Arena of Qualitative Reserching - Article

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Accountancy Journal 5th Volume, December 2007 (Research Experienced 1998)

Arena of qualitative researching: evidence from a small

entrepreneurial business

K.H.U.D. Nandana Kumara

Senior Lecturer in Management Accountancy

Head Department of Accountancy

Faculty of Business Studies and Finance

Wayamba University of Sri Lanka

Abstract

Provides a detailed description of the qualitative research process experienced by the

author when undertaking M.Sc. Management research. Recognizing that there are fewarticles to guide the qualitative small firm researcher, it is the intention to provide a

detailed account of the process involved when undertaking qualitative small firm

research. From a discussion of the factors that convinced the author of the

appropriateness of a qualitative approach, to a consideration of the outcomes

generated, this paper guides the reader through the process of qualitative data

collection and inductive analysis experienced by the author. In so doing, it

demonstrates the value of using such an approach when undertaking small firms

research.

Article type: Qualitative/Proportional/Evaluation

Keywords: Smallness, Management Control, Small Entrepreneurial Business

Introduction

Small and Medium size Entrepreneurial Businesses are today widely spreading

throughout the world, but it is now recognized that small firm research is at too

"young" a stage in its development to benefit from a positivist research approach that

encourages the use of quantitative methods of scientific inquiry (Aldrich, 1992;

Bygrave, 1989; Churchill and Lewis, 1986; Sexton, 1986). Consequently, a review of

recent small Entrepreneurial Businesses literature reveals researchers' emerging

preference for phenomenological approaches to small Entrepreneurial Businesses

studies that employ qualitative methods of collecting and analyzing empirical data.

While depth-interviews, participant observation and conversation, for example, have

become popular tools for collecting data rich in detail about small Entrepreneurial

Businesses (Holliday, 1992), few researchers provide detailed accounts of the

qualitative research process. Particularly, there is a scarcity of literature available to

offer advice on the inductive analysis of qualitative data. While this gap in small

Entrepreneurial Business firm literature can, in part, be explained by the emergent,

iterative nature of the qualitative research process (Bechoffer, 1974; Gill and Johnson,

1991), it is important that qualitative researchers make explicit the process involved in

their collection and analysis of data. By failing to do so, small firm researchers

employing qualitative methods do little to encourage theory development or progresscurrent knowledge and understanding about small firms.

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The purpose of this paper is to provide a detailed description of the qualitative

research process experienced by the author when undertaking M.Sc. Management

research. Specifically, it is intended that the contents of this paper will be of particular

benefit to small Entrepreneurial Business firm researchers considering, for the first

time, the use of a qualitative research methodology. From a discussion of those factorswhich convinced the author of the appropriateness of a qualitative research approach,

to the need for a flexible research design, this paper will provide a detailed description

of the process and decisions involved in an example of qualitative small firm research.

Moreover, by commenting on the research outcomes that emerged, this paper

demonstrates the value of the qualitative approach adopted for this small firm study.

Before describing the substantive research problem addressed, it is useful to consider

the nature of small Entrepreneurial Business firms research and the implications this

has for the research approaches and methods best suited to their scientific study.

Relative to other fields, small Entrepreneurial Business firms have only recently

become an area of academic interest. Churchill and Lewis (1986, p. 335) argue that assmall firms research "is a field in which the underlying concepts have not been

adequately defined", the primary concern of researchers should be theory

development, not theory testing. Similarly, Bygrave (1989, p. 23) contends that the

emerging nature of small Entrepreneurial Business firms research demands that a

qualitative approach that encourages the development of practical and

theoretical understanding and the generation of new and alternative theories and

concepts is appropriate. Specifically, he argues that "at the beginnings of a

paradigm, inspired induction (or more likely enlightened speculations) applied to

exploratory, empirical research may be more useful than deductive reasoning from

them". Continuing, he recommends that the "emphasis in an emerging paradigm

should be on empirical observations with exploratory, or preferably grounded

research, rather than testing hypotheses deduced from flimsy terms". Churchill and

Lewis (1986) go further and warn that without existing theories grounded in empirical

observations, the use of hypo-deductive approaches to understanding small

Entrepreneurial Business firms will restrict the generation of knowledge about their

processes, activities and outcomes. Also impacting upon the selection of an

appropriate research paradigm from which to approach their scientific inquiry are the

research "subjects" involved in small firms. As small Entrepreneurial Business firm

research involves the study of human action and behavior, it is essentially concerned

with the nature of reality in the social world. In contrast to the natural world, the

human "subjects" of the social world possess the ability to think for themselves,comprehend their own behaviour and have an opinion about the social world of which

they are a part (Bryman, 1988; Gill and Johnson, 1991; Laing, 1967; Schutz, 1967).

