Sandy Q. Qu

The Qualitative Research Interview

Purpose - Despite the growing pressure to encourage new ways of thinking about research methodology, only recently have interview methodologists begun to realize that “we cannot lift the results of interviewing out of the contexts in which they were gathered and claim them as objective data with no strings attached”. The purpose of this paper is to provide additional insight based on a critical reflection of the interview as a research method drawing upon Alvessons discussion from the neopositivist, romanticist and localist interview perspectives. Specifically, the authors focus on critical reflections of three broad categories of a continuum of interview methods: structured, semi-structured and unstructured interviews. Design/methodology/approach - The authors adopt a critical and reflexive approach to understanding the literature on interviews to develop alternative insights about the use of interviews as a qualitative research method. Findings - After examining the neopositivist (interview as a “tool”) and romanticist (interview as “human encounter”) perspectives on the use of the research interview, the authors adopt a localist perspective towards interviews and argue that the localist approach opens up alternative understanding of the interview process and the accounts produced provide additional insights. The insights are used to outline the skills researchers need to develop in applying the localist perspective to interviews. Originality/value - The paper provides an alternative perspective on the practice of conducting interviews, recognizing interviews as complex social and organizational phenomena rather than just a research method.

The Use of Graphics in Promoting Management Ideas: An Analysis of the Balanced Scorecard, 1992-2010

This paper focuses on the role of graphics in the propagation of the balanced scorecard through the persuasive capacity of graphism to “scientize” management ideas. Scientization, through professionalization of knowledge, rationalization of management and the empowerment of human actorhood, is widely seen as an important element in embedding new management concepts, tools and techniques; a determination based on some version of the positivist belief that science offers a privileged access to reality. We demonstrate that the use of graphics has played an important role in promoting the claims made by proponents of the balanced scorecard by portraying the technique as both scientific and as descended from a venerable tradition of knowledge. Specifically, we argue that graphics are mobilized to (1) enable the technique to be portrayed as developing linearly and cumulatively towards the present vantage, from flawed measurement to management break-through, (2) enable promoters of the balanced scorecard to defensibly extend claims about the balanced scorecard (i.e., rationalize management through the visual representation of causality and strategic focus) and (3) open up multiple interpretations and iterations of concepts which aid and enable the empowerment of human actorhood (i.e., management).

Popularizing a Management Accounting Idea: The Case of the Balanced Scorecard

We explore how the Balanced Scorecard (BSC), as a management accounting technique, emerged in local practice and was developed and marketed as a global management practice. Drawing on actor network theory (ANT) the paper offers an analytical history of the BSC, emphasizing how its various features were translated and transformed, that is shaped and solidified, through repeated experimentation that entailed various innovations, modifications, labeling, and specification of abstract categories and cause-effect relations, into its recent forms. The paper also examines the networks and associations that not only shape the form of the BSC but also mobilize the interests of various constituencies around it as a global management technology and the strategies that Kaplan and Norton used to maintain control of this innovation through its continuous reinvention.

Research the American Way: The Role of US Elites in Disseminating and Legitimizing Canadian Academic Accounting Research

This paper examines authorship distribution in a premiere Canadian-based research journal, Contemporary Accounting Research (CAR). It provides empirical evidence of a strong US elite dominance in the research agenda of a non-US research community. This is illustrated through a consistently higher proportion of authorship representation and participation of US elites (measured by doctoral origins) in CAR and its associated Conference. We also found that a small group of Canadian schools (measured by academic affiliations) contributes the most publications to CAR but their representation on the CAR editorial board and participation at the PhD Consortium was limited. We express our concern as to the constructive role of CAR as a top-tier journal in the dissemination of accounting research. We draw upon discussion on a European research tradition (represented by Accounting, Organizations and Society and The European Accounting Review), and its general approach to accounting research, which is perceived as distinct from the US elite approach (Lukka and Kasanen, 1996). Insights gained help widen the acceptable research in top tier journals such as CAR to further its aim to enhance geographical and intellectual diversity.