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  • 1.  Transparency and replicability in qualitative research

    Posted 04-08-2019 10:03
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    Dear Colleagues,

    Most of us are familiar with current debates regarding transparency and replicability of research in management and many other fields (e.g., psychology, economics). However, this debate has focused mostly on quantitative research only. I wanted to share the following open-access article to appear in SMJ, a journal not typically read by OB researchers, addressing transparency and replicability specifically in qualitative research. I hope you will find it interesting (and will possibly find it provocative as well):

    • Aguinis, H., & Solarino, A. M. 2019. Transparency and replicability in qualitative research: The case of interviews with elite informants. Strategic Management Journal. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.3015

    The article is available at http://www.hermanaguinis.com/pubs.html and the abstract is below. Feel free to forward this message to others you think may be interested in this topic. We paid the publisher to make the article open access.

    Again, I hope you will find it interesting and I look forward to receiving any reactions you may have.

    All the best,

    --Herman.

    Herman Aguinis, Ph.D.
    Vice President-Elect, Academy of Management
    Avram Tucker Distinguished Scholar and Professor of Management
    The George Washington University School of Business
    2201 G Street, NW
    Washington, DC 20052
    http://hermanaguinis.com/

     

    Research Summary

    We used interviews with elite informants as a case study to illustrate the need to expand the discussion of transparency and replicability to qualitative methodology. An analysis of 52 articles published in Strategic Management Journal revealed that none of them were sufficiently transparent to allow for exact replication, empirical replication, or conceptual replication. We offer 12 transparency criteria, and behaviorally-anchored ratings scales to measure them, that can be used by authors as they plan and conduct qualitative research as well as by journal reviewers and editors when they evaluate the transparency of submitted manuscripts. We hope our article will serve as a catalyst for improving the degree of transparency and replicability of future qualitative research.

    Managerial Summary

    If organizations implement practices based on published research, will they produce results consistent with those reported in the articles? To answer this question, it is critical that published articles be transparent in terms of what has been done, why, and how. We investigated 52 articles published in Strategic Management Journal that reported interviewing elite informants (e.g., members of the top management team) and found that none of the articles were sufficiently transparent. These results lead to thorny questions about the trustworthiness of published research, but also important opportunities for future improvements about research transparency and replicability. We offer recommendations on 12 transparency criteria, and how to measure them, that can be used to evaluate past as well as future research using qualitative methods.



    ------------------------------
    Herman Aguinis, Ph.D.
    Vice President-Elect, Academy of Management
    Avram Tucker Distinguished Scholar and Professor of Management
    The George Washington University School of Business
    Washington, DC
    http://hermanaguinis.com/
    ------------------------------


  • 2.  RE: Transparency and replicability in qualitative research

    Posted 04-09-2019 23:20
    Dear Herman,

    Thank you for bringing qualitative research into the discussion about better transparency and replicability in research. After recent workshops and seminars I've attended on the topic, I've often been left thinking: But what about qualitative research? I look forward to the future discussion that I'm sure this paper will inspire, both about doing better qualitative research, but also about the complementarity between qualitative and quantitative research in the pursuit of more ecologically valid and replicable research. The inclusion of practical criteria and rating scales is fantastic - the icing on the cake. 

    Thank you!

    Warm regards,
    Georgia

    ------------------------------
    Georgia Hay
    Doctoral Student
    U. of Western Australia, UWA Business School
    Perth WA
    (040) 687-8903
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  • 3.  RE: Transparency and replicability in qualitative research

    Posted 04-16-2019 09:03
    Georgia,

    I am delighted to hear you found our article useful. Again, we  look forward to receiving additional reactions and comments regarding transparency and replicability in qualitative research given the almost exclusive emphasis on quantitative research thus far. Our open access article is available at http://www.hermanaguinis.com/pubs.html :

    • Aguinis, H., & Solarino, A. M. in press. Transparency and replicability in qualitative research: The case of interviews with elite informants. Strategic Management Journal. doi: 10.1002/SMJ.3015

    All the best,

    --Herman.

    Herman Aguinis, Ph.D.
    Vice President-Elect, Academy of Management
    Avram Tucker Distinguished Scholar and Professor of Management
    The George Washington University School of Business
    2201 G Street, NW
    Washington, DC 20052
    http://hermanaguinis.com/

    ------------------------------
    Herman Aguinis, Ph.D.
    Vice President-Elect, Academy of Management
    Avram Tucker Distinguished Scholar and Professor of Management
    The George Washington University School of Business
    Washington, DC
    http://hermanaguinis.com/
    ------------------------------