Consequently, the study of small Entrepreneurial Business firms cannot be

approached from the exterior standpoint demanded by the positivist approach (Gill

and Johnson, 1991). Instead, researchers need to adopt an approach that allows

them to "get close" to participants, penetrate their internal logic and interpret

their subjective understanding of reality. Moreover, as the social world cannot be

reduced to isolated variables, it must be observed in its totality. Specific to small firms

research, Churchill and Lewis (1986, p. 384) argue that the reduction of the process of

creating, developing and growing small Entrepreneurial Business firms to individuallymeasurable variables, "unfortunately ignore(s) real problems in order to fit neat

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packages". Others agree that by stripping small firm problems of the context within

which they occur naturally, the findings produced by positivist approaches are

generalized only to the extent that the conditions under which data are collected exist

in the social world (cf. Aldrich, 1992; Borch and Arthur, 1995; Brown and Butler,

1995).

The young and emergent nature of small Entrepreneurial Business firms, combined

with the unique characteristics of the human participants involved in their research

suggest that a qualitative approach which allows small firms to be viewed in their

entirety and permits researchers to get close to participants, penetrate their realities

and interpret their perceptions, is appropriate. Responding to this, qualitative research

designs and methods of data collection and analysis have become increasingly

popular with small Entrepreneurial Business firm researchers. Despite this, few small

Entrepreneurial Business firm researchers have sought to provide detailed

descriptions of the processes by which qualitative data are collected, analyzed and

interpreted. Because of this gap in the small firm research literature, this paper now

introduces the substantive research problem before detailing the flexible researchdesign and the process of collecting and analyzing qualitative data.

The research problem

The substantive topic selected by the researcher was the Management Control

Practice in an Entrepreneurial Business: Longitudinal Case Study. In selecting a

research paradigm from which to approach and design this study, both the nature of

the substantive research problem and the aims and objectives of the research were

considered.

Nature of the substantive topic

This study attempts to review and understand management and accounting control

systems in practice in an uncertain context. A number of studies have addressed the

issue (Lowe and Machin, 1983 and A.J. Berry et al 1985). However, there is little

studies carried out extend these discussions and beyond the Western context. The

present study investigates the nature of management control systems of a food

manufacturing company named Multi Food Products Limited (MFPL) in Sri Lanka.

The study focuses on the areas of financial and production control systems, marketing

strategies, man - power planning and organizational structure in particular. It is

intended to understand the ways in which control operated in the company and toexplore explanations of why the system of control worked in the ways that they

appeared to do. The nature of small Entrepreneurial Business firms in general and the

implications that this has for the research approach adopted have been considered

above. Specific to the substantive topic selected, the qualitative paradigm was

identified as appropriate. One reason for this is that the study of the impact which

management controls have on the development of small Entrepreneurial Business

firms involves exploring relationships shared between overlapping social phenomena.

The fluctuating structure and emerging composition of social networks (Mitchell,

1969, 1973) together with the complexities inherent in social relationships and the

context-specific processes typical of social networks (Dubini and Aldrich, 1991;

Mitchell, 1969, 1973), dictated that an approach that considered the substantive problem in its entirety was appropriate. A second reason is that the qualitative

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paradigm recommends that researchers observe human behavior and action as it

occurs in "mundane" everyday life (Schutz, 1967).

Aims and objectives of the research

The aims and objectives of any research project are largely determined by how muchis already known about the topic selected. Consequently, the extent to which existing

knowledge and understanding can be used to develop hypotheses which can be

confirmed or refuted must be considered (Easterby-Smith et al., 1991; Patton, 1987).Before establishing the aims and objectives of the substantive research problem, a

comprehensive review of existing literature pertaining to small Entrepreneurial

Business firms' management and accounting controls was undertaken. This

established that while much is known about the structural dimensions of such

controls, little is known or understood about the international dimensions which

controls also possess (Mitchell, 1969, 1973). One of the reasons suggested for this

paucity of knowledge is that the study of interactional network dimensions involves a

research approach different from that which has traditionally been used in smallEntrepreneurial Business firm network research (Aldrich et al., 1989; Blackburn etal., 1990; Curran et al., 1993; Curran and Blackburn, 1992; Dubini and Aldrich, 1991;Joyce et al., 1995; Ramachandran et al., 1993). Aldrich et al. (1989), for example,

recommend that if an understanding of the processes and dynamics involved in small

firm management and accounting controls is to be generated, a research approach

which guides the use of qualitative methods of data collection and analysis must be

adopted. Similarly, Curran et al. (1993, pp. 1-2) assert that "studies of small businessnetworks and networking have employed relatively simple conceptualizations of

