Exploring Research Methodology and Research Design: Doing Research Across the Business Disciplines

This book introduces research methodology to business scholars. It draws on the experiences of academics at different stages in their careers, from early career researchers to seasoned professors. These serve as examples of actual practice both applying relevant methodological theory and exploring its implications for research across the business disciplines. The book’s contributors share alternative perspectives and sometimes controversial ideas that call for debate in the theory and philosophy of business research. They focus on the connection between research design and philosophical concepts such as ontology, epistemology and axiology. Ultimately, they emphasise that all researchers must take responsibility for their work and the challenging decisions they face despite being inevitably influenced by political, disciplinary and organisational constraints. This book will be particularly beneficial to Honours, Masters by research and Doctoral students from a variety of business disciplines, such as accounting, finance, international business, management, marketing and organisational studies. It provides a starting point for learning about the challenges and joys of social research. It also offers experienced researchers, educators and supervisors a reminder and refresh about methodological issues, revisiting and introducing alternative scholarly perspectives.

Table of Contents:
Contents PART A Introducing and theorising research methodology 1 Introduction to Exploring Research Methodology and Research Design 3 Peter John Sandiford and Sabine Schührer 2 A negotiated/personal perspective and overview of research philosophy 11 Peter John Sandiford and Sabine Schührer 3 Business research in practice 21 Sabine Schührer and Peter John Sandiford 4 Philosophical concept creep or conceptual fragmentation in methodology 32 Peter John Sandiford PART B Research design and planning 5 The confirmation bias 47 Dirk Boehe 6 Social pressures to conform to a given set of research methods 58 Don J. Webber and Steven Pattinson 7 Researching gossip in organisations through organisational ethnography 71 Ziyun Ziyun 8 The sample size debate: a perspective from a phenomenological doctoral journey 82 Marilena Antoniadou 9 The authentic and the published researcher: reflecting on tensions between epistemology and publishing conventions 93 Sarah-Jane Lennie 10 History, conceptual thinking and systems thinking: does conducting research in history really teach you how to think? 104 Sam Wells PART C The practice of research: doing research 11 Putting research into practice – creating an interview 117 Sandy MacDonald 12 Doing process research on temporal sensemaking in changing organisation 127 Patrick Dawson 13 Approaches emerging from the questions of practice: autoethnographic fictionalization of the leadership experience 136 Nicole Cheesman-Dutton 14 Doing qualitative, retrospective longitudinal research with audiovisual data 145 Stefan Gröschl and Guillermo Wilches 15 Making reflexivity explicit in qualitative research 153 Ankit Agarwal 16 Using thematic template analysis in qualitative innovation research 163 Steven Pattinson 17 Applying the comparative method to accounting for the public sector 174 Jens Heiling 18 Conclusion: a final note from the editors 187 Peter John Sandiford and Sabine Schührer

About the Author :
Edited by Peter John Sandiford, Senior Lecturer in Organisational Behaviour and Sabine Schührer, Research Fellow, University of Adelaide Business School, University of Adelaide, Australia

Review :
‘This book is interesting and thought-provoking. It strips away the mystique surrounding methodology and research design. Its ‘jargon busting’ approach is novel and helpful, and students will find that it guides them through the minefield of theory to develop coherent and meaningful studies.’