Researchers engaged in pragmatic problem solving and product development placed a higher premium on viability, workability, and impact, while contributions seeking algorithmic models of complex phenomena were associated with simplicity, predictive power, and parsimony (Klein, 2008). Philosophical ideas remain largely hidden in research (Slife and Williams, 1995), they still influence the practice of research and need to be identified. In highly innovative work, developing validation criteria to gauge progress often becomes part of the actual process of inquiry (Boix-Mansilla et al., 2006).The task is more difficult, though, in emerging fields where the criteria of excellence are not defined yet and the pool of qualified experts is often smaller. Research must “attune a pluralism of interests and values” within a dynamic set of programs and contexts and with a variegated group of stakeholders (Spaapen et al.,2007).