`network' and correspondingly simple research designs". They recommend that

"different research strategies to the mainly variable centered, `counting' approaches

employed in most network research involving small firms" should be designed within

the guidance of a qualitative paradigm. Specifically they advise that if a deeper

understanding of small firm networks is to be generated, "a more qualitative approach

will be required than that which has previously been utilized". They argue that this is

because the contents and outcomes of small firms' involvement in social networks can

only are understood in terms of what their participants identify these networks as

containing. Consideration then of what is currently known and understood about small

firm networks suggested that a positivist approach has encouraged a concentration on

their structural dimensions, to the neglect of their interaction of dimensions. Specific

to the research problem, consideration of previous research revealed that existing

knowledge and understanding about small firm networks was too scant to permit theproposition of hypothetical statements about the impact which social networks have

upon the development of small Entrepreneurial Business firms. Because of this, the

research was guided by the aim of:

Exploring the impact that the accounting and management controls in which

small Entrepreneurial Business firms are embedded have upon their

development.

Series of objectives emerge

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The aims and objectives of any research project are largely determined by how much

is already known about the topic selected. Consequently, the extent to which existing

knowledge and understanding can be used to develop hypotheses, which can be

confirmed or refuted, must be considered (Easterby-Smith et al., 1991; Patton, 1987).

Before establishing the aims and objectives of the substantive research problem, acomprehensive review of existing literature pertaining to firms management control

was undertaken. Therefore, after careful consideration of research problem, the

following objectives of this study are determined.

1. To examine the current state of the companys management control

system

2. To identify the, constraints and limitations of applying orthodox

models when establishing management control system in an uncertain

context

3. To explain the gap between real control practices and the orthodox

models.

Consideration then of the substantive topic and the exploratory nature of the research

identified a qualitative research approach which allowed the researcher to view the

research problem in its entirety, get close to participants, penetrate their realities and

interpret their perception as appropriate.

Research design

Exploratory study can be employed in this type of qualitative researching paradigms.

Having selected a qualitative research paradigm to guide the exploratory study of theimpact which management and accounting controls have on the development of small

Entrepreneurial Business firms, a flexible research design which would allow findings

to "unfold, cascade and emerge" (Lincoln and Guba, 1986, p. 210) was developed.

Characteristic of exploratory research conducted within a qualitative paradigm, the

methodology was designed to allow the researcher to build rich descriptions of the

context within which case-firms' networks were developed, created and maintained

which "fitted and worked" participants' perspectives (Glaser and Strauss, 1967). As

such, the design used to guide the collection and analysis of data had to be flexible

enough to permit the researcher to uncover and explore issues which emerged as

interesting and potentially capable of understanding the substantive research problem.

However, as it is "impossible to embark upon research without some idea of what oneis looking for" (Wolcott, 1994, p.157), decisions regarding the unit of analysis and the

methods used to collect qualitative data were taken prior to the researcher's entry into

the field.

Birds Eye on to Unit of study

As this research was interested in the impact which management and accounting

controls have upon the development of small Entrepreneurial Business firm, small

food manufacturing concern was selected as the case firm and a grounded definition

of "smallness" was used (Curran et al., 1993). Patton (1987, p. 51) asserts that the key

factor in selecting and making decisions about the appropriate unit of analysis is todecide "what unit it is that you want to be able to say something about". By

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investigating the ways in which those involved: the CEO and Managers of case-firms,

their employees and other stakeholders in the food manufacturing industry conceived

of firm size, it was established that "small" food manufacturing firms employ no more

than fifty staff including owners, and are independently owned and managed. In

considering those firms to be involved it was decided that convenience and purposive

rather than random sampling would be an effective way of selecting case-firms "rich"in data pertinent to understanding the research problem (Marshall and Rossman,

