Qualitative Methods in Management Doctoral Research

A Seminar to the Faculty and Doctoral Program
Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad
Saturday, January 15, 2005, 3 to 5 PM

By:

Nikhilesh Dholakia, University of Rhode Island
Alladi Venkatesh, University of California at Irvine
Mark M. Lennon, University of Rhode Island

While survey, experimentation, and statistics or econometrics-based positivist research methods dominate the doctoral research work done at North American universities, qualitative and interpretive research methods are beginning to make inroads into management doctoral programs. Evidence of such research is available in the form of publications in leading journals in Marketing, Consumer Research, Organizational Behavior, MIS, E-Commerce, International Business, and Business Strategy.

This seminar reviews the experience with qualitative and interpretive research methods at two USA universities: University of Rhode Island (URI) and University of California at Irvine (UCI). Doctoral researchers using such methods have faced major epistemic, ontological, and practical challenges. Such doctoral researchers, however, have often also produced research that has been award-winning and influential. Based on the URI and UCI experiences, suggestions are offered for successful use of qualitative and interpretive research methods.

Nikhilesh Dholakia is Professor in the Marketing, E-Commerce and International Business areas in the College of Business Administration at the University of Rhode Island.

Alladi Venkatesh is Professor in the Graduate School of Management, University of California at Irvine. He is also the Associate Director of CRITO, the Center for Research in Information Technology and Organizations.

Mark M. Lennon is in the third year of the doctoral program at the University of Rhode Island, specializing in the International Business area. He is in the process of developing a dissertation proposal to study mobile communications sector in Asian countries, using qualitative interviews and historical analysis.