This research studied changes in theory building and testing levels, reported in 668 articles published in three leading Human Resource Development (HRD) journals in years 2000 to 2017. Using a modified taxonomy of theory building research, we found evidence to suggest that the trajectory of theory building and testing efforts in HRD suggests that the field has reached a stage of a mature discipline. The study has found that some types of research have become less important as the discipline matured (e.g., Reporters, or articles reporting observation of phenomena) or remain stable (Modifiers of existing theories), whereas others steadily grow in importance (theory Builders and Expanders). Correlating the results of citation analysis with types of articles, we found that articles that propose and test new theoretical constructs at the same time, or those that expand new theories, enjoy significantly higher levels of citations, compared with articles that report observations of practice or duplicate earlier studies.

中文翻译：

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人力资源开发的理论构建和测试：当前的进展和未来的方向

这项研究研究了理论构建和测试水平的变化，在2000年至2017年间发表在三篇主要人力资源开发（HRD）期刊上的668篇文章中进行了报道。使用改进的理论构建研究分类法，我们发现了证据表明该理论的发展轨迹人力资源开发的理论构建和测试工作表明，该领域已进入成熟学科的阶段。研究发现，随着学科的发展（例如，报告者或报告观察现象的文章）或保持稳定（现有理论的修饰符），某些类型的研究已变得不那么重要，而其他学科的重要性却在稳步增长（理论构建者和扩展者） ）。将引文分析的结果与文章类型相关联，我们发现文章同时提出和测试了新的理论结构，