The use of mixed methods research in the field of behavioural sciences

Mixed methods research involves the combined use of quantitative and qualitative methods in the same research study, and it is becoming increasingly important in several scientific areas. The aim of this paper is to review and compare through a mixed methods multiple-case study the application of this methodology in three reputable behavioural science journals: the Journal of Organizational Behavior, Addictive Behaviors and Psicothema. A quantitative analysis was carried out to review all the papers published in these journals during the period 2003–2008 and classify them into two blocks: theoretical and empirical, with the latter being further subdivided into three subtypes (quantitative, qualitative and mixed). A qualitative analysis determined the main characteristics of the mixed methods studies identified, in order to describe in more detail the ways in which the two methods are combined based on their purpose, priority, implementation and research design. From the journals selected, a total of 1,958 articles were analysed, the majority of which corresponded to empirical studies, with only a small number referring to research that used mixed methods. Nonetheless, mixed methods research does appear in all the behavioural science journals studied within the period selected, showing a range of designs, where the sequential equal weight mixed methods research design seems to stand out.     

Human resource management–well‐being–performance research revisited: Past,present, and future

The authors provide an up‐to‐date theoretically based qualitative review of research dealing with the relationship between HRM, employee well‐being, and individual/organisational performance (HRM‐WB‐IOP research). The review is based on a systematic critical analysis of all HRM‐WB‐IOP studies (N = 46) published in 13 core HRM and management journals in the 2000 to 2018 period. The authors first identify different theoretical models of the HRM‐WB‐IOP relationship, which they then use to map research in the area. The results show that mutual gains conceptualisations play a dominant role in extant HRM‐WB‐IOP research, at the expense of alternative conflicting outcomes and mutual losses models, which are also shown to receive very limited empirical support across the 46 studies. As part of this mapping exercise, the authors identify important knowledge gaps in the area and conclude by setting out a number of key recommendations for future research to address these gaps.     

Victim or Victimizer: Firm Responses to Government Corruption

What is the relationship between government corruption and firm performance? To address this question, I conduct a review of articles published in the leading management journals on government‐business interactions pertaining to rent‐seeking activities and integrate findings from the fields of international business, social issues in management, public organization, institutional change, and corporate political activity. I find that while much empirical work corroborates the earlier findings suggesting a corrosive impact of government corruption on firm performance in general, management research also points to the heterogeneous impact of government corruption on individual firm performance, driven by the strategic activities conducted by firms in response to corruption. I propose an integrative model of firm strategy vis‐à‐vis corruption that predicts the activity choice of the firm as predicated by its organizational structure, political resources, industry regulation, and surrounding political and social institutions.     

A systematic literature review on the impact of artificial intelligence on workplace outcomes: A multi-process perspective

Artificial intelligence (AI) can bring both opportunities and challenges to human resource management (HRM). While scholars have been examining the impact of AI on workplace outcomes more closely over the past two decades, the literature falls short in providing a holistic scholarly review of this body of research. Such a review is needed in order to: (a) guide future research on the effects of AI on the workplace; and (b) help managers make proper use of AI technology to improve workplace and organizational outcomes.This is the first systematic review to explore the relationship between artificial intelligence and workplace outcomes. Through an exhaustive systematic review and analysis of existing literature, we ultimately examine and cross-relate 60 papers, published in 30 leading international (AJG 3 and 4) journals over a period of 25 years (1995–2020). Our review researches the AI-workplace outcomes nexus by drawing on the major functions of human resource management and the process framework of ‘antecedents, phenomenon, outcomes’ at multiple levels of analysis. We review the sampled articles based on years of publication, theories, methods, and key themes across the ‘antecedents, phenomenon, outcomes’ framework. We provide useful directions for future research by embedding our discussion within HR literature, while we recommend topics drawing on alternative units of analysis and theories that draw on the individual, team, and institutional levels.     

Corporate Social Responsibility in Management Research: Focus,Nature, Salience and Sources of Influence*

abstract In this paper we investigate the status of corporate social responsibility (CSR) research within the management literature. In particular, we examine the focus and nature of knowledge, the changing salience of this knowledge and the academic influences on the knowledge. We present empirical evidence based on publication and citation analyses of research published from 1992 to 2002. Our results demonstrate that, for CSR research published in management journals, the most popular issues investigated have been environmental and ethics; the empirical research has been overwhelmingly of a quantitative nature; the theoretical research has been primarily non‐normative; the field is driven by agendas in the business environment as well as by continuing scientific engagement; and the single most important source of references for CSR articles was the management literature itself.     

