I'm not sure if it is a good idea or not, considering I know nothing about your field. However, Grounded Theory (read Levi and Strauss going back to the 1960s at the Chicago School of Management) might be a bit of help to your situation. The quick and very dirty version of it is that you start with no theory. All theory is (ideally) grounded in the empirical work. It was designed for social sciences, but you may be able to adapt it some?
Yeah, it is a bit of a shot in the dark, but there might be a target out there.