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Purpose – The purpose of this chapter is to examine the frequency of multi-study research packages in the organizational sciences and advocate for their use by detailing strengths and recognizing limitations.

Methodology/approach – Philosophy of science research, focusing on multi-study research packages, is discussed followed by a 20-year review of incidence of these packages in top organizational sciences journals.

Findings – The publication of multi-study research packages have increased over the past 10 years, most notably in micro-level journals.

Social implications – For reasons of validity and generalizability, society benefits if scholars adopt multi-study approaches to knowledge generation and disseminate.

Originality/value of the chapter – This chapter provides the most comprehensive review of multiple-study research packages in the organizational sciences to date, examining publication trends in eight leading micro-and macro-level journals. We also summarize the use of multi-study packages in our own research and offer recommendations for improving the science of replication.

This paper presents a methodological contribution to benchmarking studies of production practices. It presents some of the main findings gathered from a benchmarking study developed between UK and Brazilian construction sites. The study was carried out within six case studies and focused on the use of visual controls in construction sites. The “cross‐case study analysis” approach used a process called “pattern matching” where the researcher looked for direct replications of theoretical propositions. In this pattern‐matching approach, empirical evidence is considered to be a “literal replication” if the observed results match the theoretical predictions. In contrast, when the case study produced contrasting results but for predictable reasons, it is called a “theoretical replication”. The results show that pattern‐matching is a highly useful approach for developing benchmarking studies in production management because it allows direct transfer of results from practice to theory.

Qualitative research has not been viewed as a rigorous alternative to established quantitative methods in postgraduate marketing research. However, this paper reports on the Australian development of a successful, structured approach to using the case study methodology in postgraduate research. Its aim is to present and justify guidelines for using the case study research methodology in honours, masters and PhD research theses, and so it should interest candidates and their supervisors. First, appropriate positions on a range of scientific paradigms and core issues of induction and deduction are established. Then implementation of the case study methodology is examined, including the numbers of case studies and of interviews. Unusual but effective uses of theoretical replication to rigorously analyze case study data are illustrated from postgraduate theses. Finally, a framework is provided for constructing a thesis, emphasizing the key methodology chapter.

Current publication practices in the scholarly (International) Business and Management community are overwhelmingly anti-Popperian, which fundamentally frustrates the production of scientific progress. This is the result of at least five related biases: the verification, novelty, normal science, evidence, and market biases. As a result, no one is really interested in replicating anything. In this essay, the author extensively argues what he believes is wrong, why that is so, and what we might do about this. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This is an essay, combining a literature review with polemic argumentation.

Only a tiny fraction of published studies involve a replication effort. Moreover, journal authors, editors, reviewers and readers are not interested in seeing nulls and negatives in print. This replication crisis implies that Popper’s critical falsification principle is actually thrown into the scientific community’s dustbin. Behind the façade of all these so-called new discoveries, false positives abound, as do questionable research practices meant to produce all this allegedly cutting-edge and groundbreaking significant findings. If this dismal state of affairs does not change for the good, (International) Business and Management research is ending up in a deadlock.

A radical cultural change in the scientific community, including (International) Business and Management, is badly needed. It should be in the community’s DNA to engage in the quest for the “truth” – nothing more, nothing less. Such a change must involve all stakeholders: scholars, editors, reviewers, and students, but also funding agencies, research institutes, university presidents, faculty deans, department chairs, journalists, policymakers, and publishers. In the words of Ioannidis (2012, p. 647): “Safeguarding scientific principles is not something to be done once and for all. It is a challenge that needs to be met successfully on a daily basis both by single scientists and the whole scientific establishment.”

Publication practices have to change radically. For instance, editorial policies should dispose of their current overly dominant pro-novelty and pro-positives biases, and explicitly encourage the publication of replication studies, including failed and unsuccessful ones that report null and negative findings.

This is an explicit plea to change the way the scientific research community operates, offering a series of concrete recommendations what to do before it is too late.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the quality of collaboration towards Sustainable Energy Innovation (SEI) in Private Finance Initiative (PFI) projects. While the capacity of PFI to encourage collaboration towards innovation is largely advocated by its proponents; however, it remains to be supported by empirical evidence.

Adopting the Complex Product System (CoPS) innovation management model, the authors assess the quality of collaboration at the interface between the innovation superstructure of public sector clients and users, and the innovation infrastructure of private sector designers, contractors and operators. Two interactional elements are examined upon which the quality of collaboration is assessed: openness of communication and alignment of objectives. The authors apply the model to four new-built PFI school projects within the context of the UK government Building Schools for the Future Programme. Semi-structured interviews with total of 50 key stakeholders were used as the primary data collection method.

PFI has introduced a number of problematic issues weakening collaborative efforts towards innovation in the project environment. Particularly, the study underlines the restricting internal contractual relationships within the integrated Project Company and the misalignment of Design-Construction-Operation sustainability objectives. It also highlights ineffective communication with public sector clients and users brought in by the restricted nature of PFI engagement processes as well as the misalignment of public sector-private sector sustainability objectives.

