Management Research Methodology Research Articles

Unraveling Endogeneity: A Systematic Review of Methodologies in Digital Leadership and Remote Work Research

In the evolving landscape of digital leadership and remote work, methodological challenges, particularly endogeneity, have emerged as significant concerns. Endogeneity, which arises when independent variables correlate with regression error terms, can introduce biases that compromise the validity of research findings. This systematic review examines the methodological underpinnings of research in digital leadership and remote work, focusing on how studies have addressed or overlooked the challenges posed by endogeneity. Drawing from 45 seminal articles published between 2019 and 2023, the review reveals a predominant preference for quantitative approaches, with a subset exploring qualitative narratives. While 15 studies directly tackled endogeneity using rigorous methodologies, 10 did not address it, indicating potential gaps in their investigative rigor. This study not only provides clarity and direction for future research endeavors but also supports the advancement of research methodology in business and management by emphasizing the need for methodological rigor in the study of digital leadership and remote work dynamics. By systematically evaluating the methods used to address endogeneity, this research advances the field of business and management research methodology by identifying best practices and highlighting areas for improvement. Specifically, it advocates for the adoption of advanced econometric techniques, such as instrumental variables and fixed effects models, to mitigate biases and enhance the reliability of research outcomes. Furthermore, this review underscores the importance of integrating both quantitative and qualitative approaches to capture the multifaceted nature of digital leadership and remote work, thereby contributing to a more comprehensive understanding of these domains. The study also highlights the influence of unobserved factors on outcomes such as employee productivity, leadership effectiveness, and team cohesiveness. In sum, this research provides a foundational framework for scholars aiming to enhance the robustness and validity of their studies in digital leadership and remote work, aligning with the broader goals of advancing research methodologies in business and management.

Using machine learning to determine factors affecting product and product–service innovation

PurposeMachine learning (ML) analytical tools are increasingly being considered as an alternative quantitative methodology in management research. This paper proposes a new approach for uncovering the antecedents behind product and product–service innovation (PSI).Design/methodology/approachThe ML approach is novel in the field of innovation antecedents at the country level. A sample of the Equatorian National Survey on Technology and Innovation, consisting of more than 6,000 firms, is used to rank the antecedents of innovation.FindingsThe analysis reveals that the antecedents of product and PSI are distinct, yet rooted in the principles of open innovation and competitive priorities.Research limitations/implicationsThe analysis is based on a sample of Equatorian firms with the objective of showing how ML techniques are suitable for testing the antecedents of innovation in any other context.Originality/valueThe novel ML approach, in contrast to traditional quantitative analysis of the topic, can consider the full set of antecedent interactions to each of the innovations analyzed.

GLOBAL AND NATIONAL VISIBILITY OF MANAGEMENT RESEARCH METHODOLOGY SCHOLARS – THE CASE OF POLAND

Developing research methodology contributes to better management research outputs, links better management theory to business practice, as well as enriches the academic training received by the students at universities. Researchers might be tempted to provide generalizations on management research methodology based on global bibliographic databases, such as Scopus and Web of Science, and draw conclusions on the possible educational outline. However, since students are educated mainly in national languages, the literature in these languages might gain priority over more internationally recognized publications available only in English. Then, the question arises if scholars who might be recognized globally due to their presence in large, international bibliographic databases retain their visibility and influence at the national level. We conduct a comparative bibliometric study using Scopus, Web of Science, and BazEkon to answer this question. Our research reveals that for the case of Poland, information and social networks of management methodology scholars do not support the assumption of direct visibility of such global scholars at the national level, thus putting into question the reliability of global bibliographic databases to study management at the national level.

Industry Analysis – The First Step in Business Management Scholarly Research

Industry analysis and Company analysis are two types of case study methods among many types of Case-based research analysis in Research Methodology. A case study based management research and teaching pedagogy are adopted by many business schools with the belief that it is a most powerful way to study and learn new lessons required to identify ,understand, and solve the problems in the process of managing and leading the organizations.Analysing business cases of industries force students to grapple with exactly the kinds of situations, decisions, and dilemmas managers confront every day. Industry analysis is a powerful tool in developing both research case study and teaching case study in business management subject. Through industry analysis students and researchers can study various aspects of an industry and its components to enrich their knowledge in the core area of business including organizational management, environmental management, functional areas of business, strategic management, new idea generation as well as effective decision making. The issues or problems identified in a given industry and the efforts made by organizations to handle such issues or solve such problems are learning opportunities for students and researchers in business management institutions. In this paper, we have discussed the procedure of writing case studies based on industry analysis framework. We also recommend the Industry analysis as a class of case study methodology in management research for developing research case studies as a first step for budding researchers.

