Abstract
Qualitative research of business relationships and networks is of limited value if the analysis does not address the rich interdependencies of the processes and mechanisms involved and does not feature clear and credible methods of analysis. The purpose of this chapter is to consider approaches to analysis that provide opportunities for demonstrable, credible analysis of the qualitative nuances of business systems. The particular focus is on the use of computer-aided methods, including the Leximancer lexicographic analysis software, that, combined with more traditional methods, provide reliable and meaningful analysis of large quantities of textual information, including interview transcripts and secondary data. These processes and the findings that they can produce are demonstrated using a wide range of the authors’ own research.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Ahuvia, A. 2001. Traditional, interpretive, and reception based content analyses: Improving the ability of content analysis to address issues of pragmatic and theoretical concern. Social Indicators Research 54 (2): 139–172.
Angus-Leppan, Tamsin, Suzanne Benn, and Louise Young. 2010. A sensemaking approach to trade-offs and synergies between human and ecological elements of corporate sustainability. Journal of Business and Environment 19 (4): 230–244.
Bairstow, Nigel, and Louise Young. 2012. How channels evolve, a historical explanation. Industrial Marketing Management 41 (1): 385–393.
Bonoma, Thomas V. 1985. Case research in marketing: Opportunities, problems, and a process. Journal of Marketing Research (JMR) 22 (2): 199–208.
Braun, Virginia, and Victoria Clark. 2006. Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology 3 (2): 77–101.
Burton, C., J. Louviere, and Louise Young. 2009. Retaining the visitor, enhancing the experience: Identifying attributes of choice in repeat museum visitation. Journal of Voluntary and Non Profit Marketing 14: 21–34.
Cova, B., and S. Pace. 2006. Brand community of convenience products: New forms of customer empowerment-the case “My Nutella, The Community”. European Journal of Marketing 40 (9/10): 1087–1105.
Daly, J., K. Willis, R. Small, J. Green, N. Welch, M. Kealy, and E. Hughes. 2007. A hierarchy of evidence for assessing qualitative health research. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology 60 (1): 43–49.
Danneels, E., and G.L. Lilien. 1998. Doctoral programs in business-to-business marketing: Status and prospects. Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing 5 (1–2): 7–34.
Dawson, Bonnie, John Murray, Ian Wilkinson, and Louise Young. 2009. Towards a more substantial examination of supplier-customer relationship performance. In Proceedings, IMP Conference, Marseilles, France, September 2009. www.impgroup.org.
Dyer, W. Gibb Jr., and Alan L. Wilkins. 1991. Better stories, not better constructs, to generate better theory: A rejoinder to Eisenhardt. Academy of Management Review 16 (3): 613–619.
Easton, Geoff. 2002. Marketing: A critical realist approach. Journal of Business Research 55 (2): 103–109.
Elliott, R., and N. Jankel-Elliott. 2003. Using ethnography in strategic consumer research. Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal 6 (4): 215–223.
Evers, W., S. Marroun, and L. Young. 2014. Using industry workshops to create idea networks for business model evolution. In 25th IMP Conference, Kedge Business School, Bordeaux, France, September.
Evers, W., S. Marroun, and L. Young. 2017. A pluralistic, longitudinal method: Using participatory workshops, interviews and lexicographic analysis to investigate relational evolution. Industrial Marketing Management 61: 182–193
Fereday, J., and E. Muir-Cochrane. 2008. Demonstrating rigor using thematic analysis: A hybrid approach of inductive and deductive coding and theme development. International Journal of Qualitative Methods 5 (1): 80–92.
Friedrichs, J., and F. Kratochwil. 2009. On acting and knowing: How pragmatism can advance international relations research and methodology. International Organization 63 (04): 701–731.
Glesne, C., and A. Peshkin. 1992. Becoming qualitative researchers. White Plains, NY: Longman.
Green, J., K. Willis, E. Hughes, R. Small, N. Welch, L. Gibbs, and J. Daly. 2007. Generating best evidence from qualitative research: The role of data analysis. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health 31 (6): 545–550.
Guba, E.G., and Y.S. Lincoln. 1994. Competing paradigms in qualitative research. Handbook of Qualitative Research 2: 163–194.
