پرکردن شکاف پارادایم در تحقیقات حسابداری مدیریت: بررسی نقش روش رویکردهای مختلط

This paper discusses the role of mixed methods research in management accounting and how it may help researchers bridge the divide between the economics-based, functionalist ‘mainstream’ and the ‘alternative’ paradigm informed by interpretive and critical perspectives. Whilst noting the considerable barriers to dialogue across these paradigms, I outline how mixed methods research can be mobilized as part of a strategy of meta-triangulation to engender inter-paradigmatic engagement.

This paper will discuss the role of mixed methods research in management accounting with particular emphasis on how it may help bridging the divide currently separating the primarily economics-based ‘mainstream’ from ‘alternative’, sociology-based approaches informed by interpretive and critical perspectives (cf. Ryan et al., 2002). Examining this issue is important for stimulating more widespread dialogue across these paradigms. Mixed methods research, combining qualitative and quantitative approaches, has recently been extensively discussed in the management accounting literature and is growing in popularity (e.g., Anderson and Widener, 2007, Lillis and Mundy, 2005 and Modell, 2005). However, much of this debate has had a rather technical emphasis and has only rarely addressed the deeper paradigmatic implications of conducting such research (Brown and Brignall, 2007, Modell, 2007 and Modell, 2009). The case for mixed methods research has generally been stated in terms of its propensity to enable researchers to combine breadth and depth in empirical inquiries, to enhance the validity of research findings through triangulation and to facilitate the mobilization of multiple theories in examining management accounting practices. Little attention has been paid to whether mixed methods research, as such, may spearhead research endeavours encouraging dialogue across the aforementioned paradigm divide. This is the over-riding concern of this paper. I will start by briefly accounting for my own personal experiences of doing and writing about mixed methods research in management accounting with an eye to some paradigmatic issues encountered along the way. This anchors the discussion in some first-hand observations of potential barriers to bridging paradigms, which are further examined in the ensuing section. Finally, I examine how mixed methods research may be used as part of a strategy of meta-triangulation to overcome these barriers.