Mixed methods research in the business world

Mixed Methods Research in the Business World This paper will report on research being conducted across business and management research fields and disciplines. Systematic methodological scans of Conference papers from the 2007 annual conference of the Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management (ANZAM), and Doctorate of Business Administration (DBA) theses from an International Centre for Professional Doctorates (n=170) will be presented. The research will look at positioning these business/management fields across the Creswell and Plano Clark (2007) checklist for evaluating discipline acceptance levels. Examples of mixed methods research in the real world of business and management will be presented. Implications for postgraduate research training in the business and management fields will be explored and a pedagogic framework for research capacity building in mixed methods for these disciplines will be presented. The pedagogic framework will draw upon the documented pedagogic practices of Bazeley (2003), Earley (2007) and Sale & Brazil (2004) and will take particular note of the key issues raised by Bryman (2008) and Teddlie & Tashakkori (2009) in this emerging and adolescent methodological movement.