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In this paper, the authors underpin thematic analysis with a philosophical and methodological dimension and present a nuanced perspective on the application of thematic analysis in a data-driven context. Thematic analysis is a widely used qualitative analytic method; it is perceived as a transparent approach that offers single meaning. However, through Husserlian descriptive phenomenology, this paper aims to examine issues regarding subject/object and multidimensional meanings and realities.

In most extant studies, thematic analysis has become a prescriptive approach. This emerging qualitative approach has been applied to a range of studies on social and organisational issues, knowledge management and education. However, despite its wide usage, researchers are divided as to its effectiveness. Many choose quantitative approaches as an alternative, and some disagree as to what counts as the definitive framework and process for thematic analysis. Consequently, the authors provide a level of validity for thematic analysis through emphasising a specific methodological approach based on ontological and epistemological positions.

Contrary to the common mantra from contemporary qualitative researchers who claim thematic analysis is often based on a static and enduring approach, the current paper highlights the dynamic nature of a thematic analytic approach and offers a deeper understanding of the ways in which researchers can use the right approach to understand the emerging complex data context.

Several insights regarding the literature on thematic analysis were identified, including the current conceptualisation of thematic analysis as a dynamic approach. Understanding thematic analysis through phenomenology provides a basis on which to undertake a whole range of inclusive approaches that were previously undifferentiated from a quantitative perspective.

There is a lack of a framework that explicates how to determine the benefits that consumers desire from a product. The purpose of this article is to formulate a scientific procedure for discerning the benefits that consumers seek from a product. The authors term this procedure as visual thematic analysis (VTA). VTA procedure is illustrated through discerning the benefits of mainstream (non‐financial) English newspapers.

The focus group method was used to collect data. These data were analyzed using visual thematic analysis which involves using multiple investigators and multi‐dimensional scaling techniques in stages.

A total of 26 newspaper attributes combined to form eight distinct newspaper benefits namely ease of comprehension, journalistic values, critical insights, general news, entertainment, well‐being, classifieds and offers.

Obtained results may be used further: to segment the newspaper market based upon benefits sought, to position newspapers within the desired segment(s) and to fashion product mix in a way that appeals to the targeted segment(s).

This paper proposes a new method called “visual thematic analysis” for data reduction. One such application of VTA is “discerning product benefits” which is discussed in detail. Other applications of this technique that are mentioned in the paper are in the areas of data reduction when researcher confronts small sample size, data reduction of categorical variables and scale development.

In India – the largest democracy and second most populated country globally – the housing research domain is relatively under-researched and under-theorized. To support and advance research in this domain, this study aims to form and organize the repository of extant academic knowledge in the subject matter of housing research in India.

This study uses a scoping review methodology and a thematic analysis method. All the articles analyzed in this study were systematically searched by following the scoping review approach proposed by Arksey and O’Malley (2005). An initial search found 365 articles and finally, 108 articles that met the inclusion criteria were analyzed using the thematic analysis method.

The data extracted from these 108 articles were analyzed using thematic analysis to arrive at four thematic areas, namely, housing policy, slum housing, housing finance and affordable housing. These thematic areas and 11 sub-themes present under them were used to present a thematic map of housing policy research in India.

This paper contributes to presenting an up-to-date literature review of the housing policy research in India.

To the best of our knowledge, this scoping review focused on housing research in India is the first of its kind. We hope that this study provides a repository of extant research on housing research in India to help current and future researchers.

This infecological study mainly aimed to know the thematic and conceptual relationship in published papers in deep learning (DL) and smart manufacturing (SM).

The research methodology has specific research objectives based on the type and method of research, data analysis tools. In general, description methods are applied by Web of Science (WoS) analysis tools and Voyant tools as a web-based reading and analysis environment for digital texts. The Yewno tool is applied to draw a knowledge map to show the concept's interaction between DL and SM.

The knowledge map of DL and SM concepts shows that there are currently few concepts interacting with each other, while the rapid growth of technology and the needs of today's society have revealed the need to use more and more DL in SM. The results of this study can provide a coherent and well-mapped road map to the main policymakers of the field of research in DL and SM, through the study of coexistence and interactions of the thematic categories with other thematic areas. In this way, they can design more effective guidelines and strategies to solve the problems of researchers in conducting their studies and direct. The analysis results demonstrated that the information ecosystem of DL and SM studies dynamically developed over time. The continuous conduction flow of scientific studies in this field brought continuous changes into the infoecology of subjects and concepts in this area.

The paper investigated the thematic interaction of the scientific productions in DL and SM and discussed possible implications. We used of the variety tools and techniques to draw our own perspective. Also, we drew arguments from other research work to back up our findings.

