Mini Tracks – Calls for Papers

Grounded Theory

Critical Theory Research

Teaching Research Methods and Methodologies

Qualitative Data Analysis

Research Methods in Strategy-as-Practice
Reflecting and Researching one’s own Professional Practice

Round table: Research in education forum

Call for papers Mini Track on Grounded Theory as a Research Methodology

Track Chair: Dr George Allan

Grounded Theory is being accepted in more and more academic disciplines as an appropriate research methodology and it is a function of this conference to promote a correct understanding of the techniques and rigour of the methodology through well presented research papers. Such papers are invited in any research area (and  not necessarily restricted to management or business) provided they emphasis the GT methods for the instruction and advancement of attendees. Topics should do any of the following:

§  Illustrate the formation of concepts and/or categories emerging from concepts.

§  Provide a good explanation of theoretical sensitivity in your area.

§  Suggest additions and advances to the basic GT framework.

§  Emphasise the epistemology of their disciplines through GT.

For mini track submission details, see the call for papers page.

George Allan

Call for papers Mini Track on Critical Theory Research

Track Chair: Dr Andrew Armitage

Critical Theory Research (CTR) is an emergent perspective having philosophical foundations within the Critical Management Studies and challenges traditional modes of conducting research within the modernist project. As such, Critical Theory Research is a response to organisational domination and advocates for emancipatory, ethical and creative research practices that upholds the dignity and individual values of those who take part in a research undertaking or project, whether be the researcher or the researched. It is proposed that this mini track will explore alternative approaches of undertaking research that uphold the tenets of Critical Theory and will attract submissions from those who have or are conducting research concerning participatory research methodologies for example action research, gender studies, critical ethnographies, postmodernist perspectives, post-structuralism and organisational power relations. Papers for this mini track can therefore consist of both empirical studies and theoretical/positional papers that explore how Critical Theory Research has and can contribute towards more authentic research practices both in terms of process and ethical considerations.

Topics may include, but are not limited to:

§  Critical perspectives in quantitative, qualitative research and mixed methods research: Approaches, problems and solutions

§  Critical Research: Emancipatory, participatory and democratic  organisational practices  

§  Ethics and critical research

§  Critical research, reflexivity and self

§  Doing critical research: Methodological and methods of enquiry  - insights and perspectives

For mini track submission details, see the call for papers page.

Andrew Armitage

Call for papers Mini Track on Teaching Research Methods and Methodologies

Track co-Chairs: Dr Marie Ashwin and Professor Mark Saunders

The teaching of research methods is a core component of both undergraduate and postgraduate courses.  Over the past decade continued increases in student numbers, class sizes and the reality of relatively inexpensive and easily accessible computer processing power have had significant implications both for how research methods is taught and for what is taught.  In addition to this, the internationalisation of the student population in institutions across the globe requires an awareness of the cultural differences linked to different models of pedagogy.  As we teach and support students within an environment that promotes self-directed learning, there is a need to address the differences between the research activity and their previous academic experiences.

Two core themes run throughout this track.  A range of options are given below but we are happy to consider other topics.

1. The teaching of research methods and methodologies

§  course design and innovative teaching methods (including blended learning and supporting distance learners)

§  data collection and/or analysis techniques

§  research philosophies

2.  Support and guidance throughout the research process

§  avoiding plagiarism

§  supervision at all levels

§  •     integrating research ethics

For mini track submission details, see the call for papers page.

Marie Ashwin


Mark Saunders

Call for papers Mini Track on Qualitative Data Analysis

Track Chair: Dr Marian Carcary

This mini track invites paper submissions that detail researchers’ experiences and the processes used in the analysis of qualitative evidence. While qualitative research is flexible and context sensitive, the extent to which it helps others achieve a better understanding of complex issues depends largely on the researcher’s ability to effectively analyse the large evidence base and his/her ability to produce convincing arguments and explanations that are grounded in the data. The researcher seeks to produce convincing explanations of the phenomenon studied, based on a holistic interpretation of the social understandings captured in the empirical evidence. Thus, conducting qualitative research requires considerable reflection on the researcher’s part and an ability to make a critical assessment of informant’s comments and statements.

Qualitative data analysis is an iterative process that requires reflection and interpretation on several levels. In interpreting the evidence, there are no clear rules and a researcher’s judgement, intuition and ability to highlight issues play an important part in the process. Thus qualitative data analysis is an area that is poorly understood by many postgraduate students and researchers new to the interpretivist paradigm. This mini track aims to stimulate debate among researchers involved in qualitative data analysis and provide guidance to those undertaking qualitative research projects.

