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1 – 10 of over 104000
Open Access
Article
Publication date: 27 July 2023

Patrick Kraus, Peter Stokes, Neil Moore, Ashok Ashta and Bernd Jürgen Britzelmaier

Elite interviewing is a well-established area of interview research methods. Nevertheless, the actual casting of an “elite” has been generally conducted in a prima facie or broad…

1029

Abstract

Purpose

Elite interviewing is a well-established area of interview research methods. Nevertheless, the actual casting of an “elite” has been generally conducted in a prima facie or broad manner. A consideration of entrepreneurs and owner-managers as “elites” has been less profiled and received less attention, therefore the paper views the entrepreneurs and owner-managers as constituting a form of “local elite” within given and varying sectorial, regional and community boundaries. The authors argue that a consideration of entrepreneurs as “local elites” and transferring knowledge from an elite interviewing perspective may strongly support scholarly research in the entrepreneurship field.

Design/methodology/approach

The study conducts a comprehensive narrative literature review of elite interviewing literature and transfers key methodological insights to the entrepreneurship field. The methodological contribution based on literature is complemented by experiences and observations from an extensive inductive interview study with over 30 entrepreneurs of German manufacturing Small and Medium-sized Entities (SMEs) and are used to reflect on, and refine, interview research approaches with entrepreneurs.

Findings

The reflections and discussions in this paper provide valuable insights for other researchers conducting research in entrepreneurship domains regarding the power dynamics of negotiating access, procedural issues of interviews and thereby enhancing the quality of data.

Originality/value

The contribution to knowledge is mainly of a methodological nature. While the paper takes a novel act of recasting elite interviewing in the SME and entrepreneurship context, the paper methodologically contributes to the entrepreneurship and elite interview literature thereby facilitating higher quality interviews.

Details

Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, vol. 30 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1462-6004

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 2 February 2015

Samsukri Glanville bin Mohamad Glanville bin Mohamad and Chad Perry

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how fund managers in a non-Western country like Malaysia follow investment processes developed in the West and taught in the finance…

1234

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how fund managers in a non-Western country like Malaysia follow investment processes developed in the West and taught in the finance departments of universities.

Design/methodology/approach

This convergent interview research investigates how fund managers in Malaysia actually make their decisions, and develops a framework about their investment process.

Findings

Understanding the economy was important for the managers but was an ongoing learning process. Their analyses sometimes started bottom-up or top-down, but all followed a four-layer process. The managers did not believe the investment process could be quantified.

Research limitations/implications

Convergent interviewing is meant to be a first step in a complete research program. So, future researchers could consider extending the research to different periods, different research settings in other countries like Singapore, India or Indonesia, different types of investors and different methodologies like surveys.

Practical implications

Practitioners should build on their experience, and understand principles of behavioral finance. Students in business schools should be taught in an experiential way, and school staff should use qualitative methods like convergent interviewing in their research projects.

Originality/value

Contributions centre on the article’s behavioural finance findings that experience and non-quantitative methods are the core of Malaysian investment managers’ decision-making, and on its detailed description of the unusual research methodology in finance of convergent interviewing.

Details

Qualitative Research in Financial Markets, vol. 7 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1755-4179

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 7 September 2021

Stefanie Reissner and Andrea Whittle

The aim of this review paper is to identify the methodological practices and presentational styles used to report interview-based research in “leading” management and organisation…

1784

Abstract

Purpose

The aim of this review paper is to identify the methodological practices and presentational styles used to report interview-based research in “leading” management and organisation journals.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper reviews a sample of 225 articles using qualitative interviews that were published in management, human resource management, organisational behaviour and international business journals listed in the Financial Times 50 list between 2009 and 2019.

Findings

The review found diversity and plurality in the methodological practices used in these studies and the presentational styles used to report interview research.

Practical implications

The findings are expected to help doctoral students, early career scholars and those new to using qualitative interviews to make decisions about the appropriateness of different methodological practices and presentational styles. The findings are also expected to support editors, reviewers, doctoral examiners and conference organisers in making sense of the dissensus that exists amongst qualitative interview researchers (Johnson et al., 2007). These insights will also enable greater “paradigmatic awareness” (Plakoyiannaki and Budhwar, 2021, p. 5) in the evaluation of the quality of interview-based research that is not restricted to standardised criteria derived from positivism (Cassell and Symon, 2015).

