Using a Sensitising Lens in Pragmatist Grounded Theory: Early Analytic Lessons from a Micro-Enterprise Digitalisation Study

Introduction: Micro-enterprises are often overlooked in digitalisation research. Existing studies largely prioritise adoption and readiness models in larger firms over relational, processual, emergent, and socially situated understandings of digitalisation. This methodological paper contributes to debates in contemporary grounded theory by examining how a sensitising concept can inform early analytic attention within a pragmatist Grounded Theory (GT) stance. The study draws on Orlikowski’s notion of technology-in-practice as a sensitising lens, without adopting a practice-theoretical approach. This lens functions as a preliminary heuristic tool that guides inquiry without predetermining its outcomes. Goals and Methods: The aim is to explore how a sensitising concept can support early GT research while maintaining openness to emergent meanings. In line with both informed GT and pragmatist understandings of inquiry, sensitising concepts are treated as tentative prompts that stimulate curiosity and reflexive engagement. In this study, technology-in-practice informed initial questioning and early analytic orientation. Drawing on preliminary empirical material from the first phase of a wider doctoral project on micro-enterprises in Malta, the paper reflects on how data analysis and memoing helped examine the possibilities and limits of using this sensitising lens in early grounded theory analysis. Results: Rather than presenting substantive findings, the paper illustrates how the sensitising concept supported early noticing of how owner-managers engage with digital tools in socially influenced contexts, such as adjusting digital practices in response to customer expectations. It also shows how the lens helped identify preliminary conceptual boundaries, analytic tensions, and gaps in early category development. These insights informed subsequent inquiry and theoretical sampling. Conclusions: This paper shows how a sensitising concept can be integrated into the early stages of pragmatist GT. It demonstrates how such concepts enhance analytic focus and reflexive awareness while maintaining theoretical openness, offering a starting point for qualitative researchers.