Company Analysis – The Beginning Step for Scholarly Research

Company analysis is the important type of case method in Research Methodology and is commonly used by the beginners of scholarly research. A case study based management research and teaching pedagogy are adopted by many business schools with the belief that it is a most powerful way to study and learn new lessons required to identify, understand, and solve the problems in the process of managing and leading the organizations. Developing a business case on various managing aspects of a company and analysing case forces students to grapple with exactly the kinds of situations, decisions, and dilemmas managers confront every day. Company analysis is a powerful tool in developing both research case study and teaching case study in business management subject. Compared to industry analysis, company analysis gives focused and deeper insight into a company and its business in terms of challenges and opportunities. In this paper, we have discussed the procedure of writing company focussed case study based on a newly developed company analysis framework. We also recommend the Company analysis as a class of case study methodology in management research for the beginners and budding researchers as a beginning step in scholarly research.

Company Analysis – The Beginning Step for Scholarly Research

Company analysis is the important type of case method in Research Methodology and is commonly used by the beginners of scholarly research. A case study based management research and teaching pedagogy are adopted by many business schools with the belief that it is a most powerful way to study and learn new lessons required to identify, understand, and solve the problems in the process of managing and leading the organizations. Developing a business case on various managing aspects of a company and analysing case forces students to grapple with exactly the kinds of situations, decisions, and dilemmas managers confront every day. Company analysis is a powerful tool in developing both research case study and teaching case study in business management subject. Compared to industry analysis, company analysis gives focused and deeper insight into a company and its business in terms of challenges and opportunities. In this paper, we have discussed the procedure of writing company focussed case study based on a newly developed company analysis framework. We also recommend the Company analysis as a class of case study methodology in management research for the beginners and budding researchers as a beginning step in scholarly research.

An Exposition of Research Methodology in Management and Social Sciences

In writing this paper the author has consciously stood apart from his earlier works and attempted to dispassionately review his own position so that some degree of clarity of thought might emerge in the process. The paper is based on the author’s contribution between 1992 and 2012 to this subject and which has been used as the basis for several doctoral level investigations under the author’s guidance. They had played a major role in helping the author to crystallize his views. To these scholars, therefore, the author’s gratitude is unflinchingly extended. Management has been described as being concerned with and based on the science of decision making and operating from the foundations of the art of decision executing. Hence, research in the area of modern Human Resources Management, especially, is both interesting and challenging having its one foot planted in industrial sociology and industrial psychology while the other placed in supply chain management and organisational restructuring. Hence, the argument of this paper is more relevant to serious research scholars and to those management teachers who wish to pursue rigorous academic research. This is not meant for those in the cut-copy-paste league, which unfortunately is, of late, becoming quite prevalent within the Indian academia.

Elite interviewing and the role of sector context: an organizational case from the football industry

PurposeElite individuals and groups constitute a distinctive, upper echelon and social grouping. In various shapes and forms, elites have been an enduring feature of many societies and in the contemporary era, the concept of elites and the related notion of celebrity have seen fresh interconnected developments. The purpose of the paper is to consider the literature on elite interviewing both generally and more specifically against a backdrop of an organization and management disciplinary setting. Importantly the paper examines and surfaces the role of context in relation to elite interviewing. In order to consider and illustrate this phenomenon the argument engages with the organizational environment and behaviours of the English professional football industry with the intention of offering fresh perspectives into the form and function of context in elite interviewing.Design/methodology/approachThe paper's examination of the literature feeds into the fieldwork stage which employs an inductive and interpretivistic methodology. The key method employed within the methodology is semi‐structured interviews tailored for elites and conjoined with participant observation. The approach is applied within an elite interviewing process in the specific organizational context of the professional football industry.FindingsThe paper concludes that in relation to elite interviewing, there is scope to consider a contextualisation and recontextualisation of elite interviewing processes through the development of a potential range of novel conceptual and theoretical models. By engaging with interview frameworks, the paper draws heightened attention to the possibility of generating typologies for, and categorising elites operating within, those given contexts. The paper underlines the established notion of inter‐differences between elites in different sectors, and, more importantly, surfaces intra‐differences in elites within sectors. This issue of diversity of elites is currently not a factor that is clearly acknowledged or addressed in the extant literature. In the case of the present study this novel analysis and illustration are undertaken within the English professional football industry. Therein, the argument exemplifies how elites and elite interviewing may be understood in this specific context through the concepts of process, power and “positionality” and “knownness” identifying, for example, issues of arrogance, amateurism and the phenomenon of insider‐outsider.Social implicationsElites and celebrities constitute longstanding phenomena that have endured into the twenty‐first century and, as a consequence, merit on‐going close analysis. Equally replete in contemporary life are the multifarious organizational and managerial domains and contexts in which given elites reside and operate. Given the potential impact of elites and their actions on people, it would seem worthwhile and important to seek heightened understanding of them. The professional football industry is one particular instance for study given that it is high profile, represents a substantial business sector in its own right, and, plays a central role in the lives of many members of the public.Originality/valueThe work is an original study of the contextual issues surrounding interviewing elites in the organizational and management setting of the English professional football industry. In a more specific sense, the paper contributes insights into the issue of typologies within elite interviewing, the role of elites in English professional football and makes progress in redressing a general paucity of commentary on elite in the overall business and management research methodology literature.

