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1 – 10 of over 20000The study aims to promote the use of qualitative methods in service research by investigating how these methods are reported in service journals, how the level of reporting has…
Abstract
Purpose
The study aims to promote the use of qualitative methods in service research by investigating how these methods are reported in service journals, how the level of reporting has evolved and whether methodological reporting influences the downloads or citations received by qualitative articles.
Design/methodology/approach
Methodological reporting practices were identified through content analysis of 318 qualitative articles published in three major service research journals and comparison with prior methodological literature. Regression analysis was used to test how the level of methodological reporting influences article downloads and citations.
Findings
The study identifies 29 reporting practices related to 9 key methodological reporting areas. The overall level of methodological reporting in published qualitative articles has increased over time. While differences in the level of reporting between service journals persist, they are narrowing. The level of methodological reporting did not influence downloads or citations of qualitative articles.
Research limitations/implications
Service scholars using qualitative methods should pay attention to methodological reporting as it can improve the chances of being published. Factors such as theoretical contributions are likely to have a greater influence on article impact than methodological reporting.
Originality/value
No prior study has explored methodological reporting practices across different qualitative methodologies or how reporting influences article impact. For authors, reviewers and editors, the study provides an inventory of reporting practices relevant for evaluating qualitative articles, which should lower barriers for qualitative methods in service research by providing practical guidelines on what to focus on when reporting and assessing qualitative research.
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Organizational culture has an impact on various activities in organizations, including project management (PM). The aim of the study is to answer the following research questions…
Abstract
Purpose
Organizational culture has an impact on various activities in organizations, including project management (PM). The aim of the study is to answer the following research questions: RQ1: what significance is attributed to organizational culture compared to the objective project characteristics when choosing the dominant PM methodology in organizations? RQ2: which type of organizational culture is preferred for successful implementation of different PM methodologies? RQ3: what kind (if any) of relationship exists between the dominant type of organizational culture in organizations and the dominant PM methodology?
Design/methodology/approach
The author surveyed 100 project managers working in the financial industry in Poland with the use of personal structured interviews. The competing values framework (CVF) concept authored by Cameron and Quinn was used.
Findings
Project managers find organizational culture more important than objective project characteristics when choosing the dominant PM methodology in an organization. Although statistical analysis revealed a significant relationship between the preferred type of organizational culture and PM methodology, there is no significant relationship between the existing type of organizational culture and the PM methodology which prevails in the company.
Research limitations/implications
Future research should investigate other industries and other typologies of organizational culture.
Practical implications
The paper provides recommendations for management practice on how to shape organizational culture in the context of successful PM with the application of different PM methodologies.
Originality/value
This study fills a gap in the theory of PM by identifying and empirically verifying the theoretical linkage between the type of organizational culture and PM methodology.
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This paper aims to explore the interplay between methods and methodologies in the field of international relations (IR) over the 100 years of its lifetime reflecting on the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the interplay between methods and methodologies in the field of international relations (IR) over the 100 years of its lifetime reflecting on the relationship between the rise of new research methods and the rise of new methodologies.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper looks in retrospect into the field’s great debates using a historiography approach. It maps chronologically the interplay of methods and methodology throughout the stages of the development of the study of IR.
Findings
This paper argues that inspite of narratives of triumph being common in the field, the coexistence of competing research methods and methodologies is the defining feature of the field. All theories, all methods and all methodologies have undergone a process of criticism, self-criticism and change. New methodologies have not necessarily accompanied the rise of new research methods in the field.
Originality/value
Drawing a map of the field’s methodologies and methods reveals necessarily its dynamism and its plurality. An honest map of the field is one that highlights not only theoretical differences but also ontological, epistemological and methodological differences embedded in the field’s debates.
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Maricela Salgado, María Valeria De Castro Martínez, Esperanza Marcos Martínez, Marcos López-Sanz and María Luz Martín-Peña
The purpose of the paper is to present a service design (SD)-based methodology developed to help small and medium enterprises (SMEs) undertake organisational change.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the paper is to present a service design (SD)-based methodology developed to help small and medium enterprises (SMEs) undertake organisational change.
Design/methodology/approach
This research used the design science research methodology, which enabled the creation of the Service Design for Organisational Change (SD4OCh) methodology. A real case study of a small service company specialised in neuropsychological disorders was used for the definition and validation of SD4OCh.
