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The purpose of this paper is to address the imbalance between inductive and deductive research in management and organizational studies and to suggest changes in the journal review and publishing process that would help correct the imbalance by encouraging more inductive research.

The authors briefly review the ongoing debate about the “developmental” vs “as-is/light-touch” journal review modes, trace the roots of the prevailing developmental review to the hypothetico-deductive research approach, and contrast publishing deductive and inductive research from the perspectives of authors, editors, and reviewers.

Application of the same developmental evaluation and review mode to both deductive and inductive research, despite their fundamental differences, discourages inductive research. The authors argue that a light-touch review is more appropriate for inductive research, given its different logic.

Specific criteria for the light-touch evaluation and review of and some concrete suggestions for facilitating inductive research.

Advancing knowledge requires a better balance of inductive and deductive research, which can be facilitated by light-touch evaluation and review of inductive research.

Building on the debate on journal publishing, the authors differentiate the evaluation and review of inductive and deductive research based on their philosophical underpinnings and draw implications of pursuing inductive research for authors, editors, and reviewers.

The purpose of this paper is to explain the rationale for choosing the qualitative approach to research human resources practices, namely, recruitment and selection, training and development, performance management, rewards management, employee communication and participation, diversity management and work and life balance using deductive and inductive approaches to analyse data. The paper adopts an emic perspective that favours the study of transfer of human resource management practices from the point of view of employees and host country managers in subsidiaries of western multinational enterprises in Ghana.

Despite the numerous examples of qualitative methods of data generation, little is known particularly to the novice researcher about how to analyse qualitative data. This paper develops a model to explain in a systematic manner how to methodically analyse qualitative data using both deductive and inductive approaches.

The deductive and inductive approaches provide a comprehensive approach in analysing qualitative data. The process involves immersing oneself in the data reading and digesting in order to make sense of the whole set of data and to understand what is going on.

This paper fills a serious gap in qualitative data analysis which is deemed complex and challenging with limited attention in the methodological literature particularly in a developing country context, Ghana.

Based on a framework developed by Kovács and Spens, this paper seeks to assess the use of the three different research approaches in logistics research; discuss the use of different research methods within the three research approaches; find and discuss applications of the abductive research approach to logistics problems.

Content analysis is used in order to categorize the different research approaches. While content analysis commonly uses smaller units such as paragraphs, sentences, words or characters, this study used entire articles as the unit of analysis. The scope of the review encompassed five years (1998‐2002) of articles in IJLM, IJPDLM and JBL. A total of 378 articles was reviewed and categorized.

The findings of the study corroborate earlier studies regarding the main research approach used in logistics. Published logistics research is hypothetico‐deductive, with a strong emphasis on using survey methods. Nevertheless, inductive as well as abductive research is gaining importance. However, most logistics articles do not explicitly discuss the research process, nor the approach used. Therefore, a call for more explicit statements of the research approach is suggested.

The review of the articles is limited to three main journals in the field. A more comprehensive view of research approaches could be obtained by broadening the review to include also other types of research.

The paper provides a framework and guidelines to researchers for explicitly discussing the research approach used in logistics articles.

The paper provides an overview of the research approaches used in logistics research.

To construct a framework for exploring and discussing the use of different research approaches – deductive, inductive and abductive – in logistics.

A review of research articles in three major logistics journals (International Journal of Logistics Management, International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management and Journal of Business Logistics) from 1998 to 2002.

Recognizes the dominance of deductive research in logistics, and the need for more inductive and, in particular, abductive research for theory development. Discusses the use of the abductive research approach in logistics.

Keywords searches led to a small sample size; more thorough content analysis is needed to apply the findings from the constructed framework.

Useful source of information on the three different research approaches, their possibilities and implications for research.

The abductive research approach has not yet been discussed in logistics.

The purpose of this paper is to compare conflict management behaviors of American and Chinese managers. Its main aim is to uncover cultural differences in the way Chinese and American managers approach conflict – thereby developing a more thorough understanding of conflict management across cultures.

Inductive analysis is used to uncover conflict management constructs that are unique to each culture. Structured interviews and multidimensional scaling techniques are used.

Results show that the conflict management behaviors suggested by American and Chinese managers are different. For Chinese managers alone, embarrassing the colleague and teaching a moral lesson is an important element. For American managers alone, hostility and vengefulness are important elements. Results suggest that both cultures acknowledge avoidant approaches, but the underlying intentions for Americans alone are associated with a lack of confidence.

Results are based on one conflict scenario and the participants are managers working in mainland China. These factors may limit the generalizability of the results.

The findings of this paper suggest that managers should consider cultural differences in conflict management when diagnosing and intervening in conflict situations in different cultures.

The authors present new concepts for potential inclusion in a comprehensive model of conflict management. The authors illustrate the value of using an inductive approach to improve our understanding of conflict management across cultures.

The purpose of this paper is to present and discuss the process of doing qualitative inductive research in China, drawing its conclusions from a grounded theory study. To be more specific, this paper reflects on the process of approaching interviewees, guaranteeing their participation, conducting the interviews and encouraging responses in the context of Chinese culture.

The discussion in the paper uses Hofstede's cultural dimensions as a tool in the interpretation and understanding of both the behaviour and the preconceptions of the interview participants involved in a research project focused on exploring and explaining barriers and enablers to knowledge sharing between traditional and Western healthcare professionals in China. The context for the study was a public hospital in the province of Hubei in Central China. A total of 49 semi-structured interviews were carried out and analysed.

Despite the grounded theory methodology being applicable in different cultural contexts, the culture itself may present challenges and barriers at both the data collection and analysis stages. These cultural problems may hinder interaction with informants, misunderstanding of responses and behaviours, and thus significantly impair the research validity and reliability.