Research Methodology Strategies in Strategic Management

This paper review and examine how strategic management researchers apply research methods, and what strategies use as part of the research process, to locate, organize, manage, transform, create, communicate and evaluate research tools, data and information resources. It also analyzes recent developments in research methodology to create scientific knowledge in theory building and practice in strategic management offering an overview of methodologies used in strategic management research. The assessment of strategic management research methodology is based on a review and analysis of strategies for the incorporation of knowledge of managerial research methods. Finally, the paper identifies and discusses some methodological research issues and reviews future direction on research methodologies in strategic management.

A critical review of interventionist research

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to further develop the epistemological base of interventionist research (IR) as a valid accounting and management research methodology, through the identification of intervention theory and an IR framework derived from social sciences. Moreover, this paper seeks to contribute to empirical knowledge of IR through a critical review of limited empirical evidence relating to intervention theory and the extant IR frameworks derived from action research.Design/methodology/approachTexts and academic journal papers that judiciously review intervention theory, intervention research frameworks were identified systematically; along with empirical research addressing theoretical and methodological deficiencies of IR and, providing evidence to inform practical considerations when undertaking IR.FindingsThe key findings include rare empirical evidence addressing theoretical shortcomings and application of intervention theory, an IR framework derived from social sciences with extremely limited use in accounting and management research, deficiencies in action research oriented frameworks labelled as alternative forms of IR, an alternate perspective to positivistic validity and reliability issues and other practical considerations to facilitate the conducting of IR.Originality/valueThe novelty of this paper lies in the diminution of the fragmented nature of IR that undermines its scientific value through the identification of an intervention theory and IR framework experiencing extremely limited use in accounting and management research, with the exception of a cross‐disciplinary (management accounting and information systems) doctoral study, optimising IR utilisation with greater degrees of validity and reliability and, finally, a proposed alternative research design for utilisation in IR.

A food quality management research methodology integrating technological and managerial theories

In this article it is argued how the complexity of food quality management combined with the high requirements on food quality requires a specific research methodology. It is concluded that food quality management research has to deal with two quite different paradigms, the one from technological and the other from managerial disciplines. Moreover, it must combine two types of research, i.e. managerial problem solving and fundamental scientific research. The research methodology is described as a stepwise process, wherein theory and practice are connected with a prominent place for selecting useful technological and managerial theories. This selection process is supported by a grid showing important topics in different research phases. The methodology is illustrated with a case example. Moreover, attention is paid to the role of the researcher in this type of interdisciplinary work, both as the intermediate between theory and practice and as the one to be critical towards theory-selection and use of data.

