Practical aspects of research

methodology in business & management

history
Hard wisdom from someone
who plays the publishing
game Anthony M. Gould, PhD
 
Professeur titulaire
Anthony.Gould@rlt.ulaval.ca
Université Laval, Québec, Canada
Skype: anthony.gould14
 1. My overall position
Presentation 2. The basics/Some basic principles
Structure 3. Epistemological considerations
4. Debates
5. Business/Management History and
Theory
6. Some tips on writing about business
and management history
7. Creativity and
business/management history
8. Questions/Discussion
1. My overall position
I have a three-pronged position ……
i. Consequential research generally is
comparative/contrastive
ii. Business/management history research is mostly
concerned with multi-dimensional
comparisons/contrasts that create adjacent eras/epochs
iii. Consequential business/management history research
is about recasting/fighting about/debating
existing/orthodox comparisons/contrasts
 2. The basics/Some basic principles

1. Research is fundamentally
comparative/contrastive – but
comparisons/contrasts must be defended

2. History is grounded in evidence – but is

made from interpreting evidence
2. The basics/Some basic principles #2

3. It is the facts presented/excluded and the

relationships between them [those presented]
that create history

4. Time is the independent variable – the

basis for organising how events and people
interact
 3. Epistemological considerations

i. Historians – particularly business/management

historians – give us our narratives – they delineate our
heroes, villains, victims, etc
 3. Epistemological considerations #2

ii. Which sources are better when doing

management and business history? –
primary, secondary, tertiary – it
depends!

iii. Myths and fringe interpretations

 3. Epistemological considerations #3
iv. Frames of reference – think about who you are, who your
audience is, where you are going to publish, etc. Place yourself
(roughly speaking) into one of these categories and there wont
be a problem ……………….
-Radical Marxist
-Liberal Reformist
-Orthodox Pluralist
-Managerialist
-Neoliberalist
 3. Epistemological considerations #4

v. Herbert Butterfields « Whig interpretation » - « The past is a foreign

country – they do things differently there” Salevouris and Foray
3. Epistemological considerations #5
vi. From your established frame of reference, identify winners,
heroes, losers and victims – and, crucially, ask (and write –
defensively – about) what the losers and victims would say

vii. Acknowledge that you are trapped within your context – be

explicit about what this means for your particular project

viii. In attending to epistemological obligations, don't loose focus –

you must have a message. It is your message that you will be judged
on
 3. Epistemological considerations #6
ix. Remember, in history, we mostly don't have
« control groups ». Rather,
subjects/societies/communities/objects of
analytic interest act as their own controls –
but, in so doing, are subject to time
displacement effects (learning, maturation,
developmental change, etc).
 3. Epistemological considerations
#7
x. Remember, we are transplanting the science-
practitioner model (mostly) to the enterprise of
doing business and management historical research
– but the transplant is only partial. We use natural
and field experiments in lieu of their laboratory
equivalent; we use soft forms of data analysis – but
we do hold the line on distinguishing between
observation (data) and inference
(information/knowledge).
 4. Debates in Business and Management
History
i. Sub-branches of a discipline tend to be associated with debates – certainly
true for business and management history
ii. When dealing with debates (unresolved and consequential points of
dispute – often long-term), we need to be especially sensitive in
distinguishing between (and communicating about) ideological matters – a
la the frame of reference you are adopting – and empirical matters.
Debates often remain alive because of unresolved empirical considerations
and/or unacknowledged difference in the frames of reference of
protagonists
4. Debates in Business and
Management History #2
iii. Think in terms of prime-movers – in management and business
history, big contributions emerge when one makes convincing
reinterpretations in this area
5. Business/Management History and
Theory
i. The websites/homepages of the mainstream management
journals indicate that they preference articles that make a
contribution to theory/a theoretical contribution – even true for
the Journal of Management History, Journal of labour History,
etc.
5. Business/Management History and
Theory #2
ii. It seems that – for various reasons – management research is
at its most prestigious when it adapts the ways and means of
science to derive results: which for our purposes means we
need to create premises through induction (which really is what
science/logical positivism does) and then use these premises as
fodder for deductive arguments.

iii. Ultimately we need to package our deductive argument as a

framework/model – up to a point (don’t be become obsessive
about this).
5. Business/Management History and Theory #3
So remember, when we do management and business history,
and notwithstanding post-modernism/constructivist/post-
positivist approaches, we « try » to be scientists – albeit
sometimes in vein!!!
6. Some tips on writing about business and management
history

• Start by having something to say/ a thesis/ an idea.

• « Strawman » your idea/thesis through forcing constructs

to become variables and variables to become measures
such that you can talk about IVs and DVs.
6. Some tips on writing about business and management
history #2
• Remember your DV is your object of analysis – what you are most
interested in. Your IV is what you will argue « most »
influences/impacts your DV.

• Distinguish between data/facts and interpretation when you write.

• Talk about your « base of evidence ».

 6. Some tips on writing about business and
management history #3
• Re the evidence base …..
I. What is the full (potential) scope of the evidence
ii. Of the full scope, what can we actually establish to be
present? (and what is stopping us from having all of it?)
iii. Of that which we can amass (evidence which we can
amass), what elements are we
emphasising/deemphasising?
 6. Some tips on writing about business and
management history #4

• Provide rationale for points I to III – leave an audit trail!

• Remember the comparative trumps the superlative

• Be self-reflective – don't be an automatic Whig-interpretationist

6. Some tips on writing about business and
management history #5
• Understand paragraphs – content paragraphs and transitional/process
paragraphs

• Use topic sentences – for both types of paragraphs

6. Some tips on writing about business and
management history #6

• An ideal structure for a content paragraph is….

-Make a point/topic sentence

-Explain it
-Give an example
6. Some tips on writing about business and
management history #7
•Make your argument up-front –
don't dance – hit me (the
reader)!!!!
•Make sure the reader knows where
you are going
 6. Some tips on writing about business and
management history #8
•Don't use adjectives and adverbs – they
portray weakness/lack of confidence
•Make initial distinctions between
peripheral, semi-focal and focal content
and – as you read – be classifying material
accordingly
6. Some tips on writing
about business and
management history #9
Use my writing strategy -
talk to me! My strategy
works – at least it helps
me!
6. Some tips on writing
about business and
management history
• Use synthetic language – don't
#10 be tautological.
Gould, A. M., and Joullié, J. E. (in press, December,
2022).One Truth and One Standard for its Telling:
Reporting Transparently on and about Scientific Business
Research.Journal of Business Research.
Joullié, J.-E., & Gould, A. M. (2022). Having nothing to
say but saying it anyway: Language and practical
relevance in management. The Academy of
Management Learning and Education, 21(2) : 1-21.

• Pay homage to the ideas of

those who came before you.
6. Some tips on writing
about business and
management history #11

Be a taxonomist –
group alike ideas
together and be clear
about the principle you
are using to make your
grouping(s).
 7. Creativity and
business/management history

Creative historians expand history, create and

defend new interpretations and add nuance that did
not exist - see the third prong of my overall position
(slide 3).
8. Questions/Comments/Abuse/Insults/Job
offers or marriage proposals !!!!!
THANK YOU:
Lets talk

Anthony M. Gould, PhD

 
Professeur titulaire / Full Professor
Anthony.Gould@rlt.ulaval.ca
Université Laval