1995). While the logic of probabilistic sampling lies in "selecting a truly random and

representative sample which will permit confident generalisations from the sample to

a larger population" (Patton, 1987, p. 51), the logic of convenience sampling is suited

to research with different aims. Its power lies in the selection of cases "rich" in

information about the substantive research problem. As such, convenience sampling

was suited to developing a comprehensive understanding of the impact which

management and accounting controls have on the development of small

Entrepreneurial Business firms. To ensure that participating case-firms would be rich

in data about the management and accounting control in which they were embedded,

criterion sampling tactics were used (Patton, 1987). It was decided that the followingset of pre-determined criteria would help the researcher, when in the field, make

objective decisions about the firms she approached, so ensuring that a purposive

sample of case-firms participated:

(1) case-firm acquired the largest market share within short period of time;

(2) case-firm has link with the researcher;

(3) case-firm satisfied the grounded definition of a "smallness";

(4) case-firm were located within daily traveling distance of the researcher;

(5) case-firm had been trading for a minimum of 6 years;

(6) case-firm produces instent food items is in connection with the social

responsible manner;

The lengthy and detailed study of data-rich cases involved in convenience sampling

has implications for the number of participating cases. Specifically, convenience

sampling demands that if the researcher is to develop a comprehensive understanding

of the research problem, the number of cases involved must be significantly less than

when using probabilistic sampling (Easterby-Smith et al., 1991). When usingconvenience sampling, the number of participating cases is not determined in advance

of the researcher's entry to the field (Maykut and Morehouse, 1994). Instead, as the

research progresses and inductive analysis of data identifies common themes and

patterns with the potential for understanding the research problem, the number ofparticipating cases is determined by the extent to which the collection of data from an

additional case will contribute to that understanding. Glaser and Strauss (1967)

recommend that when the themes and issues in which the researcher is interested

become "saturated", meaning that no new data are being found from the participation

of additional case-firm, no further cases should be approached and the process of data

collection should come to an end. Particular to this study, saturation of the common

themes and patterns occurred when five small graphic design agencies had become

involved in the study.

Justification of the sample

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The use of a sample of this size was justified by the logic of convenience sampling.

As a sampling strategy that permits the researcher to spend lengthy periods of time

with individual cases, convenience sampling encourages the collection of data rich in

detail about the substantive research problem. Consequently, the criteria used to

assess the findings generated differ from those applied when using probabilisticsampling (Lincoln and Guba, 1986; Yin, 1994). While the value of the latter is judged

by the degree to which they can be generalized to the wider population, the value of

the understanding which emerges from the detailed study of a convenience sample of

small firm is properly determined by the degree to which it "fits, contribution,

responses and works" with the perspectives of participants (Glaser and Strauss, 1967).

Methodology

The subjective epistemology of the qualitative research paradigm views social reality

as constructed by humans and maintains that if it is to be understood, the researcher

cannot remain distant from and uninvolved in the social phenomenon in which theyare interested. The researcher's decision to use him self as the "instrument" for

collecting data was influenced by the qualitative research approach adopted and the

exploratory nature of the research. Instead, they must adopt a role, such as "researcher

as instrument for data collection", which allows them to get close enough to social

subjects to be able to discover, interpret and understand participants' perspectives of

social reality. For this reason, the researcher decided that by collecting the data him

self, he would be able to meet the aims and objectives of the research and develop a

grounded understanding of small firm management control practices. The selection of

methods that the "researcher as instrument" used to collect data was also influenced

by the qualitative approach and exploratory nature of the research question. Research

conducted within the qualitative paradigm is characterized by its commitment to

collecting data from the context in which social phenomena naturally occur and to

generating an understanding which is grounded in the perspectives of research

participants (Bryman, 1988; Lofland, 1971; Marshall and Rossman, 1995; Miles and

Huberman, 1994). This means that the methods used in qualitative research must

allow the researcher to enter into the social world in which they are interested

and to have an empathetic understanding of participants' experiences of the

social phenomenon under investigation. The collection of social data, then, is best

conducted in the environment in which social phenomena naturally occur and the

methods used must be open and attentive to the internal logic of participants.

Consequently, it was decided that data would be collected from participants in their

natural environments. Specifically, data were collected on the participants' work

premises and, outside of working hours, at neutral places of convenience suggested by

participants. It was also important that the researcher did not impose his external logic

on the behaviors that he was investigating. (Aldrich and Zimmer, 1986; Aldrich et al.,1989; Birley, 1985; Birley et al., 1990). Instead, methods that allowed data to becollected from participants in their working environments, captured data rich in detail

about the research problem and gave the researcher the flexibility to explore issues

raised by participants were selected. Data were collected during depth, unstructured

and semi-structured interviews with owners and staff and also during conversations

and participant observation. The method by which data were collected dictated theway in which they were recorded. While depth interviews were recorded on tape for

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later transcription, data collected during observations and conversations were not

recorded until the researcher had left the field and his notes were written-up.

