Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present a piece of empirical work that investigates the current role and status of qualitative research within the management field. Design/methodology/approach – The research is based on 45 in‐depth qualitative interviews with members of a range...

Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to introduce the themed issue about qualitative research in the business and management field Design/methodology/approach – The paper considers some issues about how to define the term “qualitative research”, and then introduces each of the papers in...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to report the findings of research which explores how the concept qualitative management research is variably constructed and defined by those who have a direct interest in, and influence upon, important aspects of qualitative management research....

The term qualitative management research embraces an array of non-statistical research practices. Here it is argued that this diversity is an outcome of competing philosophical assumptions which produce distinctive research perspectives and legitimate the appropriation of different sets of...