The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Business and Management Research Methods provides a state-of-the-art overview of qualitative research methods in the business and management field.

The Handbook celebrates the diversity of the field by drawing from a wide range of traditions and by bringing together a number of leading international researchers engaged in studying a variety of topics through multiple qualitative methods. The chapters address the philosophical underpinnings of particular approaches to research, contemporary illustrations, references, and practical guidelines for their use. The two volumes therefore provide a useful resource for Ph.D. students and early career researchers interested in developing and expanding their knowledge and practice of qualitative research. In covering established and emerging methods, it also provides an invaluable source of information for faculty teaching qualitative research methods.

The contents of the Handbook are arranged into two volumes covering seven key themes:

Volume One: History and Tradition

Part One: Influential Traditions: underpinning qualitative research: positivism, interpretivism, pragmatism, constructionism, critical, poststructuralism, hermeneutics, postcolonialism, critical realism, mixed methods, grounded theory, feminist and indigenous approaches.

Part Two: Research Designs: ethnography, field research, action research, case studies, process and practice methodologies.

Part Three: The Researcher: positionality, reflexivity, ethics, gender and intersectionality, writing from the body, and achieving critical distance.

Part Four: Challenges: research design, access and departure, choosing participants, research across boundaries, writing for different audiences, ethics in international research, digital ethics, and publishing qualitative research.


Volume Two: Methods and Challenges

Part One: Contemporary methods: interviews, archival analysis, autoethnography, rhetoric, historical, stories and narratives, discourse analysis, group methods, sociomateriality, fiction, metaphors, dramaturgy, diary, shadowing and thematic analysis.

Part Two: Visual methods: photographs, drawing, video, web images, semiotics and symbols, collages, documentaries.

Part Three: Methodological developments: aesthetics and smell, fuzzy set comparative analysis, sewing quilts, netnography, ethnomusicality, software, ANTI-history, emotion, and pattern matching.