Bridging the Chasm between Management Education, Research, and Practice: Moving Towards the ‘Grounded Theory’ Approach

This paper addresses the issue of best-practice research methodology in management. It is argued that management research should follow what is known as ‘grounded theory’, or what Harvard Business School Professor, Robert Kaplan, termed as “innovation action research.” Today, management research is found following an inappropriate model, the hypotheticoscientific method designed for laboratory research in the natural sciences. This is unsuitable for management and not aligned with case-based pedagogy, action learning or reality-based executive programmes. The result is a painful disconnect between management research and management teaching. There is an increasing divergence and separation between educators and researchers, when in fact these endeavours should be integrated and converging. While educators use case studies intensively, researchers reject N=1 qualitative methods and instead employ N ≥ 25. It is indeed strange that sometimes the educator and the researcher are the same person. This strange methodological schizophrenia needs a remedy. For management, world is the laboratory. It therefore requires a worldly. research methodology. Management educators seek to use reality-based tools; yet, they often do research that is abstract and diffused. Some of the leading management tools taught by management educators originated, in fact, in best-practice innovations in organizations. Why not adopt this as general best-practice? And why, then, does management research pay lip service to the natural sciences, when its most powerful theories and tools emerged from clinical, not laboratory, settings? This paper offers an alternative, a new way forward, based on the familiar concept of grounded theory. Through examples and case studies, it shows how this approach might be applied and how teaching and research can become tightly integrated. It concludes with some poignant thoughts on the way forward, including finding robust ways to partner between management researchers, educators, and practitioners (who are participants of executive education programmes in most business schools). For instance: There would be a need for extensive collaboration between these three constituents. Management education and research must include extensive team work, rather than the common phenomenon of each educator doing his ‘solo’ act in management education programmes and moving on. There should be relevant and well-thoughtout themes that facilitate high quality dialogue between the three constituents (educators, researchers, and practitioners), where there is intense learning on the part of all of them. Significant mindset changes on the part of companies sponsoring their managers for management education programmes would be necessary. It is hoped that this paper would generate a lot of dialogue resulting in positive changes that would bridge the existing chasm between management education, research, and practice.

Grounded theory and management research: a lack of integrity?

PurposeThis paper aims to analyse the manner in which “objectivist” grounded theory methodology has progressively developed since 1967 and how it has been employed by management researchers.Design/methodology/approachThe paper traces the methodological development of grounded theory with particular emphasis on the variations, contradictions and modifications to the methodology both between and within the Glaserian and Straussian Schools. Totally 32 empirical grounded theory studies published in the management literature since 2002 are analysed in order to gauge the impact of these variations on the manner in which researchers have employed the grounded theory methodology.FindingsIt is argued that grounded theory in management research is in danger of losing its integrity. The methodology has become so pliant that management researchers appear to have accepted it as a situation of “anything goes” “Grounded theory” is now loosely used as a generic term to refer to any qualitative approach in which an inductive analysis is grounded in data.Originality/valueIt could be argued that grounded theory cannot continue to be regarded as a moving target, or to be practised as a free‐for‐all methodology in management research, without risking serious danger of becoming irrelevant. Three suggestions are offered for restoring more discipline into grounded theory studies.

Inter‐organizational relationship strategies and management styles in SMEs

PurposeThe paper seeks to investigate and conceptualize differences in managerial styles and inter‐organizational relationship (IOR) strategies of small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) in the international environment, and make managerial implications useful for business practitioners and educators.Design/methodology/approachThe study applies comparative management research methodology. The management style dimensions analyzed in the paper are supervision, decision making, information‐sharing styles, and paternalistic orientation. The types of IOR strategies considered are conjugate, confederate, agglomeratic, and organic. Data were collected through surveying managers of entrepreneurial firms from the USA, China, and Russia, operating in the same industry. Factor analysis was applied for scale validation, and regression models were used for hypotheses testing.FindingsThe relationship between managerial styles and types of IOR strategies pursued by SMEs was documented. The cross‐cultural differences in terms of SMEs' orientation towards different types of IOR were also revealed.Practical implicationsThe study indicated that it is possible to predict prevailing IOR strategies based on cultural differences in a systematic way. Because of SMEs' rapid globalization, the study findings contribute to the efforts of achieving better correspondence between IOR‐building strategies of small businesses in different countries. Educational and training programs preparing international SME managers to distinguish, substantiate and deal with the revealed cross‐cultural IOR differences will be helpful for achieving this goal.Originality/valueThe major value of the study is that it provides insight into IORs from the small business perspective in a cross‐cultural setting.

Research Methodology in Strategy and Management/Research Methodology in Strategy and ManagementResearch Methodology in Strategy and Management, Volume 1, edited by KetchenDavid J.Jr., and BerghDonald D.. San Diego: Elsevier, 2004.Research Methodology in Strategy and Management, Volume 2, edited by KetchenDavid J.Jr., and BerghDonald D.. San Diego: Elsevier, 2005.

