Upcoming Issues, New Methods: Using Interactive Qualitative Analysis (IQA) in Management Research

Gustavo Behling,Carlos Ricardo Rossetto,Fernando César Lenzi

doi:10.1590/1982-7849rac2022200417.en

Gustavo Behling, Carlos Ricardo Rossetto + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.1590/1982-7849rac2022200417.en

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Abstract

ABSTRACT Objective: this article aims to present interactive qualitative analysis (IQA) as a qualitative strategy to be used in management research, detailing its application. Since the IQA is a strategy derived from research in education, this study discusses the potentialities of its use in management research. Methods: the IQA is presented by the step-by-step application of the method in a research problem in entrepreneurship. Results: the IQA targets the generation of a shared mental map of the focus group members on the phenomenon under study. The data collection and analysis steps are conducted in parallel, and the research participants themselves carry out the first analysis. The results presented in a set of relationships between the elements of the shared mental map are theorized. The inductive character of the initial stages, combined with deductive procedures, allows discovering new ways of thinking about the investigated problems, reinforcing qualitative research’s exploratory character. Conclusions: the replicable data collection and analysis protocol promotes researches’ reliability and validity, by presenting empirical evidences that the interpretations are guaranteed by the data, allowing for methodological and theoretical advances.

Highlights

Qualitative methods have gained space and recognition in management research as essential tools for understanding complex issues and social processes underlying the study of organizations’ management, as can be evidenced by the increase in publications that use qualitative approaches in number and quality and the calls for special editions on qualitative research (Arino, LeBaron, & Milliken, 2016; Bansal, Smith, & Vaara, 2018).The business world has changed rapidly, and the complexity of organizations has grown at the same rate
The discovery of the new and the theorization in administration research might be potentiated by the use of inductive methods
We present two concrete examples of emerging phenomena in which qualitative approach has allowed improvements in the field, the studies of Pietro, Prencipe, and Majchrzak (2018) and Scheibe and Blackhurst (2018)

Summary

Introduction

Qualitative methods have gained space and recognition in management research as essential tools for understanding complex issues and social processes underlying the study of organizations’ management, as can be evidenced by the increase in publications that use qualitative approaches in number and quality and the calls for special editions on qualitative research (Arino, LeBaron, & Milliken, 2016; Bansal, Smith, & Vaara, 2018).The business world has changed rapidly, and the complexity of organizations has grown at the same rate. Northcutt and McCoy (2004) indicate Pareto’s principles for selecting the affinity pairs that will be used in the construction of the shared mind map, the final result of the focus group.

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