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In management science, new theories are regularly developed directly from the practices of organisations. Such approaches are desirable since they meet the need for operational relevance in this discipline, but in return they raise the question of their scientific validation, which is essential before any generalisation. However, like others before us, we postulate that research that is not rigorous cannot be relevant. We examine this question through the case of the ‘Liberated Enterprise’ (LE) approach, which has become popular recently through a few notable ‘successes’. Based on 12 company cases, we analyse the results obtained by a research-intervention methodology combining quantitative and qualitative data.