Data analysis

The process of analyzing the data collected for this study was characterized by thefact that it began as soon as the researcher started collecting data, it was ongoing and

it was inductive. As soon as the researcher began the process of collecting data, he

simultaneously engaged in analyzing and interpreting the perspectives of those he was

talking with and observing. This early and ongoing analysis was necessary for a

number of reasons. By overlapping the phases of data collection and analysis, the

researcher was able to "adjust his observation strategies, shifting some emphasis

towards those experiences which bore upon the development of his understanding,

and generally, to exercise control over his emerging ideas by virtually simultaneously

`checking' or `testing' these ideas" (Marshall and Rossman, 1995, p. 103) with the

collection of further data. Also, this concurrency of data collection and analysis suited

the fluctuating and emergent nature of the management and accounting controls being

explored. On a practical level, the "sheer massive volumes of information" (Patton,

1987, p. 297), generated by the qualitative methods used, demanded that analysis was

not delayed until the completion of the collection of primary data. As the aim of the

research was to generate a comprehensive understanding of the research problem,

"rather than forcing the data within logic-deductively derived assumptions and

categories" (Jones, 1985, p. 25), it was important that data were inductively analyzed.

By organizing and structuring data according to the issues and topics which

participants identified as being important to understanding small firm networks, a

grounded understanding which "derived from the concepts and categories which

social actors used to interpret and understand their worlds" (Jones, 1985, p. 25) wasacquired. The inductive analysis of data was guided by the literature on grounded

theory (Easterby-Smith et al., 1991; Glaser and Strauss, 1967; Lofland, 1971;

Marshall and Rossman, 1995; Strauss and Corbin, 1990). This literature recommends

that the inductive analysis of qualitative data involves: the reading and re-reading of

transcripts and field notes (Easterby-Smith et al., 1991); the use of codes to bring

order, structure and meaning to raw data (Strauss and Corbin, 1990); the constant

comparison of the codes and categories which emerge with subsequent data collected

and also with concepts suggested by the literature (Glaser and Strauss, 1967) and, the

search for relationships among emerging categories of data (Marshall and Rossman,

1995). There are, however, no "formulas or cookbook recipes" (Yin, 1994, p.102) to

advise on the "correct" or "best" way of inductively analyzing qualitative data.Specific to qualitative studies of the small firm, when reporting on the outcomes of

their work, few researchers detail the exact procedures and scheduling of activities

involved in their inductive analysis of qualitative data.

Analysis on-site-at visit

This first phase in inductive analysis occurred while in the field. The early collection

of data was guided by the researcher's pre-understanding (Gummesson, 1991) of

small food manufacturing company and the aim of "exploring the impact that the

management and accounting controls in which small firm is embedded have upon

their development". At this stage, depth interviews were kept open to the collection ofinteresting responses and perspectives around which further data collection could

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focus. The tape recording of interviews allowed the researcher to make written as well

as mental notes of any analysis he made during interviews. This also permitted him to

identify particular responses to probe further during that interview or at a later date.

Running the data open-and putting into proper way

Immediately after depth interviews and observations were transcribed and recorded,

any analysis made was typed onto the transcript or written into the field notes. This

second stage in inductive analysis involved reading and re-reading the transcripts and

field notes made so far. This served two related purposes. The first was to familiarize

the researcher with the data (Easterby-Smith et al., 1991) and the second was to start

the process of structuring and organizing the data into meaningful units. The

familiarity created by reading and re-reading transcripts and field notes heightened the

researcher's awareness of the "patterns, themes and categories" (Patton, 1987, p. 150)

of meanings existing in the data and focused her attention on these. The purpose of

running the data open at this stage in analysis was to take the data apart and then piece

them together in a number of ways, each of which was potentially important tounderstanding the research problem (Strauss and Corbin, 1990). By making several

copies of the transcripts and field notes collected so far, the researcher attached

"open" codes, to those sections containing data which appeared to be important for

understanding the impact which management and accounting controls have on the

development of small firms. These sections were then pulled together into meaningful

units, around which the collection of further data was planned to establish whether

these units were in fact important to understanding the research problem. In this way,

some chunks of data were coded in a variety of ways, others were discarded on the

grounds that they were not relevant to the study and, as a whole, the data collected so

far were reduced to a more manageable level. A second activity carried out at this

stage was the writing of memos. These written notes were referred to at later stages of

analysis to remind the researcher of the reasons why certain chunks of data were

coded in particular ways and pulled together into organized, meaningful units. These

memos additionally reminded the researcher of the logic of the interpretations that she

had made at this early stage in his analysis.

