Theory Analysis in Data Evaluation
The theory analysis process involves analyzing the concepts that are resulted from your data. This is an ongoing, flexible process, as you don't know the amount of information you need to collect ahead of time. Grounded theory (GT) researchers continue to analyze and collect data until they reach theoretical saturation or the point at which new data no longer contributes to their evolving theory.
The first step in GT is to identify repeating themes through a thorough examination of the data, then coding these emerging themes and categorizing them using relationship identification. This process is known as open coding and is the basis of GT analysis. Researchers then use a process of constant comparison and memoing in order to develop substantive codes or establish connections between concepts. This allows for the integration of concepts by placing them back together into hypotheses. Concepts are then integrated into these hypotheses via a process of axial coding.
Once the researcher has identified a central variable, or tentative core, they then select new data with that variable in mind, or conduct theoretical sampling. This procedure reduces the scope of research and focuses the analysis only on the relevant aspects to the research question.
As a result the utility of a theory is not limited to the subject of study It's a tool for making sense of what you can see in your data, and can help you analyze and compare the various aspects of your data. This is an essential aspect of GT analysis and should be incorporated into your conceptual categories and techniques for coding in your methodology section.