A pluralistic, longitudinal method : using participatory workshops, interviews and lexicographic analysis to investigate relational evolution

Finding new ways to collaborate enables firms to better seek opportunities and challenges and enhance network capability. However the traditional methods used to research the development of network collaboration can be limited in the insights they provide as they often focus on single interviews in a single time perspective and/or are analyzed for content in a single way. This paper illustrates the insights that can emerge from more pluralistic data collection and analysis. Multi method longitudinal research considers a Danish advertising and communication firm engaging their network in co-creating ideas to help them in their environment of rapid globalization and emergence of new technologies. A five stage research design combines participatory workshops and one-on-one interviews over an eight month period. Comparative lexicographic (i.e. semantic) analysis was used to ascertain participants' perceptions of the development and the processes of changing relationship orientation. It illustrates the processes of change and impact of the workshops with participant reflections becoming ever-more collaboration-oriented and solutions-oriented over the period of research, resulting in bringing more business to the firm. Such findings exemplify the value of longitudinal, pluralistic methods coupled with systematic analysis of participant's discourse.