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As already indicated, I first became aware of the power of the myth of participant observation during my doctoral research, conducted in a government high school in Perth, Western Australia in 1998–1999. I remember well the day when, while writing one of the chapters of my thesis, it suddenly occurred to me that much of what I was recording as data, in what I was blithely calling a participant observer study, were the “droppings of talk” from informal conversations and formal interviews that had taken place with the teachers, students, and parents associated with the school (Moerman, 1988, p. 8). There was little in the final product and in the published version by way of direct observational data (see Forsey, 2007).

Purpose – This paper seeks to contribute to the debate on the role of corporate governance in developing, emerging and transition economies by focusing on the nature and practice of corporate governance in listed companies in Nigeria – a country which has experienced both economic growth and political turbulence over the past three decades and which too has experienced significant corporate failures in particular in the banking and insurance sectors. It does this against a contextual background which discusses issues of ethnicity, gender and power relationships and their relevance to governance in Nigeria.

Methodology – Archival and documentary analysis supported and underpinned by semi-structured interviews with 20 stakeholders in governance processes in Nigeria.

Findings – The analysis of the interviews highlighted the general support of the interviewees for corporate governance procedures and practices in Nigeria to continue to develop in line with those in more developed economies. However, concerns were expressed as to the inadequacies of aspects of the Nigerian governance regulatory infrastructure, in particular in relation to mechanisms for implementation and enforcement within a framework where there was limited confidence that either voluntary adherence to codes of good practice or market-driven regulation and control would be effective.

Contrary to the researchers’ expectations, the majority of the interviewees articulated the perspective that ethnicity, gender and power relationships were not of significance in the determination of the actuality of practice. However, a minority did identify these considerations to be of key importance, albeit frequently not overtly acknowledged or portrayed as such by parties associated with governance practices.

Research limitation(s) – The interviewees were drawn from a cross section of stakeholders from the business, government, regulatory and academic environment in Nigeria but the exigencies of conducting interview research in Nigeria and the difficulties of obtaining agreement from, and access to, interviewees meant that the potential for self-selection bias has to be considered when evaluating the study findings.

Practical Implication(s) – The research paper provides a platform for policy formulation on corporate governance in Nigeria.

Originality and value of paper – The paper builds on a number of previous studies of governance in Nigeria (for example, Oyejide & Soyibo, 2001; Yakasai, 2001; Ahunwan, 2002; Okike, 2007) in particular by means of the use of semi-structured interviews to provide a rich field of insight into the actuality of practice.

In this paper, we responded to recent calls for the use of a greater variety of qualitative methods in the study of inter-organizational encounters, including mergers and acquisitions (M&As). The paper provided a reflection on the authors’ experiences in carrying out two studies of merger processes in the UK and Finland, one ethnographic and one combing also auto-­ethnographic methods. Contrasts between the former case of an “outsider” entering into an ethnographic study and the latter case of an auto-ethnographer with a dual role as a researcher and integration team member were highlighted. The paper offered three contributions to extant research. First, the paper extended the methodological debate in the study of M&As to the level of individual methods. Second, the paper identified the finding types that emerge when using ethnographic methods in the study of mergers. Third, the paper discussed the unique challenges posed when conducting ethnographic work investigating organizational combinations in times of mergers as opposed to ethnography in traditional, single organizational settings.

Much qualitative research is interview based, and this paper provides an outline of qualitative interview techniques. This paper explains the rationale for using interviewing as a qualitative technique. Various types of qualitative interviews, seven stages of interviewing, preparations needed for conducting interview as well as the skills of interviewers are discussed.

In this chapter, we present semi-structured interviewing as an adaptable method useful in bioethics research to gather data for issues of concern to researchers in the field. We discuss the theory and practice behind developing the interview guide, the logistics of managing a semi-structured interview-based research project, developing and applying a codebook, and data analysis. Throughout the chapter we use examples from empirical bioethics literature.

