HoW to traNsForm Qualitative data iNto meaNiNgFul QuaNtitative results ** abstract in proposing a procedure for transforming qualitative data into quantitative results, we address the manifold requests for discovery-oriented research in the business disciplines. We present a systematic classification of combined qualitative-quantitative research designs and argue in favor of the generalization model. We give guidelines for its implementation and provide a blueprint for systematically converting respondents' words into numbers that can be used for further (statistical) analyses. We delimit and discuss the stages of unitization, categorization, and coding. We also raise quality issues and propose relevant quality criteria in the transformation process. in particular, we suggest the intercoder consistency-matrix for determining the incisiveness of categories developed through content analysis. Finally, we demonstrate in an exemplary study how the blueprint can be applied and highlight the benefits of the proposed research design.Jel-Classification: M19.

Located at the crossroads of the Eastern and Western world, Turkey today is characterized by a demographically versatile and modernizing society as well as a rapidly developing economy. Currently, the country is negotiating its accession to the European Union. This article yields some factual grounding into the ongoing value-related debate concerning Turkey’s potential EU-membership. It describes a mixed-methodology study on moral reasoning in Austria and Turkey. In this study, the arguments given by individuals when evaluating ethically problematic situations in business were compared. Although there were major consistencies, a number of differences were found. These differences, however, were not in the substance (categories) of arguments used but in their relative frequency. Overall, our findings suggest that young, well-educated urban individuals from Western Christian and Eastern Islamic countries are highly consistent in their moral reasoning. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2007cross-cultural comparison, moral reasoning, empirical study, mixed methodology,

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