Gummesson, Evert. 2003. All research is interpretive! Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing 18 (6/7): 482–492.
Healy, M., and C. Perry. 2000. Comprehensive criteria to judge validity and reliability of qualitative research within the realism paradigm. Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal 3 (3): 118–126.
Järvensivu, T., and J.Å. Törnroos. 2010. Case study research with moderate constructionism: Conceptualization and practical illustration. Industrial Marketing Management 39 (1): 100–108.
Kass, R.E., and A.E. Raftery. 1995. Bayes factors. Journal of the American Statistical Association 90 (430): 773–795.
Leximancer Manual Version 4. 2011. www.leximancer.com.
Madill, A., A. Jordan, and C. Shirley. 2000. Objectivity and reliability in qualitative analysis: Realist, contextualist and radical constructionist epistemologies. British Journal of Psychology 91 (1): 1–20.
Marroun, S., and L. Young. 2015. The motivations and behaviours of professional networking. In 26th IMP Conference, University of Southern Denmark, Kolding, Denmark, August.
Mauthner, N.S., and A. Doucet. 2003. Reflexive accounts and accounts of reflexivity in qualitative data analysis. Sociology 37 (3): 413–431.
Mays, N., and C. Pope. 1995. Qualitative research: Rigour and qualitative research. BMJ 311 (6997): 109–112.
McGhee, G., G.R. Marland, and J. Atkinson. 2007. Grounded theory research: Literature reviewing and reflexivity. Journal of Advanced Nursing 60 (3): 334–342.
Miles, Matthew B., and A. Michael Huberman. 1994. Qualitative data analysis: An expanded sourcebook. USA: Sage.
Munksgaard, K.B. 2015. Is this network for you or for me? The pursuit of self and collective interests in a strategic network. Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing 30 (3/4): 279–289.
Munksgaard, K.B., and C.J. Medlin. 2014. Self- and collective-interests: Using formal network activities for developing firms’ business. Industrial Marketing Management 43 (4): 613–621.
Patton, Michael Quinn. 1987. How to use qualitative methods in evaluation. USA: Sage.
Peter, J. Paul, and Jerry C. Olson. 1983. Is science marketing? Journal of Marketing 47 (4): 111–125.
Pratt, M.G. 2008. Fitting oval pegs into round holes tensions in evaluating and publishing qualitative research in top-tier North American journals. Organizational Research Methods 11 (3): 481–509.
Ritchie, J., and L. Spencer. 2002. Qualitative data analysis for applied policy research. The Qualitative Researcher’s Companion 573: 305–329.
Riley, R., and L. Love. 1999. The state of qualitative tourism research. Annals of Tourism Research 27 (3): 164–187.
Rong, Baiding, and Ian F. Wilkinson. 2011. What do managers’ survey responses mean and what affects them? The case of market orientation and firm performance. Australasian Marketing Journal (AMJ) 19 (3): 137–147.
Silverman, D. 2007. A very short, fairly interesting and reasonably cheap book about qualitative research. London: Sage.
Smith, Andrew, and Michael Humphreys. 2006. Evaluation of unsupervised semantic mapping of natural language with Leximancer concept mapping. Behavior Research Methods 38 (2): 262–279.
Strauss, Anselm, and Juliet M. Corbin. 1997. Grounded theory in practice. USA: Sage.
Strahle, W., and R.L. Spiro. 1986. Linking market share strategies to salesforce objectives, activities, and compensation Policies. Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, 6, 11–18.
Thompson, Michael, and Louise Young. 2014. Measuring complex patterns in space-time. Australasian Marketing Journal (special issue on Complexity and Agent-based Modeling), 22 (1): 28–35. ISSN 1441–3582.
Timmermans, S., and I. Tavory. 2012. Theory construction in qualitative research from grounded theory to abductive analysis. Sociological Theory 30 (3): 167–186.
Uslay, C., N.K. Malhotra, and F.C. Allvine. 2006. Predatory pricing and marketing theory: Applications in business-to-business context and beyond. Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing 13, 65–116.