The qualitative nature of the chosen research methodology limits the ability to generalise. The research findings need to be confirmed or rejected by means of quantitative research as representative of all PFI projects.

The study emphasizes the public authority’s role in relation to providing the necessary conditions for the creation of a collaborative environment conducive to SEI in PFI projects.

The study was able to expand the understanding of innovation and collaboration management processes in PFI projects in three respects: First, addressing the limited attention to innovation in PFI research, the study is the first to examine the quality of collaboration in PFI projects towards the implementation SEI. Second, examining the quality of collaboration in PFI projects through the lens of CoPS provides a new understanding of sustainability innovation and strongly indicates that the CoPS model should be expanded to account for the dynamics of innovation processes in the procurement of sustainable CoPS. Third, the explorative nature of the study was useful in generating research hypotheses that can form the basis for future research on SEI in PFI projects.

Case study research has been applied across numerous fields and provides an established methodology for exploring and understanding various research contexts. This paper aims to aid in developing methodological rigor by investigating the approaches of establishing validity and reliability.

Based on a systematic review of relevant literature, this paper catalogs the use of validity and reliability measures within academic publications between 2008 and 2018. The review analyzes case study research across 15 peer-reviewed journals (total of 1,372 articles) and highlights the application of validity and reliability measures.

The evidence of the systematic literature review suggests that validity measures appear well established and widely reported within case study–based research articles. However, measures and test procedures related to research reliability appear underrepresented within analyzed articles.

As shown by the presented results, there is a need for more significant reporting of the procedures used related to research reliability. Toward this, the features of a robust case study protocol are defined and discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to show the research process which is laid on the interrelated aspects of paradigm-research-based approaches and research designs.

It draws on my PhD research project experience, where I deployed these interrelated aspects informing my methodological perspective to produce quality research via the generation of legitimate research findings.

From this practice, my chosen held paradigm, constructionism, has guided me to proceed with my research process, leading to the selection of a research approach (qualitative case study) and research designs (interviews, observation, and document analysis).

This conduct helps valorise the legitimacy of my research findings to produce legitimate knowledge. This reflective account of the research process can become a lesson for others who wish to go through a legitimate process of selecting the research approaches and research designs, particularly, in social sciences.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether small and medium‐sized family businesses in Ireland have the potential to be classified as learning organizations.

The research methodology adopted for this study is that of multiple‐case studies. In this research, personal interviews were selected as the data collection method. On the basis of Eisenhardt's premise that a study of between four and ten cases is suitable for qualitative studies, a total of six owner‐managers of family small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) were interviewed.

The findings of the case studies support the argument that family businesses have the potential to be learning organizations. However, the extent to which these family businesses are potentially learning organizations depends on the size of the family business and the structure imposed on the business. Micro family businesses struggle to be classified as learning organizations due to the lack of a learning orientation. These businesses lack systems for the monitoring of information and lack the ability to be reactive to market changes. Small family businesses have the potential to be classified as learning organizations. This is due to the fact that small family businesses have learning at the core of their business and systems in place to deal with a learning orientation. Medium‐sized family businesses also have the potential to be learning organizations, although they need to ensure that systems are in place to allow learning to occur.

This paper presents original findings in a highly relevant, but under‐researched field – the family SME as a learning organization.

Discusses methodological aspects of case study research and qualitative data collection and analysis. Discusses the choice of a research strategy and data collection and analysis methods according to theory as well as the arguments which lead to qualitative case research. Suggests steps in research processes according to different authors and considers in more detail the theory and practice of each of these steps (case study design; preparing for data collection; conducting case studies; analysing data; and reporting). Concludes that carrying out qualitative case study research, in the author’s experience, is first and foremost a matter of learning by doing.

There is a growing concern that contractors can be motivated for environmental protection through effective fund allocation and proper payment mechanisms. However, an in-depth analysis of environmental hazard-controlling methods and related payments to the contractor in road construction in Sri Lanka is not much popular among the extant literature. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to explore different payment mechanisms that are being used with environmental hazard-controlling methods, to achieve better control in such hazards in Sri Lankan road construction projects.

This research was approached through a mixed research method. Initially, hazard-controlling methods and relative payment mechanisms for the contractor were identified through three exploratory case studies using interviews, observations and document survey. Next, the relative effectiveness of payment mechanisms for contractors for better environmental hazard controlling was identified through a questionnaire survey with a sample of 45 professionals involved in 15 road construction projects.

Based on the findings, a comprehensive list of environmental hazard-controlling methods was derived. Furthermore, four types of payment mechanisms were identified: (A)-payments, where a unit price was assigned; (B)-payments, where a provisional sum was established in the contract; (C)-payments, where fixed amounts (lump sums) were assigned in the contract and (D)-payments made along with some main work item in the contract. Relative effectiveness of these four mechanisms for better control of environmental hazards was varied for each hazard-controlling method being practiced in a road construction project.

These findings would be more beneficial for consultants, project managers, bidders and estimators in the pre-contract stage. This is by identifying cost items for environmental hazard controlling and selecting relatively more effective payment mechanisms to motivate contractors for better control of environmental hazards during project execution.