Findings
The main outcome of this study is the SD4OCh methodology, which is based on three key stages: diagnosis (knowing where to begin by detecting the organisation's strengths and weaknesses), innovation (improving the structure/processes and designing/redesigning services by employing a customer-centric approach), and implementation (enabling the definition of the route towards organisational change). There is also a transversal evaluation stage, which quantifies the organisational changes.
Research limitations/implications
This study adds valuable knowledge to the service science research field and contributes to the awareness of the usefulness of SD theory within companies, especially those which are small and medium-sized, since those companies lack the tools and methods required to tackle organisational change, signifying that the challenges the companies confront are different to those of larger companies.
Originality/value
Although this is a SD-based research, the SD4OCh methodology was developed in order to enable companies to make holistic changes, namely, to innovate their services, structure, and processes, thus supporting and guiding organisational change.
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Giacomo Manetti, Marco Bellucci and Stefania Oliva
This article aims to contribute to the critical accounting literature by reviewing how previous studies have addressed the topic of dialogic accounting (DA), examining the main…
Abstract
Purpose
This article aims to contribute to the critical accounting literature by reviewing how previous studies have addressed the topic of dialogic accounting (DA), examining the main themes investigated and discussing potential further developments of the DA research agenda.
Design/methodology/approach
The present study builds on a systematic literature review of 186 research products indexed on Scopus, Web of Science and Google Scholar that were published between 2004 and 2019 in 55 accounting or non-accounting scientific journals and 14 books.
Findings
First, a content analysis of each contribution informs a classification in terms of research design, methodology, geographical setting and sector of analysis. Second, a bibliometric analysis provides several visual representations of the network of research products included in our review using bibliographic coupling, cooccurrence and coauthorship analyses. Third, and most importantly, the main narrative review discusses the development of the research strand on DA from the seminal works that introduced the topic, through the core of critical contributions inspired by the struggle between democracy and agonism, to the most recent contributions, in which new topics emerge and innovative methodologies are applied to the study of DA.
Originality/value
The main contribution of this manuscript is twofold. In addition to providing a systematic, bibliometric and narrative review of the evolution of nearly two decades of literature on DA, the present study is intended to collect ideas for further research and to discuss how the advent of new technologies and the peculiarities of various institutional contexts can shape the future research agenda on this critical form of accounting.
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Anna-Greta Nyström and Valtteri Kaartemo
The purpose of this paper is to develop Delphi methodology toward a holistic method for forecasting market change. Delphi methodology experienced its culmination in marketing…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop Delphi methodology toward a holistic method for forecasting market change. Delphi methodology experienced its culmination in marketing research during the 1970s–1980s, but still has much to offer to both marketing scholars and practitioners in contexts where future market changes are associated with ambiguity and uncertainty.
Design/methodology/approach
This study revives the Delphi methodology by exemplifying how a recently developed framework on market change can be combined with the Delphi technique for data collection to support forecasting activities and research. The authors demonstrate the benefits of the improved methodology in an empirical study on the impact of the fifth generation of wireless communications technologies (5G) on the Finnish media market.
Findings
The developed methodological approach aids marketing scholars in categorizing and analyzing the data collected for capturing market change; and better guiding experts/respondents to provide holistic projections of future market change. The authors show that using a predefined theoretical framework in combination with the Delphi method for data collection and analysis is beneficial for studying future market change.
Originality/value
This paper develops Delphi methodology and contributes with a novel methodological approach to assessing market change.
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Yuen Yee Wong, Jing Zeng and Chun Kit Ho
The purpose of this paper is to analyse the research trends in the field of open and distance learning (ODL) as reflected in journal articles.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyse the research trends in the field of open and distance learning (ODL) as reflected in journal articles.
Design/methodology/approach
It compares research articles published in 2005 and 2015. Content analysis was conducted on a total of 288 research articles published in seven peer-reviewed journals on ODL. The study covers research areas and keywords, research methodology and participant types, and author collaboration.
Findings
The results show that macro-level research on areas such as globalization and cultural aspects of ODL remain relatively scarce, and international collaboration appear uncommon in both 2005 and 2015. However, there was an increasing amount of international collaboration in developing macro-level research. Empirical research studies, especially those using quantitative methods, have become the dominant methodology. The data sources have also been broadened. Several new keywords which did not exist or were rarely used (e.g. massive open online courses) have become common in 2015.
Originality/value
The analysis offers insights for researchers into how they can develop their research effectively in the field and enhance the chances of their research outputs being accepted. Recommendations are also made for ODL researchers on the types of research that tend to be accepted for publication and will have a high potential impact in the future.