Purpose – To critically examine various ethical decision making models and use them to arrive at five hypotheses to understand the methods used by small and medium enterprise (SME) owner-managers in Australia when faced with ethical issues or dilemmas.Design/methodology/approach – This analysis involves literature reviews of rational decision making process, alternative methods of decision making and various ethical decision making models including Rest’s four-component model to arrive at the five hypotheses.Findings – The five hypotheses contend that SME owner-managers tend to resolve ethical issues using methods similar to Rest’s four-component model. Some may utilise all four components while others may skip one or more components of the model. Others may engage in intuition and heuristic methods of decision making. Ethical decisions by SME managers may be influenced by factors such as organisational factors, moral exemplars and reflection. The final hypothesis contends that SME managers could consider using the Balanced Scorecard as an instrument to monitor and manage business ethical issues.Research limitations – The literature reviews are not exhaustive but provide sufficient information for the purposes of this chapter.Practical implications – The significance of this study is that the hypotheses can be used to conduct interviews with SME managers and findings from the interviews could be developed into a practical tool for practising managers and a standard or guidelines for managing ethical issues in an SME.Originality/value – This chapter fulfils the need to understand the ethical decision making process and methods used by practicing SME managers in Australia.

This chapter will outline and discuss an original approach to qualitative research interviewing, the participant-centered approach (PCA), which was developed in the context of a project which used interpretative phenomenological analysis (Smith, Flowers, & Larkin, 2009) to explore aspects of the professional identity of academic staff in higher education. The chapter outlines the specific methodological issues which led to the development of the PCA, and discusses the rationale for the development of the approach, highlighting its theoretical and conceptual roots in therapeutic counseling/helping contexts and literature. Practical techniques associated with the approach are described, and the broader methodological and ethical implications of working with it are discussed. The PCA aims to bridge the gap between discussions of qualitative interviewing in methods textbooks and the practical interviewing skills upon which, it will be argued, the quality of data from research interviews depends. The PCA is likely to be of interest to higher education researchers seeking to generate rich data relating to the experiences of a range of stakeholders in the higher education community, and may be of particular interest to novice researchers insofar as it facilitates the scaffolding of expertise and confidence in qualitative research interview practice.

Disruptive technologies are accelerating global growth. Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to transform the idea of delivering value to end users. On the other hand, the growth of Industry 5.0 has given rise to the concept of humanizing technology, and AI is a promising technology with the potential to contribute to business success. Nevertheless, the idea of value creation in the field of AI is novel, so it is necessary to define the meaning of value by understanding the context of AI applicability in different environments and industries. In this chapter, the author uses the Scientific Procedures and Rationales for Systematic Literature Reviews (SPAR-4-SLR) procedure to conduct an SLR that provides interesting insights into the focus, industries, and methodologies and approaches used in existing research. Following the initial literature review on the state of the art of AI and value creation, the author also offers a reflection on the strategic implications of AI in the field of marketing, postulating a macrovalue creation framework that addresses the existence of implications on three different levels: emerging markets, Sustainable Development Goals, and adoption issues. Therefore, this chapter examines the value creation perspectives of AI to understand the current research focus and future directions.

Purpose – This chapter explores the relational and emotional lifeworlds of qualitative interviews. The chapter documents the ways in which I have negotiated the sharing of traumatic accounts without being able to fix or repair their causes, and how I struggled to listen to recollections without trying to appropriate, accentuate or ameliorate their affective resonances.

Methodology/Approach – The chapter focuses on one case from a four-year study with mothers and their daughters in a marginalised area of South Wales, UK. The study drew on visual and creative methods of data production, including mapping, collage, photoelicitation and timelines, which were accompanied by in-depth elicitation interviews.

Findings – The chapter illustrates the usefulness of reflecting on emotions to understand the communication of trauma, and its emotional impacts on research relationships both within and beyond the field.

Originality/Value – The chapter builds on earlier work that has attempted to consider in detail the nature of the interaction between researchers and participants. It argues that psychoanalytically informed frames of analysis can engender a more nuanced understanding of the relationality and emotionality of qualitative research; particularly when topics are hard to speak of and hard to bear.