A New Forum for Advancing Understanding of Research Methods and Practice

• Published date: 01 June 2018
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/emre.12316
• Date: 01 June 2018

A New Forum for Advancing Understanding

of Research Methods and Practice

BILL LEE

Introduction

Welcome to the exciting development marked by

MethodologyMatters. This section of the journal has been

establishedto provide a peer-reviewedoutlet for articles in

the management area that make a methodological

contribution. If the development of business and

management schools and related bodies of knowledge

have been late in many countries when compared to other

social science departments in academe (Ivoryet al., 2006;

Mangematin and Baden-Fuller, 2008; Engwell and

Danell, 2011; Morris, 2011; Currie et al., 2016), the

establishment of the academic superstructure of research

tracks and research journals to support the advancement

of thinking aroundresearch methods and researchpractice

has been even later (Lee and Cassell, 2013).

Unfortunately, the journal quality lists that have been

developed and used to second guess what the outcomes

might be in the research quality audits that are becoming

commonplace in many countries, have a tendency to

provide low rankings for new journals concerned with

methodology, while longer-standing ones with higher

rankings have demonstrated publication patterns that are

skewed towards particular types of methods and

philosophical leanings. There are reasons to believe that

a number of institutionsin Europe and on other continents

follow the practice of many American Ivy League

universities of encouraging their academics to either

publish in a limited number of specified journals, or to

only publish in journals that are ranked highly in such

journal quality lists (Battilana et al., 2010; Grey, 2010;

Khatri et al., 2012; Üsdiken, 2014; Hussain, 2015). A

consequence may be that the development of some

research methods and research practices –along with

our understandingof these methods and approaches- have

been limited by the dearth of highly ranked outlets which

has had a concomitant impact on the conduct of research.

This is likely to stifle innovation and contribute to an

unhealthy levelof standardization (Mingersand Willmott,

2013; see, also, Grey, 2010; Hussain, 2015).

The establishment of a special section in a well-

respected, longstanding and highly-ranked journal like

the European Management Review (EMR) helps to

overcome this problem. EMR has a history of stimulating

debate on methods andresearch approaches (for example,

Patel, 2017; Point et al., 2017). The introduction of the

section Methodology Matters takes this support a step

further by providing a regular outlet for debates on

research methods and research practice. The position of

EMR as the journal of a truly international constituency

–namely the European Academy of Management

(EURAM) –with a readership beyond, means that it is

well positioned to build on the plurality of theoretical,

epistemological, ontological and methodological

approaches that exist to provide a stimulating forum for

advancement of our understanding of the full range of

issues and practices relating to the conduct of research.

In the rest of the introduction to this new section, I intend

to elaborate on the aspirations for the section, to provide

details of the papers that have been accepted for

publication in the section to date and to comment on the

review process to help provide guidance for authors who

are considering submitting their work to Methodology

Matters in the future.

Aspirations for Methodology Matters

Methodology Matters will provide an outlet for novel

discussions and studies relating to any stage of the

conduct of research, from consideration of

epistemological and ontological underpinnings, through

different approaches to literature reviews, ways of

formulatingresearch questions, newmethods of collecting

evidence, analysing that material, theorising from that

evidence, writing about research, evaluating that research

and disseminating findings to academic and other

audiences. Submissions should normally be based on

strong logicalargument, comprehensive literature reviews

of the stage of the research process being discussed and

either appropriate empirical evidence of the research

practice under consideration or detailed illustrations from

experience. As befits the position of EURAM as a

community of engaged scholars, the section will also

welcome papers that consider how to define problems

through engagement with a practitioner audience, the

ways of establishing rapport in the processes of collecting

European Management Review, Vol. 15, 201–204, (2018)

DOI: 10.1111/emre.12316

©2018 European Academy of Management