This chapter illustrates how to put a regenerative strategy into action by introducing a pioneering business case. The company Carbon Engineering is developing cutting-edge technologies, such as Direct Air Capture and AIR TO FUELS, to capture, sequester and, more importantly, apply captured carbon dioxide in the production of synthetic fuel, carrying out a regenerative strategy. Through a qualitative research design, we show how this company (1) demonstrates explorer and prospector behaviour, going beyond the reduction of emissions to achieve net zero and even net negative emissions, or positive environmental externalities; (2) redefines its purpose, vision and mission, passing from a profit-only logic to systemic socioecological resilience through eco-emotional wealth and environmental performance; (3) develops a new, wider form of stakeholder management to engage market and fringe stakeholders; and finally (4) frames a new time perspective, the long- and very long-term view that sustainable development requires – an intra- and intergenerational commitment.

We present an overview of the role, benefits, and drawbacks of theory in scientific research, particularly in the social and behavioral sciences. We discuss what theory is and what it is not. We also focus on some key elements of theory such as its ability to explain phenomena at multiple parallel levels of analysis. Evolutionary theory is offered as an example that illustrates the importance of conceptual integration across different disciplines. We further describe the key characteristics of good theories, such as parsimony, depth, breadth, and coherence (both internal and external), and we encourage the use of “coherence stress-tests” to help refine theory. We then discuss 4 advantages and 10 disadvantages of using theory in social and behavioral science research. Finally, we suggest conceptual tools and provide a list of recommendations for theory-driven research. We hope this chapter will help in the complex pursuit of improving research practices in the social and behavioral sciences.

This chapter describes a pedagogy whereby students learn how to engage in collaborative creative processes similar to professional knowledge workers. The five themes of knowledge building are (1) Community knowledge: students work together to advance the knowledge of the entire community; (2) Idea improvement: all ideas can be continually revised in an ongoing creative process; (3) Dialogue: community knowledge building involves public discourse along the lines of professional discourse in a scientific community; (4) Constructive use of authoritative information: students always need to work with authoritative information, even while they are creating new knowledge. New knowledge creation must be coherent with what is already known; (5) Epistemic artifacts: knowledge building is more effective if learners create externally sharable things. The chapter describes the authors’ influential Knowledge Forum application, one of the first networked collaborative idea-generation tools.

If case study comparison is useful in the social sciences, it should be at least as useful as a way of understanding the political preferences and participation of individuals as it is for larger and more complex social categories such as organizations, parties, militaries, or states. Thus, qualitative comparisons involving the political preferences and activity of American billionaires will serve as a benchmark for the plausibility of various comparative frameworks. The chapter will demonstrate that applying Mill’s method-type comparison to billionaires generates inferential absurdities and also shows that regression-type logics of control are a poor fit for individual-level qualitative analysis. More feasible frameworks for understanding qualitative comparison at the individual level come both earlier and later in the inferential process. Cross-case comparisons are highly valuable for concept formation and theory building prior to any systematic effort at causal inference and also play a meaningful role in inferences about moderation effects after process tracing has been successful within each case. Furthermore, multi-case qualitative analysis that is not structured as explicit comparison can make crucial contributions to multi-method research on individuals.