Characteristics of research on green marketing

This paper aims to describe and analyze the main characteristics of articles on green marketing published in the most relevant journals within the period 1993–2003, in order to determine the evolution of this current issue of research over recent years and improve our understanding of this subject. We built up a database with 112 articles on green marketing and we have explored the topic, the methodology and the techniques of analysis, as well as other relevant aspects of the research. In order to complete this analysis, we made a review of articles published in two journals specializing in environmental management: BSE and CSREM. In this way, this paper offers practical help to those who are beginning research on this topic because the results will help us to determine what still needs to be investigated in this topic and hence propose a research agenda for the coming years. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Similarities and differences in international and comparative human resource management: A review of 60 years of research

In this article, we review similarities and differences in articles in the research field of international and comparative human resource management (HRM), published in Human Resource Management over the past 60 years. The extensive review and analysis, based on 189 conceptual articles, reviews, and empirical studies, identified several trends. First, the two distinct research streams in this research field (HRM in MNEs and comparative HRM) have grown over the decades and moved from conceptual articles in the beginning to almost exclusively empirical studies in more recent years. Second, in addition to the two research streams, in more recent years we identified a third research stream that combines elements of HRM in MNEs and comparative HRM research. Third, the research field has become more feminized, with an increasing number of female (first) authors, and has become more international, with more authors affiliated with non‐US universities in the more recent time periods. Finally, while the research streams show some differences in the content of their research, we do not find evidence that the streams developed in isolation. Based on our analysis, we provide suggestions for future research on international and comparative HRM and identify current implications for HR practitioners.     

Preserving Theoretical Divergence in Management Research: Why the Explanatory Potential of Qualitative Research Should Be Harnessed Rather than Suppressed

Despite the evident rise in the number of qualitative studies that are published in leading journals, I argue that the rich tradition and hallmark of qualitative research is under pressure. In recent years qualitative papers are increasingly being fashioned in the image of quantitative research, so much so that papers adopt ‘factor‐analytic’ styles of theorizing that have typically been the preserve of quantitative methods. This is a worrying trend as it leads to certain types of explanations dominating our field and at the expense of other viable forms of explanation. It also narrows the remit of qualitative research in general by channelling the theoretical contribution of qualitative studies in the direction of factor‐analytic propositional or variance models. In this article, I discuss the differences between the distinct types of theoretical explanations that are associated with quantitative and qualitative methods, survey the trend towards a quantitative ‘restyling’ of qualitative research, and elaborate its negative implications for our body of knowledge and for the state of management and organization theory.     

Generalization practices in qualitative research: a mixed methods case study

The purpose of this mixed methods case study was to examine the generalization practices in qualitative research published in a reputable qualitative journal. In order to accomplish this, all qualitative research articles published in Qualitative Report since its inception in 1990 (n =  273) were examined. A quantitative analysis of the all 125 empirical qualitative research articles revealed that a significant proportion (i.e., 29.6%) of studies involved generalizations beyond the underlying sample that were made inappropriately by the author(s). A qualitative analysis identified the types of over-generalizations that occurred, which included making general recommendations for future practice and providing general policy implications based only on a few cases. Thus, a significant proportion of articles published in Qualitative Report lack what we call interpretive consistency.     

中美会计研究方向的差异分析:来自两国权威期刊的数据

本文以美国《会计评论》(Accounting Review)2001年至2005年所刊载的240篇文章和中国《会计研究》(Accounting Research)2001年至2005年所刊载的819篇文章作为研究对象,对中美两国会计学术界的研究现状进行了比较分析。结果发现,中国会计学术界的研究范围更广,研究重点是传统的基本理论,且选题较大,大多以规范研究为主;美国会计学术界研究所涉及的领域相对集中,主要集中在基本理论、公司治理、资本市场、审计等领域,在选题上善于“小题大做”,以实证研究为主。笔者认为,我国当前的会计研究应该更务实、更系统,研究方法应多样化,应借鉴国外的研究经验,以推动我国会计研究水平的不断提高。     

