Mixed Methods Research Online

ABSTRACTThis paper attempts to evaluate the trajectory of business ethics (BE) research in the realm of healthcare management (HCM) by conducting a quantitative analysis of the BE literature within the scope of HCM. We also aimed at understanding and elucidating the directions that the field was taking, the themes that have been researched, the methodological approaches that have been taken over time and emerging trends. Bibliometric analysis was employed for a systematic review of BE research in HCM. We used articles related to BE in HCM, published in leading BE and HCM journals indexed in SSCI. An overview of the study shows that the number of articles related to BE in the realm of HCM has been increasing and some specific themes have been receiving increasing attention from scientific community. Although there are abundant of empirical studies, advance statistical methods have been used rare. Accordingly, several noteworthy results raised from our analysis. The results of the study demonstrate how the progress of BE research in HCM is for policy makers, researchers, junior scholars and graduate students.

The field of behavioral ethics has seen considerable growth over the last few decades. One of the most significant concerns facing this interdisciplinary field of research is the moral judgment-action gap. The moral judgment-action gap is the inconsistency people display when they know what is right but do what they know is wrong. Much of the research in the field of behavioral ethics is based on (or in response to) early work in moral psychology and American psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg’s foundational cognitive model of moral development. However, Kohlberg’s model of moral development lacks a compelling explanation for the judgment-action gap. Yet, it continues to influence theory, research, teaching, and practice in business ethics today. As such, this paper presents a critical review and analysis of the pertinent literature. This paper also reviews modern theories of ethical decision making in business ethics. Gaps in our current understanding and directions for future research in behavioral business ethics are presented. By providing this important theoretical background information, targeted critical analysis, and directions for future research, this paper assists management scholars as they begin to seek a more unified approach, develop newer models of ethical decision making, and conduct business ethics research that examines the moral judgment-action gap.

This study provides a global perspective on citations of articles published in ten business ethics journals between 1999 and 2012 and establishes three findings. First, the results indicate that Journal of Business Ethics and Business and Society are the two top business ethics journals based on the distribution of normalized citations received. Second, although North America, particularly the US, remains the top producer of business ethics research, it has been surpassed by Europe in terms of weighted normalized research citations received in 2012, implying a potential diminishing global role of US influence in business ethics research over time. Third, the top-ranked US institutions have reduced their business ethics research impact in recent years, while the European institutions have sharply increased theirs.

Using 10 years of publication data (1999-2008) from 10 leading business ethics journals, we examine global patterns of business ethics research and contributing institutions and scholars. Although U.S. academic institutions continue to lead in the contribu- tions toward business ethics research, Asian and European institutions have made significant progress. Our study shows that business ethics research output is closely linked to the missions of the institutions driven by their values or religious belief. An additional analysis of the productivity of each highly ranked institution suggests that business ethics research is highly concentrated in a limited number of eminent scholars within each institution.

In 1989, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada established a strategic research theme on applied ethics -- a theme which has been characterized by its welcome emphasis on the integration of theory and practice and interdisciplinarity. In the six competitions in that theme for research funding, bioethics has received more support than other areas of applied ethics including business ethics. Nonetheless, I argue that Canadian research in business and professional ethics has made significant strides over the past six years.

This article provides a comparative summary of the findings of the survey of Business Ethics as field of Teaching, Training and Research across the four sub-regions in Sub-Saharan Africa (Western Africa, Southern Africa, Eastern Africa and Francophone Africa). The article commences with a discussion on the terminology that is used to refer to Business and Economic Ethics in Sub-Saharan Africa. It then provides an overview of the prevalence and distribution of Business Ethics as field of Teaching, Training and Research in Sub-Saharan Africa that demonstrates the substantial growth in the field of Business Ethics since 2000 when an earlier survey was conducted. The focus areas in the field of Business Ethics are identified as well as the major themes that were found with regard to Teaching, Training and Research in Business Ethics. Also the major challenges that are foreseen in the field of Business Ethics over the next five year are discussed. Finally a number of concluding remarks are made that highlight unique features and challenges in the current state of Business Ethics in Sub-Saharan Africa.Â

How can we ethically include nonhuman animals during methodological considerations in organizational and business ethics research? Additionally, what methodological opportunities and challenges do multispecies research approaches present for these research areas? Building on critical posthumanist theory, the feminist ethic-of-care tradition in animal ethics, and the aesthetics of posthuman methodologies, this article develops a novel avenue for multispecies methodological research that expands current approaches to organizational and business ethics research beyond a purely human-centric lens. Empirical materials include diary excerpts about one author’s daily ethical encounters with her dogs and video clips of dog–human relationships, along with aesthetic reflections from two other researchers. Our reflections are shaped by posthumanist theorizing and critically problematize the seemingly static, anthropocentric categorizations of researcher , positionality , and research participant within the ethically complex context of multispecies research. Beyond discussing our findings in relation to recent business ethics research, we propose a methodological avenue for studying the aesthetic hybridization of humanimal subjectivities, including subtle bodily interactions between dogs and humans. This avenue fosters more aesth-ethically attuned and species-inclusive research methodologies in animal organization studies (AOS) and the broader fields of business ethics and organization studies, which are especially critical in the Anthropocene.