The article reviews the books “Research Methodology in Strategy and Management, Volume 1” and “Research Methodology in Strategy and Management, Volume 2,” both edited by David J. Ketchen, Jr., and Donald D. Bergh.

“Experiencing” Sport Management: The Use of Personal Narrative in Sport Management Studies

According to Paton, sport management research went through several phases up to the 1990s: a praxis phase, based upon “administrative principles, usually developed by authorities in the field, and upon program planning in physical education”; a second more theory-based phase that continues to the present; and a third descriptive phase (Paton, 1987, p. 26). In most of this research, however, the use of methodological innovation in research and in reporting research has been relatively scarce (as in many of the subdisciplines in physical education/kinesiology). In the present article, I argue for the use of personal narrative and personal storytelling in sport management research methodology, which might result in the asking of different questions and in write-ups that could serve to invigorate sport management studies. This method of research answers different, interactionist-based questions for researchers delving into how sport management affects people and how sport managers interact with others. In other words, this method examines how lives are lived into existence, and it provides models for practitioners and scholars of sport management to model, discover, experience, and use.

Employing the Event Study to Assess Returns to Firms from Novel Information Technologies: An Examination of E-Commerce Initiative Announcements

The event study is an important methodology in management research that enables the assessment of value attributable to firm initiatives based on the responses of capital markets to news about firm actions. While capital markets are efficient in processing information about firms, their ability to rapidly determine future benefit streams linked to initiatives involving novel information technologies such as ecommerce technologies may be limited by several factors. There is considerable ambiguity related to benefits from novel technologies and their effects on industries, markets and firms in the short term. At the time of the announcement, relevant information is also not available on complementary initiatives influencing value such as such as changes to business processes, willingness of supply chain partners to make complementary changes etc. Adjustments of stock prices over longer windows are thus likely to reflect more informed assessment of the ability of firms to generate benefits and to appropriate value created by novel information technologies than those within a few days of the event. We examine the returns to e-commerce events in the period from 1999 to 2000 employing a set of short time windows (1-day, 5-days, 10-days bracketing the event) as well as a set of long event windows (6-month, 9-month and 1-year from the event). The results reflect little consistency between abnormal returns in short 1-day, 5-day and 10-day event windows. In contrast, the abnormal returns observed in 6, 9 and 12-month windows, though slightly different are reasonably consistent. Further, the variation of short-run abnormal returns across the two year period appear to be suspiciously similar to the fluctuations of market sentiments related to the Internet, indicating that extraneous, non-firm-specific factors may be very influential in determining short term abnormal returns than is recognized by researchers. We suggest that using longer time windows in event studies involving novel technologies enable reliable assessments of the contributions of events to firm value. The results of the analyses employing a 1-year time window indicate that e-commerce announcements are associated with significant abnormal buy-and-hold returns of 9.51%. Significant abnormal returns are associated with events of conventional firms (11.38%), those that are B2B (20.55%), initiatives involving tangible goods (13.39%) and initiatives that are components of incremental firm strategies (11.43%). These results suggest that e-commerce technologies are significant sources of value for firms; these results are consistent with the overall conclusions of prior research on the issue. Overall, this paper contributes both to the substantive examination of returns from e-commerce events and to the application of event study methodology to examine outcomes linked to novel information technologies by researchers.

Research Methodology In Management: Current Practices, Trends, And Implications For Future Research

This study is a comparison of the strategies employed in management research in two periods, 1995–97 and 1985–87. Through a content analysis of articles from the Academy of Management Journal, Admi...

Epistemological foundations of management theory and research methodology

Beginning in the 1980s, some management researchers began to question the hegemonic position of the positivist epistemology in management and organizational studies. The “good old” scientific research methodology in management and organizational studies which is characterized by careful sampling, precise measurement, and sophisticated design and analysis in the test of hypotheses derived from tentative general laws. Examining the epistemological foundations of management theory and research methodology, this paper explores the roots of positivist epistemology, its evolution, basic presuppositions, and general assumptions through the development of three paradigms – the idea of social science, the unity of science movement, and the behavioral science revolution.

Toward a Theory of Comparative Management Research: An Idiographic Case Study of The Best International Human Resources Management Project

Cross-cultural international management research is complex, costly, and frequently, nonrigorous. This idiographic study documents the evolution of a multinational, multicultural, interdisciplinary research consortium that sought to remedy this lack of rigor in a project investigating international human resource management practices. We identify key learning points derived from this project and conclude with the rudiments of a midrange theory of a comparative management research methodology.