Wilkinson, I., and L. Young. 2004. Improvisation and adaptation in international business research interviews chapter 4. In Handbook of Qualitative Research Methods for International Business, ed. R. Marschan-Piekkari and C. Welch. Cheltenham, UK and Northhampton, MA: Edward Elgar. ISBN 1 84376 083 5.
Wilkinson, Ian, and Louise Young. 2013. The past and the future of business marketing theory. Industrial Marketing Management 42 (3): 394–404.
Wolcott, Harry F. 1994 Transforming qualitative data: Description, analysis, and interpretation. USA: Sage.
Young, Louise. 2006. Trust: Looking forward and back. Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing 21 (7): 439–445.
Young, Louise, and Nigel Bairstow. 2012. Narrative event methods: Understanding how business market processes equilibrate and change over time. In Proceedings, Industrial Marketing and Purchasing Conference. www.impgroup.net.
Young, L., and K. Daniel (2003) Affectual trust in the workplace. International Journal of Human Resource Management 14 (1): 139–155.
Young, L., and S. Denize. 2008. Competing interests: The challenge to collaboration in the public sector. International Journal of Sociology and Social policy 28 (1/2): 46–58.
Young, Louise, Sara Denize, Ekta Nankani, Simeon Simoff, and Ian Wilkinson. 2010. Researching the structures and processes of collaborative academic networks (competitive paper) proceedings, academy of marketing science annual conference May 26–May 29 Portland. USA: Oregon.
Young, L., and L. Freeman. 2008. A case for contrast as a catalyst for change. International Journal of Learning 15 (3): 295–304.
Young, Louise, Ian Wilkinson, and Andrew Smith. 2015. A scientometric analysis of publications in the journal of business-to-business marketing 1993–2014. Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing 22 (1–2): 111–123.
Zhang, Y., and Wildemuth, B.M. 2009. Qualitative analysis of content. In Applications of social research methods to questions in information and library science, 308–319.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank our co-researchers, Tamsin Angus-Leppan, Sue Benn, Christine Burton, Kerry Daniels, Sara Denize, Winie Evers, Sana Marron, Chris Medlin, Andrew Smith and Ian Wilkinson for the work done with us on the projects presented in our examples. A special acknowledgement goes to the developer of Leximancer, Andrew Smith, for his amazing vision in developing Leximancer and tremendous help over an extended period of research.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Appendix
Appendix
Ranked concept lists for five research phases of Advertising Project (presented in Evers et al. 2017).
Phase, interview 1 | Phase 2, workshop 1 | Phase 3, interview 2 | Phase 4, workshop 2 | Phase 5, workshop 3 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Name-like | Count | Rel. (%) | Name-like | Count | Rel. (%) | Name-like | Count (%) | Rel. (%) | Name-like | Count | Name-like | Count | Rel. (%) |
Marianne(firm Owner) | 141 | 74 | Marianne(firm Owner) | 66 | 90 | Marianne(firm Owner) | 130 | 100 | Marianne(firm Owner) | 27 | Marianne (firm owner) | 102 | 100 |
Kalb (firm Name) | 141 | 74 | Kalb (firm Name) | 52 | 71 | Kalb (firm Name) | 110 | 85 | Kalb (firm Name) | 26 | Kalb (firm Name) | 85 | 83 |
| Â | Â | Â | Â | Â | Â | Kirsten (firm Employee) | 28 | 22 | Â | Â | Kirsten (firm Employee) | 23 | 23 |
Word-Like | Count | Rel. | Word-Like | Count | Rel. | Word-Like | Count | Rel. | Word-Like | Count | Word-Like | Count | Rel. |
