The acceptance of mixed methods in business and management research

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine the prevalence of mixed methods research across several business and management fields and to gauge the level of acceptance of mixed methods within these fields.Design/methodology/approachThe methodology employed for this study involved synthesizing the findings from six large‐scale methodological scans of business and management discipline journals in seven fields: marketing, international business, strategic management, organizational behaviour, operations management, entrepreneurship and human resource management.FindingsThe study finds that quantitative studies dominate all seven fields (76 per cent of empirical articles) followed by mixed methods (14 per cent of empirical articles) and qualitative studies (10 per cent of empirical articles). In applying the framework for acceptance levels, it would seem there exists minimal acceptance of mixed methods across these fields.Research limitations/implicationsThe study has limitations related to the coverage of different disciplines and differences in sample sets. More extensive research is planned for the future and will involve an expanded mixed method prevalence rate study across additional business and management fields.Practical implicationsThe growing use of mixed methods has practical implications for research training and capacity building within business schools. The study points to the need to develop research capacity through the introduction of postgraduate courses in mixed methods and advanced research skills training for existing researchers.Originality/valueMixed methods is a relatively new and emerging methodological movement. This paper attempts to gauge the use and level of acceptance of mixed methods across a diverse range of business and management discipline areas.

Mixed Methods Use in Project Management Research

“…Overall, only 1.5% of the sample articles could be found to be using mixed methods over the period sampled. This is low compared with what was found in management journals in earlier research, as depicted in Table (Cameron & Molina‐Azorin, ), where mixed methods articles represented 14% of all empirical articles reported across the six discipline‐based mixed methods prevalence studies. For example, international business and strategic management journals had 17% mixed methods articles and the lowest rates were for organizational behavior, with 7.5% rate.…”

“…Cameron and Molina‐Azorin () investigated the acceptance of mixed methods in business and management research by synthesizing the results of several mixed methods prevalence studies across the following disciplines: marketing, international business, operations management, entrepreneurship, strategic management, and organizational behavior (see Cameron & Molina‐Azorin for details about actual journals used in these studies). All the studies endeavored to discover the extent and the current role mixed methods plays in business/management fields through a process of content analysis of empirical studies published in discipline‐based academic journals.…”

“…Cameron and Molina‐Azorin () identified disciplines where the reporting of mixed methods was minimal (organizational behavior and entrepreneurship), and where it was more prevalent than qualitative research (strategic management, marketing, and international business). They found quantitative methods (76%) dominated across the disciplines reported for all the studies, with mixed method studies representing 14% and qualitative studies representing 10% of all the empirical articles, respectively.…”

“…The dissection chart described is very thorough and assisted the authors in deciding to use this evaluative framework over the others mentioned above. Cameron and Molina-Azorin (2011) investigated the acceptance of mixed methods in business and management research by synthesizing the results of several mixed methods prevalence studies across the following disciplines: marketing, international business, operations management, entrepreneurship, strategic management, and organizational behavior (see Cameron & Molina-Azorin for details about actual journals used in these studies). All the studies endeavored to discover the extent and the current role mixed methods plays in business/management fields through a analysis should then begin using the criteria listed below: model research design, which has been chosen for this research: "In this type of design multiple approach questions are asked.…”

Identifying interesting project phenomena using philosophical and methodological triangulation

“…This is typically done using mixed-methods studies,-an approach increasingly popular in recent years. Cameron and Molina-Azorin (2011) estimate that about 14% of business and management studies use mixed methods. However, in project management research, this number is as small as 1.5% (Cameron et al, 2015), indicating that the vast majority of researchers use a singular paradigm to understand a phenomenon under study, which does not align with the practitioners' perspectives.…”