Topics include, but are not limited to:

§  Computer Aided Qualitative Data Analysis Software (CAQDAS)

§  Analysing multiple qualitative evidence sources

§  Theory building from qualitative evidence

§  Evaluating qualitative data analysis

§  Lessons learned in qualitative data analysis

§  Qualitative analysis evidence from empirical research

For mini track submission details, see the call for papers page.

Marian Carcary

Call for papers Mini Track on Research Methods in Strategy-as-Practice

Track Chair: Professor Ganesh N. Prabhu

The practice of Strategy-as-Practice research has grown considerably among European researchers in recent years. Since 2003, strategy-as-practice research has used a wide variety of both qualitative and quantitative research methods to effectively examine the micro level activities that result in strategy making within and across organisations. Given that micro processes are of concern to strategy-as-practice researchers, these research methods were essentially adapted from parent disciplines like anthropology and psychology that were developed to examine such micro processes within their discipline. As a consequence, the methods used in strategy-as-practice also carried the underlying assumptions that are drawn from these parent disciplines. However strategy-as-practice places higher priority on activities and practices, instead of individuals and organizations and their processes – therefore the underlying assumptions of fields like anthropology and psychology may well be inappropriate for this field. There has also been some ambiguity about the boundary of the strategy-as-practice field leading to many creative adaptations of research methods over time. The field of strategy-as-practice was too young so far to effectively debate on research methods. It is now an opportune time for scholars of strategy-as-practice to re-examine and debate research method issues in the field and to develop an agenda for spurring growth in research on strategy-as-practice that is grounded firmly on understanding activities and practices, rather than individuals and organizations. We invite scholars from various disciplinary backgrounds to contribute papers that debate these issues and add significantly to our understanding of effective research methods to understand the actions and routines that constitute strategising.

Topics include, but are not limited to:

§  Taking stock of research methods in strategy-as-practice

§  Reflecting on research approaches in strategy-as-practice

§  Practical issues in doing research on strategy-as-practice

§  Qualitative research methods in strategy-as-practice

§  Creativity in research methods in strategy-as-practice

§  Proposing new research approaches for strategy-as-practice

For mini track submission details, see the call for papers page.

Ganesh Prabhu

Call for papers Mini Track on Reflecting and Researching one’s own Professional Practices

Track chair: Dr Jocene Vallack, Central Queensland University, Rockhampton, Australia

Autobiographical research is becoming increasingly defensible as authentic inquiry. Reflecting on one’s own professional experiences, through journals, weblogs, visual, audio or multimedia data repositories, is now encouraged in many work places as a valid means to improving practice. Action Research is one methodology in which reflective practice is embedded. Whereas hard-science statistics are useful for quantifying information, they fail to inform the researcher about other important factors that cannot be measured.

German philosopher, Emmanuel Kant, linked subjective truths to universal phenomena, thus supporting an argument for rigor within first-person research. Narrative Inquiry (Clandinin and Connelly), Heuristic Inquiry (Moustakas), Autoethnography (Boucher and Ellis) and Sub-Phenomenology (Vallack) are just some of the methodologies that depend on the strength of such reflective data.

This mini-track seeks to attract papers that tell the stories of the researchers’ own reflective and interpretive strategies for authentic, first-person research.

In keeping with the affective quality of reflective practice, the methodological journeys and research outcomes may be presented as conventional papers, or in more subjectively expressive, artistic modes – perhaps a play, a poem, a visual representation of the experience?

For mini track submission details, see the call for papers page.

Jocene Vallack

Round table:    Research in education forum: Student performance in higher education: are there alternatives to questionnaires?
Convenor: Dr Wyn Jenkins, Staffordshire University, UK

One of the most important issues that researchers have to consider is the potential impact of the research they carry out.  One area where the impact of research can be visible to academics is the research on those factors which influence student learning and performance.

This is an important area of research for universities and colleges - particularly under the widening participation agenda.  The influential research on student performance carried out in the USA has been largely based in a quantitative positivist tradition, and the debate's emphasis has been about methods within that tradition rather than about research methodology and philosophy. In Europe influential governmental sponsored research, in the further education sector for example, has also been quantitative, but other studies based on qualitative methods have also been significant.

This forum is proposed in order to provide an opportunity for academics to present their experience concerning research processes which are used to inform policy in their own institutions from an informed researcher’s perspective.

Wyn Jenkins

Publication opportunity

Papers accepted for the conference will be published in the conference proceedings, subject to author registration. Selected papers will also be considered for publication in a special issue of the Electronic Journal of Business Research Methods. The latest issue of the journal is available to read online.