Originality/value

To make sense of this plurality, the authors map these practices and styles against the onto-epistemological paradigms identified by Alvesson (2003, 2011). The paper contributes to calls for philosophical diversity in the evaluation of qualitative research. The authors specifically articulate concerns about the use of practices in interview-based studies that derive from the positivistic logic associated with quantitative research.

Details

Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management: An International Journal, vol. 17 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1746-5648

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 30 August 2011

Sandy Q. Qu and John Dumay

Despite the growing pressure to encourage new ways of thinking about research methodology, only recently have interview methodologists begun to realize that “we cannot lift the…

92815

Abstract

Purpose

Despite the growing pressure to encourage new ways of thinking about research methodology, only recently have interview methodologists begun to realize that “we cannot lift the results of interviewing out of the contexts in which they were gathered and claim them as objective data with no strings attached”. The purpose of this paper is to provide additional insight based on a critical reflection of the interview as a research method drawing upon Alvesson's discussion from the neopositivist, romanticist and localist interview perspectives. Specifically, the authors focus on critical reflections of three broad categories of a continuum of interview methods: structured, semi‐structured and unstructured interviews.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors adopt a critical and reflexive approach to understanding the literature on interviews to develop alternative insights about the use of interviews as a qualitative research method.

Findings

After examining the neopositivist (interview as a “tool”) and romanticist (interview as “human encounter”) perspectives on the use of the research interview, the authors adopt a localist perspective towards interviews and argue that the localist approach opens up alternative understanding of the interview process and the accounts produced provide additional insights. The insights are used to outline the skills researchers need to develop in applying the localist perspective to interviews.

Originality/value

The paper provides an alternative perspective on the practice of conducting interviews, recognizing interviews as complex social and organizational phenomena rather than just a research method.

Details

Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management, vol. 8 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1176-6093

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 2 June 2022

Marie Eneman

This article aims to describe the personal experience and ethical dilemmas that the author encountered when conducting qualitative research on a highly sensitive topic, i.e…

1063

Abstract

Purpose

This article aims to describe the personal experience and ethical dilemmas that the author encountered when conducting qualitative research on a highly sensitive topic, i.e. interviews with offenders convicted of child pornography.

Design/methodology/approach

This study uses an autoethnographic approach to describe and reflect on my personal experience, emotions and ethical dilemmas when undertaking sensitive research that examines illegal acts.

Findings

Ethical dilemmas and emotional challenges highlighted refer to the issue of access to useful empirical material, conducting interviews with convicted offenders in prison environments, the complexity surrounding confidentiality when interviewing offenders about their criminal activities, vulnerability and insecurity for the researcher and emotional challenges for the researcher when listening to the offenders’ stories describing serious crimes against children.

Originality/value

This article contributes with insights and reflections on conducting qualitative research with a marginalized and stigmatized group in prison environments.

Details

Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society, vol. 20 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1477-996X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 21 August 2009

Caroline Gatrell

The purpose of this paper is to explore the long‐term effects of qualitative interviews on respondents. The paper offers a reflexive account of the author's research practices…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the long‐term effects of qualitative interviews on respondents. The paper offers a reflexive account of the author's research practices with regard to “safeguarding” research participants and researcher accountability.

Design/methodology/approach

In 1999‐2002, 20 women and 18 men who are in dual earner marriages/partnerships were interviewed separately. The study was entitled “Hard Labour 1”. In this paper, It is explained how, in 2007, 17 “Hard Labour 1” participants were contacted for a follow‐up study entitled “Hard Labour Revisited”. They were asked, via telephone and e‐mail, whether (and if so, how) they perceived themselves to have been affected by their interview for “Hard Labour 1”.

Findings

Some respondents are interviewed at a time of personal anxiety. This group perceived their interview as having been influential because it made them reflect deeply on their situation, bringing their thoughts to bear when they conducted subsequent negotiations with partners. However, participants do not see this as a reason to avoid qualitative research. They describe themselves as agentic beings who felt ownership of their involvement in “Hard Labour 1”. Their approach make to reflect upon the author's interpretation of “safeguarding” which is now regarded as a concept which may be co‐constructed between researcher and participants.