Focusing inductive analysis

The method of analysis used during this stage is called the "constant comparative

method" (Glaser and Strauss, 1967). This method involved the researcher repeating

the process of reading and re-reading transcripts and field notes and constantlycomparing the data collected during this phase with sections labeled with open codes

during previous analysis. By systematically comparing the similarities and differences

between sections of coded data, some codes were disregarded as irrelevant to the

study, others were expanded upon and additional codes emerged. Coded sections were

then pulled together into different categories or "families" of codes. Included in each

category were "slices of data" (Glaser and Strauss, 1967) exhibiting an "internal

homogeneity" which held them together in a meaningful way (Patton, 1987). As the

categories used exhibited "external heterogeneity", they provided a structure to the

sections of coded data meaningful to understanding small firm management and

accounting control. This process of focused data collection and constant comparison

of coded sections of data continued until coded sections became saturated, that is, nonew patterns or themes emerged. At this stage, analysis moved from open codes to

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focus on "core" codes and categories of codes central to understanding the substantive

topic, around which deeper analysis and interpretation concentrated.

Analyzing in the sense of Deep

Having grouped homogeneous slices of data into core categories and organized codeddata into a meaningful structure, the analysis was deepened by interpreting the

relationships between core categories and seeking to explain why these relationships

existed. By interpreting the structure that had emerged and re-evaluating relationships

between categories of data, a cohesive integration of categories, which provided an

understanding of small firm management and accounting controls which "fitted" and

"worked" with the data, emerged from this deeper analysis. In interpreting, re-

evaluating and conceptualizing relationships between categories of data, the constant

comparative method of analysis was used once again. During this stage, the researcher

engaged in the prolonged and systematic search for similarities and differences

between the slices of data contained within different categories and between core

categories and concepts and theories existing in the literature. The purpose of thesecomparisons was to understand the meaning and nature of these relationships and

resulted in some categories being disregarded on the grounds that, when analyzed

more closely, they did not fit and work with the understanding that was emerging.

This systematic comparison of categories with relevant concepts in the small firm

management and accounting control literature was important for two reasons.

(1) First, comparisons between existing concepts and theories with the

relationships that had emerged between categories of empirical data

were useful in re-evaluating the reasons why these relationships

existed.

(2)Second, comparisons with the concepts and theories used in relevant

small firm management and accounting control literature revealed the

extent to which the understanding of small firms which emerged from

this in-depth, qualitative study had contributed to current knowledge

and understanding of the substantive area.

Presentation of findings

This final stage concerned presenting the findings that emerged from the process

described above to each of the owner-managers participating in the study. These were

conveyed to owner-managers in the form of a case-study report. The purpose of presenting findings to owner-managers was threefold. First, to ensure that the

understanding that had emerged from the analysis so far was a valid representation of

the perspectives of participants, it was necessary to present this understanding to

them. In this way, research findings were given "social validity" (Adam and

Schvaneveldt, 1985), that is, owner-managers confirmed that the understanding of

small firm networks presented to them was plausible as it was a reflection of the

perceptions which they had about small firm management and accounting controls.

Related to this, by presenting his understanding of the research problem to each of the

participating owner-managers, the researcher received feedback and, in view of any

comments made, was able to re-evaluate his understanding if necessary. By creating a

situation in which research findings could be discussed with each of the owner-managers, the researcher was able to ensure that he had correctly identified

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meaningful and insightful themes in the data and that the relationships between

categories and the understanding which had emerged were valid. The third reason was

that, as the researcher had promised each of the owner-managers involved a copy of

research findings, it was important that she maintained relationships with respondents

and fulfilled his promise. Discussions held with participants at this stage established

that the researcher had been successful in acquiring an understanding of the impactwhich social networks have on the development of small firms which was

representative of the perspectives of participants. Subsequently, the researcher was

able to produce a thesis which provides a valid understanding of the research problem

which it addresses (Shaw, 1997).