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Many management scholars view templates as rigid rulebooks suffocating qualitative research. This viewpoint article recommends that, instead, templates should be viewed through…
Abstract
Purpose
Many management scholars view templates as rigid rulebooks suffocating qualitative research. This viewpoint article recommends that, instead, templates should be viewed through the lens of organizational routines.
Design/methodology/approach
To facilitate this viewpoint, this article first clarifies the confusions surrounding templates. It points out that how using templates, like following routines in an organization, constitutes three parts - the artifact, the ostensive and the performative; the latter two being often neglected by template critics. The use of templates is encouraged by discussing the learning advantages for novice researchers, through an autoethnographic note narrating the author’s own research and teaching experiences.
Findings
This article deliberates upon the criticisms against templates. It then discusses templates using a perspective offered by organizational routines. Thereafter, the use of templates in qualitative management research is discussed, with the help of examples from published reports. Finally, the article explains a way of reflexively using templates through an autoethnographic note detailing the author’s own research and teaching experiences.
Originality/value
In its entirety, the article submits that the artifacts offered by the templates and the ostensive and performative engagements of the template-users must co-exist for co-creating excellent qualitative research.
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Ricardo Chalmeta and Maria Ferrer Estevez
Business intelligence (BI) is a combination of computer systems and managerial processes to support decision-making. The balanced scorecard is a kind of business intelligence tool…
Abstract
Purpose
Business intelligence (BI) is a combination of computer systems and managerial processes to support decision-making. The balanced scorecard is a kind of business intelligence tool for performance measurement and management control aimed at balancing financial and non-financial as well as short- and long-term measures. The sustainable balanced scorecard is a modification of the original balanced scorecard developed to expressly consider governance, social, environmental and ethical issues, and therefore to allow sustainability concepts to be included within the strategy and the management of the organization. However, although the sustainable balanced scorecard is one of the most suitable tools for integrating sustainability within management, there are few examples of how to develop and implement it which can be used as reference models. To help solve this problem, this paper proposes a methodology for the development of a sustainable balanced scorecard, considering different phases such as planification, analysis, design or computer tool implementation, and describes the findings of three case studies.
Design/methodology/approach
The research was conducted using the qualitative multiple-case study method. This made it possible to establish the methodological issues regarding the performance and reporting of this study. Therefore, the research method for the conceptualization and execution of the case studies was divided into seven phases: definition of research goals and questions; proposed theoretical model; identification of units of analysis; case selection; definition of research methods and resources; fieldwork; data collection, classification of information and triangulation; formulation of the enhanced theory, model or methodology; and verification of the rigour and quality of the study.
Findings
Paper shows a methodology organized in phases, activities and tasks that allow a sustainable balanced scorecard to be planned, designed, built, computerized and controlled in order to integrate sustainability within the management systems of organizations.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the currently emerging sustainable balanced scorecard literature and practice and, more generally, to research on sustainability measurement and management. The methodology for sustainable balanced scorecard development and implementation showed in this paper contributes to the management and information systems theory because it makes it possible to overcome the shortcomings identified to date: it considers all the sustainability dimensions; it describes all the project life-cycle activities; it encourages stakeholders' participation; and it has been proved to work in real situations.
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John Goodwin, Eileen Savage and Aine O'Donovan
Significant advances have been made in using applied methodological approaches. These approaches facilitate critical and creative ways to generate new knowledge, encouraging…
Abstract
Purpose
Significant advances have been made in using applied methodological approaches. These approaches facilitate critical and creative ways to generate new knowledge, encouraging researchers to explore novel research questions which could not be sufficiently addressed using traditional “branded” methodologies. It is important that, in addition to design, researchers consider the most appropriate methods to collect data. The purpose of this paper is to explore the use of the draw and tell method in the context of an interpretive descriptive study.
Design/methodology/approach
Given the challenges associated with eliciting responses from adolescent populations, in addition to the use of a semi-structured interview guide, the authors encouraged adolescent participants to produce drawings as part of an interpretive descriptive study.
Findings
Despite the fact that drawings are seldom used with adolescents during research interviews, the authors found this method promoted conversation and facilitated deep exploration into adolescents' perspectives.
Originality/value
The authors argue that this creative approach to data collection should be embraced by researchers engaging in applied methodological research, particularly with participants who may be challenging to engage. Drawings, although seldom used with adolescent research participants, can stimulate engagement and facilitate conversations.
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