatically calculated for two theories that are described with the meta-model. Two visualizations are presented with which to analyze set of theories: the inter-theory relationship matrix and the theory evolution graph. An exemplary application of the approach is shown for a small set of information systems theories. The proposed approach should help researchers improve their understanding of the contribution and evolution of theories.