The use of focus groups is a well‐established qualitative research method in the social sciences that would seem to offer scope for a significant contribution to the advancement of knowledge and understanding in the field of business ethics. This paper explores the potential contribution of focus groups, reviews their contribution to date and makes some recommendations regarding their future use. We find that, while the use of focus groups is not extensive, they have been utilised in a non‐negligible number of studies. Focus groups are usually used as a supplementary method, often as part of the development of a research instrument. Whether used on their own or in conjunction with other methods, we find that in the majority of cases there is insufficient information for a reader to judge that the method has been carried out well and hence that the ‘findings’ may be trusted. Nor is it easy for future researchers to learn about the practical application of the method in business ethics contexts. We therefore recommend improved reporting in future published studies. Based on an analysis of a subsample of papers that provided a reasonable level of methodological detail, we provide further insights into, and recommendations for, the use of focus groups in business ethics research.

With growth in the quantity of business ethics journals in recent years, assessments of journal quality are helpful to ethics researchers and administrators, as researchers consider available publication venues, and administrators consider the value of faculty research. The few published evaluations of business ethics journals have predominantly utilized two methods of journal quality determination: citation analysis and surveys of active researchers. This study employs a novel method to assess business ethics journals: 83 Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) business schools provided their internally developed journal lists (IDJ lists) that were used to evaluate faculty research, and the submitted lists were then analyzed for the presence and assessment of business ethics journals. This analysis yielded a ranking of 24 business-ethics-centric (BEC) journals, and this ranking reflects the collective judgments of AACSB business school faculties. The results of this study are pragmatic in that the journal evaluation data employed metrics actually used by business schools to determine the quality of business ethics journals. These findings also provide additional impetus for the recognition of business ethics as a distinct business discipline and business ethics research as a unique field of scholarly endeavor. While studies of business ethics may be influential when they are published in non-BEC journals, such studies may be more powerfully impactful when published in BEC journals.

Requirements for business ethics education and organizational ethics trainings mark an important step in encouraging ethical behavior among business students and professionals. However, the lack of specificity in these guidelines as to how, what, and where business ethics should be taught has led to stark differences in approaches and content. The present effort uses meta-analytic procedures to examine the effectiveness of current approaches across organizational ethics trainings and business school courses. to provide practical suggestions for business ethics interventions and research. Thus, the primary questions driving this research are as follows: (1) what course characteristics moderate the effectiveness of ethics instruction?, and (2) have ethics education and training efforts improved? Findings suggest that professional, focused, and workshop-based training programs are especially effective for improving business ethics. However, results also reveal considerable problems with many of the criteria used to evaluate the effectiveness of business ethics interventions. Practical suggestions for course design and evaluation in business ethics efforts are discussed along with future research needs.

Research in critical business ethics has demonstrated how economic self‐interest is the primary reason that businesses adopt nominally ethical practices. After reviewing this body of research, the authors propose that it can be further developed by questioning its conception of self‐interest, by exploring its non‐economic dimensions and by reconsidering the meaning of the ‘self’ that is said to have such interests. Drawing insights from feminist theory and political theology, the paper interrogates corporate business ethics as a public glorification of corporate power based on a patriarchal conception of the corporation. Genealogically rooted in early Christian ceremonial practices used to glorify God the Father, this is a glorification for the sake of glory rather than just for the sake of commercial ends. The authors further argue that corporate business ethics is rendered as the feminized servant of the sovereign corporate patriarch, always at hand to glorify the master. The meaning of corporate business ethics is hence one where the feminine is not absent, but rather is servile to a masculinity conceived in relation to domination, greatness and sovereignty. Collectively, this shows how the power wielded and desired by corporate business ethics far exceeds the pursuit of financial self‐interest; it is also related to modelling the corporation on a male God. The paper concludes by considering how research in critical business ethics can be extended through forms of inquiry that destabilize the ethical glorification of the corporation, and displace its masculinist privilege.

