Adoption of mixed methods approaches to research by management researchers

Trends in the adoption of qualitative and mixed methods by organizational and management researchers are explored by comparing the incidence of qualitative and mixed methods articles published in the Academy of Management Journal (AMJ) and Administrative Science Quarterly (ASQ). Eighty-three articles published in two periods eight years apart were reviewed: 39 articles from 2005-6 (19 AMJ and 20 ASQ) and 44 for 2014 (24 AMJ and 20 ASQ). Articles for both periods and both journals were clearly dominated by studies that employed statistical analyses of archival, database, experimental or survey data, with little change over the period, numbering 29 (74.4%) in 2005-6 and 31 (70.5%) in 2014. The remainder in 2014 included 9 qualitative and just 4 mixed methods studies. The review of articles raised other issues. Difficulty was experienced in classifying studies, leading to a refinement in emphasis for a definition of mixed methods. It was noted, also, that researchers publishing in these journals described statistical methods in minute detail with recourse to an extensive list of references, but those using qualitative data typically referred to just one or both of the same two methodological sources. No articles included any references to a growing literature on mixed methods, nor did any discuss the kinds of issues typically covered in qualitative and mixed methods articles in other journals. The results of this review have implications for the training of management researchers who currently appear to have a quite limited repertoire of non-statistical methods on which to draw when undertaking their research.