A Winning Combination for Business Researchers: A Review of Qualitative Methods in Business Research

Qualitative Methods in Business Research by Paivi Eriksson and Anne Kovalainen is a comprehensive, current, and compelling text discussing both qualitative research in general and nine specific approaches in particular. These include: case studies, ethnography, grounded theory, focus group research, action research, narrative research, discursive research, critical research and feminist research. The reviewer identifies the considerable strengths of this book, which include its attention to the writing process that differentiates qualitative from quantitative research, and recommends the book as a solid resource for both students and practitioners. Key Words: Qualitative Methods, Qualitative Research, Qualitative Approaches, Business Research, and Management Research As a long-time management professor with undergraduate work in sociology, I have long been interested in qualitative research methods but have had little formal training in the field. Having decided it was about time to delve further into the qualitative methods that might be appropriate for management research, I was stymied by the fact that most readily available textbooks in the field focus on qualitative research as it pertains to the medical and social services fields. Creswell's (2007) 2nd edition of Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design, for example, gave me the philosophical background and interpretive frameworks I needed, as well as considerable detail on five qualitative approaches including narrative research, phenomenology, grounded theory, ethnography, and case study research. However, the lengthy examples focused on nonbusiness topics such as campus responses to a gunman, coping of women surviving childhood sexual abuse, and cognitive representations of AIDS. While the principles and practices of the various approaches are obviously applicable to a wide range of topics, I found myself yearning for more concrete business and management examples, especially since in my role as Editor of the Journal of Applied Management and Entrepreneurship, I am handling a fair number of qualitatively-oriented articles and I wanted more specific tools to evaluate these manuscripts. While seeking sources that would give me these specific tools and examples, I found books such as Cavana, Delahaye, and Sekaran's (2001) Applied Business Research: Qualitative and Quantitative Methods, Keegan's (2008) Redefining Qualitative Research within a Business Context, Myers'(2009) Redefining Qualitative Research within a Business Context, and Marchan-Piekkari and Welch's (2005) Handbook of Qualitative Research Methods for International Business. I hit the jackpot, however, when I laid my hands on Paivi Eriksson and Anne Kovalainen's (2008) Qualitative Methods in Business Research. This is a book that can serve as a ready reference for me, as well as one that I can recommend to my doctoral dissertation students interested in pursuing qualitative research. Qualitative Methods in Business Research is written by experienced research methods professors with an eye toward practical and useful information. While covering a plethora of qualitative methods appropriate for business students and researchers, it also provides useful advice on the overall research and writing process, including information on ethics and evaluation. The book is organized into three parts and 20 chapters, and while it can be used as a textbook (witness the exercises and further reading at the end of chapters), the textbook features are understated and do not dissuade the non-student from using this book as a reference. Part One is entitled, "The Business of Qualitative Research," and the authors quickly acknowledge their goal in providing an alternative to business research books that combine both quantitative and qualitative techniques where the latter is limited to a few common approaches such as case study and grounded theory. The authors intend to give budding researchers far more approaches from which to choose. …