Methods for the Study of Management Ideas

This chapter surveys methodologies employed in the study of management ideas. It emphasizes the field’s rich variety of data collection, measurement, and inferential strategies. To map this landscape, the authors group studies by the number of cases they examine, from large N event history analyses based on archival data to ethnographies of a single organization. They give particular attention to bibliometrics and discourse analysis because these methods grapple with the interpretive and communicative processes that are central to management ideas and because techniques for capturing and analysing text are currently being revolutionized across the social sciences. Keywords discourse analysis, computer assisted content analysis, bibliometric studies, event history analysis, interviews, rhetoric, management ideas, research methods