You Say Potato and I Say Potahto: Making Sense of Management Content Analysis Research

Abstract

Content analysis is burgeoning in management research as researchers seek to study complex and subtle phenomenon. Our review of almost 300 studies published over the last four decades in eleven top tier management journals uncovered many promising trends, but also identified some inconsistent and potentially confusing terminology that may be impeding research progress. We provide an overview of how content analytic methods have been used in management research including qualitative analyses (such as grounded theorizing, narrative analysis, discourse analysis, rhetorical analysis, and multimodal analysis) and quantitative analyses (such as dictionary-based approaches, topic modelling, and natural language processing). We contribute to methodology research by 1) suggesting key criteria for choosing content analytic methods to answer a variety of research questions; 2) categorizing data collection and analysis approaches, 3) reviewing steps in a prototypical content analysis, and 4) discussing issues in creating coding manuals and dictionaries. Our goal is not to impose one set of terms and procedures across all of management research, but rather, to increase understanding of best practices across the abundance of content analytic methods available to management scholars.