Purpose – This article presents pictorial representation as an innovative and challenging technique for exploring how new and experienced researchers see research and researchers. Pictorial representation provides a means of exploring the various factors that may influence, limit or inhibit...

Purpose – The paper's purpose is to explore a theoretical and methodological dilemma. Design/methodology/approach – Commencing doctoral research, and committed to an orthodox grounded theory approach, a unique story was uncovered which, to do it and the research justice, required an...

Purpose – This paper aims to challenge the conventional wisdom in qualitative case study research that the findings of the case depend on the identification of common themes across the statements of multiple case informants (usually, as expressed at interview). Design/methodology/approach –...

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to present a reinforced version of structuration theory, known as strong structuration theory, set out in Stones as a disciplined approach to qualitative case study research in the organization, management and accounting fields. This framework challenges the...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to advocate that case study research needs to renew itself and employ its full potential as an innovative theory‐generating methodology in management disciplines; and to propose that a viable strategy for such renewal is to exploit the power of case...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore what the term “methodology” might be taken to mean. It uses an aphorism by Howard Becker as a springboard for examining the nature of methodology, arguing that Becker's view of methodology was misleading. Design/methodology/approach –...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to encourage consideration of the multiple factors affecting dual use of case studies for both research and teaching, and conversion between the two types; to encourage development of a case transformation protocol to add rigor to this process....

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the emotional experiences from qualitative research can enrich organization and management studies. Design/methodology/approach – The paper's approach includes a review of the literature in sociology, anthropology, psychology, and...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to compare fundamental concepts from the grounded theory approach to social science research and concepts from entity‐relationship diagramming, a technique used to model data from the field of systems analysis, and propose that entity‐relationship...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a rationale and step‐by‐step description of how to use rhetorical criticism as a method for accounting for organizational isomorphism in organizational fields. Design/methodology/approach – The idea that rhetoric is an important form of...