Anglo-American forms of management education: A practice-theoretical perspective

This article is based on a review of three Anglo-American journals of management education research, namely The Academy of Management Learning & Education, The Journal of Management Education, and Management Learning. In order to identify different forms of management education, articles in the journals were read from a practice-theoretical perspective. The main finding is that researchers have described or suggested five different conceptions of management education, which either revise the business-school tradition or provide alternatives to it. One implication of the finding is that it is not reasonable to speak for or against the US model of management education, since there are several. Management education research could thus aim at a more nuanced appreciation of what business-school teachers regard as good education.     

Towards a hybrid model? A systematic review of human resource management research on Chinese state-owned enterprises (1993–2017)

Abstract

Over the past two decades, there has been a proliferation of research on human resource management (HRM) in Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) as a result of the wide-reaching state-sector reform of the late 1980s. This article aims to provide a systematic review of literature on this topic and capture the nature of HRM in Chinese SOEs, both in research and practice. The article draws on 178 studies from 43 English academic journals over a period of 25?years (1993–2017). In analysing this literature and by taking stock of theoretical frameworks, research methods, themes and analysis of academic articles in this area, we have gained a number of insights. The study has found that the research methods used have shifted from qualitative and interpretive methodology toward quantitative and sophisticated modelling. A further insight is that there has been a relatively heavy reliance on institutional theory in the earlier studies reviewed, and since then a switch towards organizational behaviour perspectives. The level of analysis has moved from macro to micro level and thematic foci have become more diverse and complex. We highlight a number of avenues, theoretical and empirical, for future studies in this field.     

Journal ratings and footprints: a North American perspective of organizations and the natural environment journal quality

Organizations and Natural Environment (ONE) research has been published in mainstream management journals and an increasing array of specialty journals dedicated to ONE topics since the formation of the ONE interest group more than a decade ago. While the abundance of outlets for ONE research may be perceived as a positive development for the field, it also raises difficulties for establishing credibility for the relative quality of ONE scholarship. This study is the first of its kind to assess the journal quality of mainstream management and specialty journals that publish ONE‐related research. I triangulated methods by first utilizing a three‐stage process to survey senior ONE scholars and then utilized a footprint approach to rate 25 journals publishing ONE research. Results are compared with those of previous studies and are discussed in light of senior scholar commentary. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

General‐interest versus specialty journals: Using intellectual influence of econometrics research to rank economics journals and articles

This paper demonstrates the potential problem in using existing economics journal rankings to evaluate the research productivity of scholars by constructing a new ranking of economics journals and articles. Based on 2142 econometrics sample articles published from 2000 to 2005, our ranking results show that the intellectual influence of an econometrics article published in several econometrics/statistics journals is much higher than if it were published in the most prestigious general‐interest journal. Given that a study's potential influence is integrated into the submission decision, this suggests a substantial downward bias toward econometricians when existing rankings are used to evaluate their research productivity. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Two schools of risk analysis: A review of past research on project risk

Risk research can be generally categorized into two schools: risk as an objective fact and risk as a subjective construction. Both schools have different risk definitions, epistemological dimensions, and analytical methods, and tend to recommend different policies for managing risks. This study aims to locate the position of past studies on project risk found between the two schools of risk analysis and to help understand their basic assumptions and viewpoints by reviewing articles published during the last 10 years in two project management journals: the International Journal of Project Management and Project Management Journal. There are 171 articles collected from both journals. They are categorized into four groups: project management system, subjective perception, irrational behavior in risk management, and subjective construction. This study describes and discusses the basic assumptions, viewpoints, and tendencies usually held by each group, and it indicates the position of each group found between the two schools. It also develops some discussion on the starting point of both schools of risk analysis and their significance in directing practices of project risk management.     