Research outcomes

This study aimed at understanding a particular management control practices in a

specific context operating in an uncertain context. The fundamental questions being

posed were: (i) how do organizations initiate accounting and control systems? (ii) how

do such systems evolve over time? (iii) what roles do they play in an organizational

crisis? and (iv) how do organizational actions become disconnected from such

systems? These questions are meant for telling a story (Ramstad, 1986) about a kind

of management control system in which accounting controls play a major role. To

pursue this exercise, accounting has been viewed as social and institutional practice,

(Hopwood, and Miller, 1996). This implicates that though accounting, at its surface, is

seen as a technical activity, it has to be processed in a social and organizational

context in which real accounting naturally emerge with unexpected outcomes. These

outcomes are quite different from what is seen from a technical perspective (Hopper

and Powell, 1985). The story that has been told in the name of a dissertation is for

justifying this reality about accounting and management control practices.

To demonstrate the value of the approach and methods described, it is useful to

provide some brief insights into the research outcomes which emerged. The context in

this regard has been defined as uncertain. Contingency-like management theories

(Woodward, 1965, Gordon and Miller, 1976, Khandawalla, 1975) have viewed

contexts as a set of contingent factors such as environment, technology, and culture.

They have failed to understand that these factors are a part of the organization itself

as social and organizational arrangements are always coming together through

unlimited interactions as a complex web of socio-political and cultural phenomena.

Contingency theorists have mistakenly understood these factors as separately

quantifiable variables for measuring and establishing statistical relationships. Thepresent study has realized that this is a game played with artificial data.

Keeping this ontological position in the mind, I went on to take a post-positivistic

epistemology for exploring the social and organizational reality on management and

accounting controls. Several implications emerge from our experience with

qualitative methods beyond those discussed in the preceding chapters. To begin with

for exploring the emergent view that accounting is complicit in the social construction

of reality, one can find there are a number of interpretive approaches that offer a

strong potential for providing different insights into the interrelationships among

accounting, organizations and society. These approaches help one pursue the

phenomenon of interest, even though some compel awareness that their applicationjoins the researcher as researcher and as subject party to the social construction and

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the alteration of a social reality. I think that one should employ a number of differing

perspectives, possibly in dialectic tension with one another. I also believe that it is

premature either to dismiss any perspectives or to advance any single approach as

clearly superior (compare Willmott, 1983; Chua, 1986a, b). Moreover, researchers

engaged in doing as opposed to talking about field work (Argyris, 1977); tend to be

silent about their underlying assumptions. As Willmott (1983) suggested, empiricistsmay only be informed by rather than be contained within the various perspectives.

Thus, I highly recommend doing qualitative field research, regardless of its type, over

merely talking about field research.

In accordance with the preceding discussions, and in some contrast to the previous

accounting discourse (Tomkings & Groves, 1983; Willmott, 1983; Chua, 1986a,

1986b), I found it problematic to adopt a specific ontological stance a priory and then

conduct an empirical study. I believe that the ontological and epistemological

assumptions with which a researcher can function effectively emerge from, or at least

interact with the act of doing research. Here, though, the implication that qualitative

research involves fewer ontological commitments is by no means certain. Thephilosophy of science literature usefully warns the researcher of the differing and

shifting forces that influence research so that field workers should reflect on their

work and come to terms with their emerging assumptions (see, for examples,

Campbell, 1970, 1984, 1986b).

Perhaps most importantly, we have found the researcher, the phenomena studied, the

context in which they are studied, and the research approach in use, to be intimately

intertwined- this in marked contrast with the more orthodox scientific position that

they are dictated. I believe that this condition should not be tacitly ignored, nor

overtly suppressed, nor be thought of as being solvable by some new research design

modification. It inheres in the conduct of research, and a researcher must recognize

his or her own potentially active role in the research setting and continually self-

reflect upon it (perhaps surprisingly, see Friedman, 1953, p. 40; Einstein & Infeld,

1983, p. 6). In part, we have tried to do this by doublelooping ourselves, and seeing

ourselves as at least temporary members of the social context being studied. It is

important to make the warning here, that constructive reflexivity is very delicately

balance with crippling self doubt.

