Journal
STRATEGIC ORGANIZATION
Volume 19, Issue 1, Pages 81-96Publisher
SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD
DOI: 10.1177/1476127020980969
Keywords
business elites; data collection; interviewing; qualitative methods
Categories
Funding
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [72002037]
- Swiss National Science Foundation [100018_169436/1]
- Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF) [100018_169436] Funding Source: Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF)
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Interviews are crucial for studying phenomena involving business elite, but they pose challenges due to time constraints, knowledge, dominant positions, and public visibility of the interviewees. Various research designs and interview practices can help address these challenges.
Interviews are an important method for studying a wide range of phenomena, especially those that directly involve members of the so-called business elite, which typically includes CEOs, top managers, and boards of directors. While it is necessary to get close to these actors and their settings for gaining valuable research insights, interviews are challenging interactions to accomplish. Even when one has negotiated access, members of the business elite are typically time-constrained, knowledgeable, used to being in a dominant position, and visible in the public domain and involved in impression management. These particularities pose distinctive challenges for collecting rich and authentic empirical material about important organizational, managerial, and societal matters. Drawing on our own experience, as well as the literature on qualitative interviewing and elites research, we discuss how different research designs and interview practices can help deal with these challenges.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available