Terrorism is as old as humanity itself, but its new form in the twenty-first century is adversely affecting the performance of businesses in both developing and developed countries. The purpose of this study is to identify and analyse the evolution and diffusion of academic knowledge on the topic of terrorism in business-related literature.

Data was gathered from two databases, namely, the Scopus and Web of Science over 30 years (1990–2019). The search terms related to terrorism in titles, abstracts and authors’ keywords, which resulted in a total of 1,097 articles. Bibliometric methods, including a thematic and content analysis identifying main themes and using Gephi and VOSviewer software, were used to analyse the data.

The results reveal the productivity of the main actors, current thematic choices and future research opportunities. The main thematic areas of the research arising from the bibliometric analysis included the impact of terrorism on economic growth, Foreign Direct Investment, tourism, stock market reforms, security of multinational corporations as a result of terrorism and finally, the impact of political instability and terrorism on business. This study’s findings may guide the research of future academics and assist policy stakeholders in their strategic choices related to future business development.

The study has certain limitations that are inherent to the bibliometric methods or to the choices related to data collection and processing.

This study recognised evolution and trends regarding the influence of terrorism on businesses, which is crucial information for the development of business and policy strategies in the future. These strategies should enhance the ability of businesses to cope with the negative effects of terrorism and make these effects less devastating. For academics, this study provides relevant insights on recent research trends in the field of terrorism in business and emerging future academic thematic opportunities.

The findings of the study indicate that issues of terrorism in business have broader social implications, which both academia and policy stakeholders can attend with their work.

This bibliometric review offers new insights into terrorism from the business lens by identifying the common streams of research in the field, along with the key journals, articles, countries, institutions, authors, data sources and networks in this field. The future research directions in this field of knowledge are also articulated in the study.

Little research has focused on the impact of organizational crisis on their internal stakeholders – the employees. This paper aims to fill this void by examining the impression management strategies used by senior managers in managing their employees during organizational crisis and the impact of these strategies on employees.

The authors collected qualitative data from three organizations and used multiple analytical lenses (such as thematic, content and trope) to explore patterns in senior managers’ management of employees during crisis.

Emerging patterns in the data revealed that the emotional state and reactions of employees (individual and collective) during crisis include anger, fear, shame, depression and shock. Additionally, data revealed two major contradictions (tensions) in managing employees during crisis: maintaining and compromising standard and managers’ wants versus employees’ desire in the way organization crisis is managed. Based on these preliminary findings and using affective event theory and the theory of collective emotions as a frame, the authors built a conceptual model that depicts the relationship between organizational crisis, impression management and emotion-driven employee attitudes and behaviors.

A major limitation in the current research is that authors’ data are largely composed of text (e.g. from newspaper and websites). Nevertheless, the textual data were based on actual interviews with stakeholders and victims and have more than compensated for the limitation. Theoretically, by examining the emotional states and reactions of internal (rather than external) stakeholders to organizational crisis, the authors extend the literature in the area of organizational crisis and crisis management, while the testable propositions in this conceptual model have a potential to open up new pathways for studying organizational crisis. Practically, it is imperative for managers to have skills to identify and manage key employees’ emotional states and reactions to crisis. Managers should align their words and actions during crisis management to increase employees trust. Also pre-crisis planning should include specific guidelines on how to identify and manage employees’ individual and collective emotions during crisis.

The results show that inappropriate impression management strategies may worsen employees’ emotional states and reactions (individual and collective) during crisis; therefore, it is imperative for managers to have skills in identifying key employees’ emotional states and reactions to crisis and the impression management strategies appropriate in managing them. A training that sharpens managers’ emotional intelligence will be helpful in managing the emotions of employees (individual and collective) during crisis. Also, pre-crisis planning should include specific guidelines on how to identify and manage employees’ individual and collective emotions during crisis, while senior managers’ words and actions during crisis need to be synchronized to engender employees’ trust.

This study demonstrates that beyond emotions of employees during crisis, there are contradictions and tensions in the senior manager’s management of their employees during crisis. Also, outcomes of a quantitative test of the conceptual model developed from the current study should improve the generalizability of the results and open up new pathways for future research in this area.

Moor (1985) designated two major problem sources typifying the social and ethical implications of computer technologies, namely, “policy vacuum” and “conceptual muddles.” Motivated by Moor’s seminal definition and Floridi’s (2013) conceptualization of information and communication technologies (ICTs) as re-ontologizing technologies, this study aims to explore Omani undergraduates’ cognition regarding ICT ethics.

Adopting a grounded theory approach for the constant comparative thematic analysis, the constituents of ICT ethics-related cognition among undergraduates and influencing factors were scrutinized. Qualitative data were gathered via focus group discussions with undergraduates and interviews with academics and information systems professionals at Sultan Qaboos University.