Mixed method research designs can be extremely useful in extending knowledge in the sales domain. A bevy of mixed method designs are at the disposal of sales researchers seeking to reap the benefits of this combination of research approaches. However, application of mixed methods in sales research has been rather limited, focusing primarily on exploratory sequential designs. The purpose of this article is to provide an exposition of mixed method research in the sales domain and offer avenues of extension that employ underutilized mixed methodological approaches. Accordingly, a definition of mixed methods along with its benefits and drawbacks is espoused followed by guidance in conducting mixed method research. A review of sales-related mixed method studies is then provided and articles containing both quantitative and qualitative methods are analyzed to glean insight on the state of mixed methods research in sales. Future avenues for mixed method research are then provided focusing on best practices and techniques that have yet to be embraced by sales researchers. This article aims to be a resource for sales scholars in expanding the mixed method research paradigm.

We theorize that, in the current development of business ethics, there is a fruitful evolution that dissolves the dichotomy between the normative and behavioral research approaches developed, respectively, by philosophers and social scientists; this approach avoids many of the limitations originated by such distinction by reconnecting their two separate narratives. We call this emerging research model Humanistic Business Ethics (HBE) as it emphasizes the centrality of the human dimension of business and the importance of adopting a richer concept of humanity in business ethics research. We argue that this specific research model in business ethics emerges when scholars combine a pragmatist philosophical approach with some key ideas coming from stakeholder theory, which we summarize and connect. By leveraging collaboration across ethics, economics, psychology, and entrepreneurship, HBE can help business and society scholars undertake fruitful inquiries into the way business works (and should work) at its best.

Ethical considerations in today’s businesses are manifold and range from human rights issues and the well-being of employees to income inequality and environmental sustainability. Regardless of the specific topic being investigated, an integral part of business ethics research consists of deeply comprehending the personal meanings, intentions, behaviors, judgements, and attitudes that people possess. To this end, researchers are often encouraged to use more qualitative methods to understand the dynamic and fuzzy field of business ethics, which involves collecting in-depth information in real time. Qualitative methods in business ethics research, however, raise the two-fold responsibility of not only conducting such investigations fairly and appropriately, but also clearly communicating the research processes and outcomes to readers. Especially leading journals in the field such as Journal of Business Ethics have a responsibility to conduct their business (i.e., the business of high standard publishing) ethically, by making sure that their content represents clear and honest communications of research concerning a wide range of business systems. Unfortunately, the question of how to effectively facilitate transparent insight into the research process of qualitative business ethics studies is still unresolved. Both the lack of a clear communication of methods and results and the iterative nature of qualitative methods often make it difficult for the readers to properly assess a qualitative business ethics study and understand its results. We propose the use of narratives to remedy this situation. Specifically, we suggest a new classification of audits, named second-party audits, to facilitate a better understanding of research procedures ex-post for the readers. To illustrate this new narrative-based reconceptualization of audits, we use Agatha Christie’s detective novel The Murder on the Links as a frame of reference.

Triangulation is a measurement technique often used by surveyors to locate an object in space by relying on two known points in order to ‘‘triangulate’’ on an unknown fixed point in that same space. Early on, social scientists borrowed the concept of triangulation to argue for its use in the validation process in assessing the veracity of social science research results. There are alternative perspectives on the use of triangulation that argue for its usefulness as a ‘‘dialectical’’ process whose goals seek a more in-depth nuanced understanding of research findings and clarifying disparate results by placing them in dialogue with one another. This special issue of the Journal of Mixed Methods Research (JMMR) analyzes and explores the variety of ways triangulation is used in mixed methods research and the range of issues and controversies surrounding triangulation praxis. To date, there are few scholarly in-depth discussions of its deployment in mixed methods research. The choice of triangulation as the topic for this first special issue of JMMR is based on the claims made by many scholars in the field that triangulation provides a justification for the use of mixed methods. The contributors to this volume raise many questions about the meaning of triangulation, its philosophical positioning in the mixed methods community, and strategies for using triangulation in the design of mixed methods studies, analysis and interpretation of data, and making visible subjugated voices. They take provocative positions, suggesting that qualitative, constructivist, and interpretive pathways provide greater potential for research to address the social good than has been possible using mixed methods approaches that are more closely aligned with the postpositivist paradigm. They revisit the ‘‘paradigm wars’’ and ask this question: Are we still stuck with the incompatibility thesis that paralyzed advances in mixed methods in past decades? They explore and critique the potential of alternative methodologies for harnessing the synergy that is said to lie in the application of mixed methods research designs by asking another set of questions: Have members of the mixed methods community done an injustice to pragmatism as a philosophical frame for mixed methods? Is qualitatively framed mixed methods the way forward? Is it possible that qualitatively framed mixed methods are better suited to the ability of mixed methods researchers to demonstrate a causal relationship between variables? How and when should triangulation be brought into mixed methods research to obtain a more nuanced