Mapping Business Model Research: A Document Bibliometric Analysis

Today, the business model (BM) is one of the most studied concepts within managerial and innovation literature. Although scholars have shown a growing interest in understanding and analysing the BM, a theoretical conceptualization is still lacking. This paper provides a systematic review of the current state of BM research by mapping the research landscape to identify key research publications, journals that had relevance in developing the BM literature, and the main areas of research. Using the ISI Web of Knowledge “core collection”, this study conducts a document bibliometric analysis of 3,604 publications in the fields of management and business that were published between 1985 and 2017. The use of quantitative methods allowed us to overcome the shortcomings of the past subjective literature reviews. We clustered the selected articles on the basis of two distinct perspectives. First, we identified the founders of the discipline, creating a map of co-cited articles (co-citation analysis); this enabled us to identify five major research clusters, formed on the basis of similar co-citations, that characterize the historical evolution of the BM studies. Second, throughout the bibliographic coupling analysis, which aggregates articles sharing a similar bibliography, we captured the main emergent research sub-fields of the most recent BM literature.     

What do we [not] know about technology entrepreneurship research?

This study aims to review what we do (and do not) know about technology entrepreneurship (TE) research to date. Based on a categorized bibliometric analysis resulting from a systematic review of 135 scientific articles published in refereed journals over the past 27 years (1986–2013), we identify the core domains of TE, its intellectual structure, the scientific journals with a major impact in this field of research, and the affiliation and collaboration networks within it. Specifically, through a detailed analysis of article co-citations within the TE area, this study provides co-citation networks of authors, journals, and their respective clusters, revealing their rankings in terms of contributions to the TE literature. This comprehensive analysis can be used to enhance our understanding of TE and support further research in this field.     

Centres and Peripheries: Research Styles and Publication Patterns in ‘Top’ US Journals and their European Alternatives, 1960–2010

In view of recent literature, suggesting a growing international ascendancy of US‐style scholarship but also a decreasing US dominance in journal publications, I ask two questions with regard to management and organization studies: (1) whether there has been an increasing convergence towards US‐style research; and (2) whether the purported decline in the relative amount of US publications has been uniform across leading journals based in the USA and Europe. In addressing these questions, I take a historical perspective and draw upon the centre–periphery model of international scholarship, arguing that convergence or fragmentation in styles of research and variations in publication patterns have evolved through the interplay between processes of influence by the centre (i.e., the USA) and imitative or competitive responses by the periphery. Empirically, the study spans the period 1960–2010 and is confined to ‘top’ US‐based journals and their main European alternatives. The findings answer the first question with a ‘no, other than a greater tendency towards the US‐style when educational or collaborative ties to the USA are involved and by the recently emerging parts of the periphery’. The second question again is answered with a ‘no, the decline has been much less in “top” US journals relative to the ones based in Europe’.     

Chinese outward foreign direct investment—a challenge for traditional internationalization theories?

In this paper we explore the current state of research on outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) of Chinese firms. A?literature review identifies 62 articles in 15 peer-reviewed academic journals that were published between 1986 and 2012. We examine the underlying theories, research methods, motives, determinants, host countries, industries, periods of observation, nationality of authors and performance of Chinese OFDI, as well as the degree of consensus with traditional internationalization theories. We find that the majority of studies find these theories not applicable to explain Chinese OFDI. We discuss possible extensions and modifications and derive implications for future research.     

The scope and trajectory of strategic HR research: evidence from American and British journals

Many have argued that the field of human resource (HR) management has successfully transformed itself from the functional orientation of personnel management to a strategic orientation that is more relevant to the goals and effectiveness of business in the current competitive landscape. In this article, we assess that proposition by reviewing almost 1000 award-winning papers and articles published in leading US and British management journals since the mid-1990s. We use this data to evaluate the scope of HR research in the field, the extent to which it has changed, and whether changes in this research have kept pace with changes that organizations face in the current global economy. Consistent with the strategic HR framework, we find that the question of the link between HR and performance has, indeed, become the dominant one among both micro- and macro-organizational scholars. Contrary to expectations, however, micro-level research continues to be more prevalent than macro-organizational studies; and we find little change in the subjects and sites of research or theoretical approaches adopted. These characteristics of HR research are in sharp contrast with the dramatic changes occurring in the world of work – suggesting a mismatch between what HR scholars study and what issues and dilemmas organizations face. Finally, by assessing similarities and differences between the American and British scholarship, we are able to suggest a research agenda, more relevant to the current global economy, which builds on the strengths of each tradition.