In total, 10 thematic categories revolving around a core category, constructing conceptual perceptions of and attitudes toward the realms constituting ICT ethics using an ontological, object-oriented approach, emerged from the comparative analysis. Undergraduates were found to adopt an applied approach when defining professional ICT ethics codes and policies, with a particular focus on information privacy and integrity.

This qualitative study was conducted at a single research site. This may restrict the generalizability of the findings. Postgraduates were not considered when designing this qualitative inquiry.

The findings of the study hold theoretical and methodological significance with regard to ICT ethics-related cognition in the era following the fourth industrial revolution by sustaining feminist ethics in this research. Ultimately, the study developed a substantive theory scrutinizing the constitutive elements of ICT ethics-related cognition among Generation Z.

Accounting education is re-inventing itself as technology impacts the practical aspects of accounting in the real world and education tries to keep up. Big Data and data analytics have begun to influence elements of accounting including audit, accounting preparation, forensic accounting and general accountancy consulting. The purpose of this paper is to qualitatively analyse the current skills provision in accounting Masters courses linked to data analytics compared to academic and professional expectations of the same.

The academic expectations and requirements of the profession, related to the impact of Big Data and data analytics on accounting education were reviewed and compared to the current provisions of this accounting education in the form of Masters programmes. The research uses an exploratory, qualitative approach with thematic analysis.

Four themes were identified of the skills required for the effective use of Big Data and data analytics. These were: questioning and scepticism; critical thinking skills; understanding and ability to analyse and communicating results. Questioning and scepticism, as well as understanding and ability to analyse, were frequently cited explicitly as elements for assessment in various forms of accounting education in the Masters courses. However, critical thinking and communication skills were less explicitly cited in these accounting education programmes.

The research reviewed and compared current academic literature and the requirements of the professional accounting bodies with Masters programmes in accounting and data analytics. The research identified key themes relevant to the accounting profession that should be explicitly developed and assessed within accounting education for Big Data and data analytics at both university and professional levels. Further analysis of the in-depth curricula, as opposed to the explicitly stated topic coverage, could add to this body of research.

This paper considers the potential combined role of professional qualification examinations and master’s degrees in skills provision for future practitioners in accounting and data analysis. This can be used to identify the areas in which accounting education can be further enhanced by focus or explicit mention of skills that are both developed and assessed within these programmes.

The paper considers the interaction between academic and professional practice in the areas of accounting education, highlighting skills and areas for development for students currently considering accounting education and data analytics.

While current literature focusses on integrating data analysis into existing accounting and finance curricula, this paper considers the role of professional qualification examinations with Masters degrees as skills provision for future practitioners in accounting and data analysis.

Drawing on human capital theory and the human capital resources framework, this study explores the knowledge, skills, abilities and other characteristics (KSAOs) required by the emerging role of human resource (HR) analysts. This study aims to systematically identify the key KSAOs and develop a competency model for HR Analysts amid the growing digitalization of work.

Adopting best practices for competency modeling set out by Campion et al. (2011), this study first analyzes 110 HR analyst job advertisements collected from five countries: Australia, Canada, Ireland, the United Kingdom and the USA. Second a thematic analysis of 12 in-depth semistructured interviews with HR analytics professionals from Canada and Ireland is then conducted to develop a novel competency model for HR Analysts.

This study adds to the developing and fast-growing field of HR analytics literature by offering evidence supporting a set of six distinct competencies required by HR Analysts including: consulting, technical knowledge, data fluency and data analysis, HR and business acumen, research and discovery and storytelling and communication.

The research findings have several practical implications, specifically in recruitment and selection, HR development and HR system alignment.

This study contributes to the evolving HR analytics literature in two ways. First, the study links the role of HR Analysts to human capital theory and the human capital resource framework. Second, it offers a timely and empirically driven competency model for the emerging role of HR Analysts.

The purpose of this study is to disclose ontology of DSI as a novel concept in servitization community, explore the research context and themes (i.e. technological and industrial sectors) where DSI emerges, unveil methodological complexities of the research on digital servitization and DSI and provide guidelines for future research avenues regarding DSI.

Bearing in mind the relative novelty of DSI as a concept in servitization literature, the authors adopted a systematic literature review approach to identify 111 peer-reviewed articles published in English language and available in business and management disciplines via scholar databases (Scopus). The analysis of literature discloses descriptive and thematic insights regarding digital servitization and DSI.

The study provides valuable insights from the descriptive and thematic analyses where classification of articles per publication year, citations, methodology/type of the paper, geographical location of data collection, as well as industrial sector and technological contexts are discussed. Moreover, the unique value of this study is observed through its specific focus on the characteristics of DSI-related literature.

The study is among the first of its kind to provide extensive descriptive and thematic insights on the available literature dealing with digital servitization and DSI, mapping out prior research across a wide spectrum of publication outlets and illustrating the chronological evolution of research on digital servitization and DSI.