Originality/value

The paper explores “safeguarding” in relation to the long‐term effects of qualitative research interviews. It is suggest that undertaking a reflexive reappraisal of research practices is important because analyses of past projects may (as in the author's case) result in a “shift” in understanding of research concepts from both an empirical and a theoretical perspective.

Details

Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management: An International Journal, vol. 4 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1746-5648

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 September 1996

Stuart Hannabuss

Notes that research interviews form a popular option for practitioner and student research, as they have distinct advantages in eliciting unique information and opinion about the…

21675

Abstract

Notes that research interviews form a popular option for practitioner and student research, as they have distinct advantages in eliciting unique information and opinion about the research setting. Points out that it is easy to underestimate the challenges of research interviews ‐ getting reliable responses, organizing and presenting the findings, and guarding against subjective involvement by the researcher. Aims to open up these issues and provide guidance to current reading.

Details

New Library World, vol. 97 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0307-4803

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 8 January 2018

Rui Torres de Oliveira and Sandra Figueira

The purpose of this paper is to guide future researchers and practitioners into the process of interviewing in the Chinese context.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to guide future researchers and practitioners into the process of interviewing in the Chinese context.

Design/methodology/approach

The methodology used is an empirical critical reflection.

Findings

The authors identified 11 major themes such as how to get an interview, antecedents of the interview, building rapport, complexity, language, interview settings, interview procedure, stages, probing and sensitive topics, selection of respondents and post-interview.

Research limitations/implications

The location of the interviews.

Practical implications

Guide foreigner researchers and managers on how to conduct interviews in China.

Social implications

The context matters, and only with a specific approach some can perform well and achieve the interview objectives. Doing so, the researcher or practitioner will not create situations that might be problematic for her/him and the interviewee. Based on the above, the authors’ research decreases potential social tensions that interview situations can create.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no other researcher has studied the specificities of interviewing in China, which brings originality and value to the authors’ research.

Details

Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, vol. 21 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1352-2752

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 3 August 2011

Sue Saltmarsh, Wendy Sutherland‐Smith and Holly Randell‐Moon

This article presents our experiences of conducting research interviews with Australian academics, in order to reflect on the politics of researcher and participant positionality…

Abstract

This article presents our experiences of conducting research interviews with Australian academics, in order to reflect on the politics of researcher and participant positionality. In particular, we are interested in the ways that academic networks, hierarchies and cultures, together with mobility in the higher education sector, contribute to a complex discursive terrain in which researchers and participants alike must maintain vigilance about where they ‘put their feet’ in research interviews. We consider the implications for higher education research, arguing that the positionality of researchers and participants pervades and exceeds these specialised research situations.

Details

Qualitative Research Journal, vol. 11 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1443-9883

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 13 October 2021

Charl de Villiers, Muhammad Bilal Farooq and Matteo Molinari

This study aims to examine the methodological and method-related challenges and opportunities arising from the use of video interviews in qualitative accounting research, focussed…

6169

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to examine the methodological and method-related challenges and opportunities arising from the use of video interviews in qualitative accounting research, focussed on collecting contextual data and visual cues, enriching communication quality and building and maintaining rapport with interviewees.

Design/methodology/approach

Prior literature and the authors’ experiences using video technologies for research, including conducting interviews, inform this research. This study uses a transactional conceptual refinement of information richness theory and channel expansion theory to critically analyse the challenges and opportunities of using video technology to conduct qualitative research interviews.

Findings

The ability, need for and significance of collecting contextual data depend on the researchers’ ontological and epistemological assumptions, and are, therefore, influenced by their research design choices. Video technology enables researchers to view research settings by video. In addition, whilst group/panel interviews have their advantages, it is often difficult to get everyone together in person, something video technology can potentially overcome. The feasibility and the quality of video interviews can be improved if both interview participants are experienced with using video technology, as well as with judicious investment in good quality video technology and through testing and practice. We also discuss how rapport building with interviewees can be facilitated by overcoming the video’s sense of disconnect and enhancing interviewees’ willingness to engage.

Originality/value

The study builds on the limited prior literature and considers the challenges and opportunities related to methodology and method when conducting video-based qualitative interviews in accounting research. Broadly, qualitative researchers will find the paper useful in considering the use of video interviews and in making research design choices appropriate for video interviews.

Details

Meditari Accountancy Research, vol. 30 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2049-372X

Keywords

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