The paper provides advice and recommendations to researchers aiming at doing this type of study in China.

The paper is of interest to inductive researchers, in particular those using grounded theory, as it describes and discusses the actual application of the methodology in a non-Western context. The paper is also of interest to any researchers intending to undertake participative research in China.

This study aims to underline Islamic principles to the business theories for producers and policymakers and to explain halal marketing by value creation approach for halal stakeholders concerned with halal certification and its implementation.

This study applied inductive reasoning with the systematic literature review (SLR) of peer-reviewed published research papers, followed by the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses framework. Furthermore, the content analysis with ATLAS.ti 2022 helped to undergo concept and thematic analysis that show the theoretical lenses for the upstream halal businesses.

Among 360 papers, the SLR from 2012 to 2022 found 32 papers dealing with the halal theory–based studies on certification, standards, producers and policymakers and halal supply chains. Only seven studies consulted the resource-based view (RBV), a strategy theory and the institutional theory (IT) connected to halal. This study further underpinned qualitative Quranic verses to add to the current body of RBV and IT, resulting in halal sustainable competitive advantage and halal certification institutionalization.

Islamic principles can guide halal stakeholders to create and manage valuable resources through halal certification. Also, academics can synthesize conventional theories as value-creation mechanisms compliant with Islamic codes.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this novel study was the first to contribute to the current body of RBV and IT with Islamic principles. It has primarily concentrated on the upstream halal businesses to create and manage halal value, certification and competitive advantages for halal marketing.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of qualitative research in causality, with particular emphasis on process causality. In one paper, it is not possible to discuss all the issues of causality, but the aim is to provide useful ways of thinking about causality and qualitative research. Specifically, a brief overview of the regularity theory of causation is provided, qualitative research characteristics and ontological and epistemological views that serve as a potential conceptual frame to resolve some tensions between quantitative and qualitative work are discussed and causal processes are explored. This paper offers a definition and a model of process causality and then presents findings from an exploratory study that advanced the discussion beyond the conceptual frame.

This paper first conceptually frames process causality within qualitative research and then discusses results from an exploratory study that involved reviewing literature and interviewing expert researchers. The exploratory study conducted involved analyzing multiple years of literature in two top human resource development (HRD) journals and also exploratory expert interviews. The study was guided by the research question: How might qualitative research inform causal inferences in HRD? This study used a basic qualitative approach that sought insight through inductive analysis within the focus of this study.

The exploratory study found that triangulation, context, thick description and process research questions are important elements of qualitative studies that can improve research that involves causal relationships. Specifically, qualitative studies provide both depth of data collection and descriptive write-up that provide clues to cause-and-effect relationships that support or refute theory.

A major conclusion of this study is that qualitative research plays a critical role in causal inference, albeit an understated one, when one takes an enlarged philosophical view of causality. Equating causality solely with variance theory associated with quantitative research leaves causal processes locked in a metaphoric black box between cause and effect, whereas qualitative research opens up the processes and mechanisms contained within the box.

This paper reframed the discussion about causality to include both the logic of quantitative studies and qualitative studies to demonstrate a more holistic view of causality and to demonstrate the value of qualitative research for causal inference. Process causality in qualitative research is added to the mix of techniques and theories found in the larger discussion of causality in HRD.

The marketing of small‐ to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) can face many challenges, particularly for those operating within the creative industries. The purpose of this paper is to describe an inductive and exploratory case study approach to empirically investigate the issues and complexities uncovered when taking a mainly internal, organisational perspective to creativity, identity and the brand.

Issues of commitment, identification and alignment were considered and how these relate to the SME brand. Then the relevance and advantages associated with adopting an inductive case study approach, from an interpretative perspective were discussed. This incorporates multi‐level interviews and thematic analysis with the aid of various qualitative data analysis software packages (C‐I‐Said, NVivo and QDA Miner).

The themes uncover and explore some of the subtle complexities involved with organisational marketing for SMEs within the creative industries. These themes also present a number of important implications for the academic and practitioner communities to reflect upon, particularly in relation to the relevance of attempting to achieve a “desired” or “ideal” identity and brand. Issues relating to the evolving nature of SMEs, various forms of employee egos as well as multiple foci of employee commitment have been identified. The authors' research has also uncovered a number of instances of “disidentification” amongst creative employees. Rather than being seen as a threat or risk, some creative organisations see a benefit for encouraging, or at least not suppressing deidentification or disidentification, in relation to their creative brand and image.

By taking a rigorous exploratory and inductive approach, a grounded understanding of the problematic nature of organisational creativity and organisational marketing in relation to SMEs in the creative industries have been provided. Practitioners can also benefit from the observations as they are empirically based upon a number of case studies.

This study aims to demonstrate how Carney’s ladder of analytical abstraction is used to examine the motivations of banks for reporting human capital (HC) information.

The authors use semi-structured interviews of senior bank employees at eight large New Zealand banks. They analyse the managers’ views using a constructive mapping of responses applying Carney’s ladder of analytical abstraction. The findings are interpreted from a stakeholder theory perspective.

The authors find that the New Zealand banks report on HC to manage reputation, strengthen employee relationships and achieve competitive advantages. The results suggest that banks engage in opportunistic reporting to distract external stakeholders while advancing their interests.

The study will guide researchers in the use of Carney’s ladder of analytical abstraction in analysing qualitative data.

This study provides insights for businesses to improve the consistency and quality of HC reporting and ensure that the information needs of broader stakeholder groups are met.

Some previous voluntary reporting studies analyse their data using inductive analysis. The authors use Carney’s ladder of analytical abstraction as a framework to guide our inductive analysis.