Based on my reading of the literature and my applications of qualitative research

methods, it appears that interpretive techniques use similar data collection methods;

thus, underlying assumptions may come to dominate the thinking of the researcherprimarily at the analysis stage of research. Ironically, a survey of the literature on

qualitative methods (Sieber, 1973; Miles, 1994) reveals that relatively little guidance

exists on conducting analyses and interpreting data. Thus, I believe that substantial

work is needed in this area by accounting researchers that is directed at establishing a

social system of belief change (Campbell, 1986b), wherein a socially constructed

concept of scientific validity is developed with respect to the product of analysis and

interpretation (Campbell, 1986b).

Consequently, currently lacking such research protocols, dialectic tension and

reflexivity appear to offer meaningful approaches to data analysis. These approaches

encouraged us to use and contrast several concepts for example, qualitative vs.quantitative data, traditional vs. emergent theories, and superiors vs. subordinates as

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a way of exploring different facets of accounting in organization and society. I

recommend this general approach to future field researchers. I do not, however,

recommend or condone efforts to routinize or program such approaches to analysis. I

also recommend that researchers of different philosophical presumptions undertake

field studies; we believe that a dialectic tension among researchers has an excellent

potential for forecasting innovation.

Despite my attempts to study what subjects say, what they say they do, and what they

do, qualitative field research is predominantly driven by words. This focus on words

is, of course, in addition to a focus on numbers in accounting research. I recommend

that researchers concentrate their efforts on studying the role of rhetoric in the

research act, in the organizational contexts studied, and in communicating the results

of the research to subjects and through the review process, to the academic

community (Whyte, 1986; McCloskey, 1983).

The forgoing implications lead me to conclude that use of accounting in organizationsand society may be conceived of as a conventional process, and the interpretive

research act may be treated similarly. Thus, rhetorical analysis should be one element

of the interpretive approach. Donnellon reasoned that one can usefully apply a

rhetorical or linguistic analysis to the study of contemporary organizations for these

five reasons: (1) organizational actors use words to make inferences about the goals

being pursued; (2) they make these inferences with reference to the organizational

context in which they occur, the social context, the interact ional context, and

previous interactions; (3) besides making inferences about goals, actors (CEO in this

case) also make inferences about the people with whom they are dealing; (4)

communication behaviour is multi-functional, and observes of what occurs in the

interaction should recognize that outcomes other than the strict transference ofinformation generally occur when people interact; and (5) conventional behaviour in

organizations helps serve the technical function, and it also produces interpersonal

and symbolic effects that can influence the substance of the interaction (1987, pp. 42-

43). Thus, a concern for rhetoric and language is consistent with many aspects of the

emergent perspective and with the aphorism used in virtually all elementary

accounting courses: Accounting is the language of businesses.

Benefits and limitations of the research

The adoption of any research approach and the use of all methods of collecting and

analyzing data necessarily involve "trade-offs" (Patton, 1987). While the research

outcomes generated have been only very briefly described, the understanding of the

contents of management and accounting controls and the impact which these had on

the development of case-firms, which has been presented, demonstrate the value of

the qualitative approach used. Specifically, the findings presented demonstrate that the

adoption of a qualitative approach and selection of the researcher as "instrument" for

data collection and analysis enabled the researcher to get "close" to participants and

develop with them trusting relationships which allowed her to penetrate their realities

and uncover issues of relevance to understanding the substantive research problem.

However, in common then with any research project, this study was constrained bythe methods chosen. These constraints can be identified in two main areas. First, the

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grounded understanding of small firm management and accounting practices in which

this research was interested required that raw data were the experiences and

perceptions of those involved in these practices. In collecting such data, it is possible

that despite the sampling strategy and tactics employed, respondents were not always

truthful. Second, the extent to which the findings to emerge from this research can be

generalized to the wider population of small firms is constrained. As the aim of thisresearch was to generate a substantive understanding rather than to test the validity

and reliability of a hypothesis deduced from previous research, the findings to emerge

from this study cannot be generalized to the wider population of small firms.

Conclusions

This paper has sought to contribute to current understanding about the small firm

qualitative research process. In particular, it has provided a detailed account of the

inductive analysis of qualitative data collected during the researcher's M.Sc. study

which sought to acquire a comprehensive understanding of the impact which

management and accounting controls have on the development of small

manufacturing firm. Reasons for adopting a qualitative paradigm have been described

in detail as has the flexible research design used to guide the selection of a

convenience sample of case-firms and collection of qualitative data. Particular

attention has been drawn to the iterative and emergent nature of the research process

and, as a guide to small firm researchers unfamiliar with the simultaneous collection

and inductive analysis of qualitative data, a detailed account of this process has been

provided.

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