ABSTRACT

When I was asked to write this chapter my immediate reaction was, ‘what a strange request’. Surely we all know why theory is important and why it is central to academic research. It is, as I often tell my students, the difference between a chat in the pub and an academic discussion. There have been many debates and special issues on this exact question, most recently in Sport Management Review in 2013. So, I thought, why have this conversation when the importance of theory is fundamental, discussion over, job done?