Of related interest
Methodology and family business studies: the interpretive approach: Journal of Management & Organization 15 (2009) forthcoming
Mattias Nordqvist
Center for Family Enterprise and Ownership, Jönköping International Business School, Jönköping, Sweden
Annika Hall
Center for Family Enterprise and Ownership, Jönköping International Business School, Jönköping, Sweden
Leif Melin
Center for Family Enterprise and Ownership, Jönköping International Business School, Jönköping, Sweden
Abstract
This article introduces and discusses the interpretive approach: a methodology with high relevance to family business research. Family business research has grown over the last decade and there are increasing requests for deeper insights into the nature and workings of these organizations.
Research on family business is different from research on other organizations in that it means researching a family, and the influence it exerts on the business this family owns and/or manage. Currently, family business research is dominated by traditional research methods. In this article we argue that these studies should be complemented by research approaches that are apt to capture the specific characteristics of family businesses. We suggest that the interpretive approach has this potential.
The article sets out to discuss central issues, choices, requirements and implications for family business scholars engaged in interpretive research. Our belief is that such research provides insights necessary for the development of the field of family business.
Keywords
family firms, research methods, interpretive research, case study research, values, interactions
Article Text
Several recent overview articles and special issues of journals show that the family business field of research has grown dramatically over the last decade (eg Chua et al 2003; Chrisman et al 2005; Sharma, 2004: Zahra and Sharma, 2004). As Sharma (2004:332) argues, it is important when a research field develops and grows to ‘intermittently pause to evaluate the progress made and reflect on the directions to pursue in future so as to gain deeper insights into the phenomenon of interest'. We agree with this argument, and think that such intermittent evaluation and reflection should include efforts by researchers to codify and diffuse learning experiences from their research practice (cf Pettigrew, 1990). So far, the family business research field has seen few articles that discuss specific research methodologies and their respective relevance. Handler's (1989) important article on five critical methodological issues and their respective contribution to the development of family firm research is a notable exception, but the family business field has changed significantly since the article was published. Articles that codify and communicate learning from existing research practice means that both new and established researchers in the field can reflect and build upon others experiences (Pettigrew, 1990). Like in all fields of research, it is important that family business scholars regularly share in detail their methods in use and research experiences (Handler, 1989; Sharma, 2004). We set out to do this here.
Handler (1989) and Wortman (1994) observe that family business research is dominated by anecdotal and descriptive studies. Later Dyer and Sánchez (1998) observe an increased use of quantitative research methods using analytical methods from statistics and drawing on larger samples. Sharma (2004) notes a similar development. These authors and several others tend to view qualitative and quantitative research as constituting a 'full cycle of research' (Zahra and Sharma, 2004:341). In short, the full cycle of research refers to a first phase of inductive qualitative research on a small sample of selected firms, followed by later phases of testing the findings from the first phase quantitatively on a larger sample of firms representative of the total population.
In this article, our position is somewhat different. We argue that there is a need for more qualitative and interpretive research in the field of family business that is rigorous and both draw upon and generate theory. Quantitative approaches are of course also useful and relevant. Indeed, our position is that quantitative and qualitative research approaches are complementary and that both are needed to advance our knowledge of family businesses. However, we also believe that certain methodological approaches and research strategies are especially relevant to reach an in-depth understanding of the complex and tacit phenomena and processes related to ownership, management and the development that are so typical for family businesses. Therefore, this article sets out to discuss the characteristics, requirements and implications of a research approach are particularly relevant in family business studies: the interpretive approach.
Over the last ten years, the authors of this article have used an interpretive research approach in our research endeavors to better understand family businesses. Our focus has been on studying strategy, ownership and governance, with a specific interest in the development of the family business from a micro perspective. This means to take the point of departure in everyday interaction between individuals and to understand the complex organizational reality that family businesses constitute. Understanding various aspects and dimensions of organizational life from this perspective means understanding individuals, their needs, motives, roles, values, emotions and relations- aspects and issues which might be rather tacit and more or less unconscious to the individuals studied, but nevertheless possible to trace, interpret and visualize through scholarly inquiry. Thus, with the point of departure in our own research experiences, the purpose of this article is to argue for and discuss the usefulness of interpretive research methods in researching and theorizing on family businesses.
The article is organized as follows. First, we discuss how the specificity of family businesses calls for interpretive research and second we introduce the interpretive approach in organization studies focusing on its purpose, definition and core assumptions. Third, we discuss the interplay between theory and empirical observations given this approach. In the third section we give an example on how to work with interpretive research in practice. Fourth, we pay attention to the distinctive contribution that the interpretive approach can make to research and theory building in the field of family business and discuss how to evaluate interpretive research. Thereafter we focus on the challenges facing the interpretive researcher, before we draw some general conclusions.
(continues....)
In closing, it is important to point out that studies of family businesses should not only relate to the specific field of family business research and be disseminated in journals and books solely devoted to this topic.
The relevance of tacit, micro and relational aspects of organizational life is not delimited to businesses owned and managed by families. Rather, 'complex interpersonal linkages, emotions and affectionate ties predominate in all organizations (even if) possibly more complex and embedded in family firms' (Fletcher, 2000:164).
Given this, high-quality research into family businesses that both apply and generate theory have the potential to ‘refute or modify time-worn truths about the nature of organizations, and such knowledge will undoubtedly make its way into journal articles and text-books' (Dyer, 1994: 125). It is our conviction that the interpretive approach can support in achieving this.
Especially, we believe that interpretive research on family business can help to uncover and visualize important but often hard-to-get-at phenomena at the micro-level of social interaction and organizational development. These phenomena, such as for example social relations, roles, values, norms, emotions and meanings are often assumed to be particularly important in family businesses, but are still seldom subject to adequate scholarly inquiry.
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