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Volume 5 Issue 2
Special Issue ECRM 2007
Editorial
The 5th European Conference on Research Methods in Business and Management attracted a wide range of papers.
The conference fell naturally into a number of key themes organized into mini tracks. These included a number
of different methods (Action research, Grounded Theory, Ethnography), specific issues (Teaching Research Methods)
and philosophical paradigms (Critical approaches to research). A strong sub theme within all tracks was the concern
with the complex problems that business and management research poses. The quality of the papers was high and the
selection of those papers for the Journal presented a difficult choice. The papers selected were chosen for their
quality of writing and relevance to the Journal’s objective of publishing papers that offer new insights or
practical help in the application of research methods in business research.
The papers deal with the problems facing management researchers in a variety of ways. Most papers focus on the
problems of applying research qualitative methods. The papers by Chester et al, Gehrels, Rodon and Pastor, and
Vasconcelos all present case examples analysed from an interpretivist view using methods like Action Research
and Grounded Theory Methods. Several papers confront the ambiguity and conflict inherent in researching people
and their actions as they carry out their jobs (Mendy, Wagner and Brooke). The teaching research mini track was
received with particular enthusiasm and one of the chosen papers is from this group (Sayce). A few papers adopt
a traditional positivist stance creating new constructs (Schutz et al; Phillips and Phillips).
Ann Brown
London
November 2007
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