kunder (customers) | 191 | 100 | kunde (customer) | 73 | 100 | kunder (customers) | 117 | 90 | opgave (task) | 70 | mĂĄde (the way) | 94 | 92 |
opgave (task) | 130 | 68 | vores (our) | 48 | 66 | se (see) | 106 | 82 | kunde (customer) | 63 | opgave (task) | 90 | 88 |
forhold (relation) | 100 | 52 | opgave (task) | 47 | 64 | forhold (relation) | 103 | 79 | forhold (relation) | 61 | kunde (customer) | 84 | 82 |
tid (time) | 89 | 47 | sammen (together) | 46 | 63 | sammen (together) | 84 | 65 | tillid (trust) | 43 | forhold (relation) | 81 | 79 |
virksomhed (company) | 85 | 45 | virksomhed (company) | 42 | 58 | store (large) | 74 | 57 | sammen (together) | 42 | sammen (togeteher) | 54 | 53 |
vores (our) | 75 | 39 | tid (time) | 38 | 52 | arbejde (work) | 61 | 47 | netvaerk (network) | 40 | huske (remember) | 52 | 51 |
se(see) | 75 | 39 | forhold (relation) | 37 | 51 | virksomhed (company) | 53 | 41 | hjertet (the heart) | 39 | giver (gives) | 39 | 38 |
sammen (together) | 68 | 36 | finde (find) | 31 | 42 | vigtigt (important) | 47 | 36 | store (large) | 38 | se (see) | 36 | 35 |
store (large) | 58 | 30 | se(see) | 31 | 42 | finde (find) | 43 | 33 | vej (pathway) | 37 | finde (find) | 35 | 34 |
arbejde (work) | 49 | 26 | arbejde (work) | 29 | 40 | vores (our) | 43 | 33 | partnere (partners) | 35 | tid (time) | 33 | 32 |
del (share) | 44 | 23 | relation (relation) | 27 | 37 | opgaver (task) | 42 | 32 | arm (arm) | 32 | rigtige (right) | 29 | 28 |
indtryk (impression) | 43 | 23 | handler (act, trades) | 27 | 37 |  bruge (use) |  41 |  32 | spaendende (exciting) | 26 | vigtige (important) | 27 | 26 |
fald (decrease) | 42 | 22 | udfordringer (challenges) |  24 |  33 | tid (time) | 41 | 32 | se (see) | 24 | meaning (opinion, meaning) | 25 | 25 |
virksomheden (the firm) | 41 | 21 | store (large) | 23 | 32 | giver (gives) | 37 | 28 | giver (gives) | 22 | tiltælde (coincidence) | 25 | 25 |
forskellige (different) | 41 | 21 | for (before) | 21 | 29 | prøve (try) | 34 | 26 | arbejde (work) | 22 | samarbejdspartnere (parteners) | 24 | 24 |
prove (try) | 41 | 21 | lose (solve) | 20 | 27 | maerke (sense) | 34 | 26 | rigtige (proper) | 21 | del (share) | 24 | 24 |
finde (find) | 37 | 19 | giver (gives) | 20 | 27 | del (share) | 33 | 25 | bedre (better) | 19 | sker (happen) | 24 | 24 |
vaerdi (value) | 35 | 18 | hjaelpe (support) | 19 | 26 | mulighed (opportunity) | 32 | 25 | finde (find) | 17 | bedre (better) | 24 | 24 |
nye (new) | 33 | 17 | behov (needs) | 19 | 26 | konkret (concrete) | 32 | 25 | tid (time) | 17 | hjertet (the heat) | 23 | 23 |
pr (pr) | 32 | 17 | medier (media) | 19 | 26 | netvaerk (network) | 32 | 25 | penge (money) | 17 | vej (pathway) | 22 | 22 |
tilbage (back) | 30 | 16 | penge (money) | 18 | 25 | samarbejdspartnere (partners) | 27 | 21 | prøve (try) | 15 | før (before) | 22 | 22 |
kommunikation (communication) | 29 | 15 | muligheder (opportunities) | 15 | 21 | medier (media) | 25 | 19 | Â | Â | samarbejde (collabration) | 22 | 22 |
lille (small) | 26 | 14 | Â | Â | Â | Â | Â | Â | Â | Â | tilbage (back) | 22 | 22 |
|  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | større (larger) | 21 | 21 |
|  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | prøve (try) | 19 | 19 |
| Â | Â | Â | Â | Â | Â | Â | Â | Â | Â | Â | bruge (use) | 19 | 19 |
| Â | Â | Â | Â | Â | Â | Â | Â | Â | Â | Â | forskellige (different) | 19 | 19 |
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Young, L., Munksgaard, K.B. (2018). Analysis of Qualitative Data: Using Automated Semantic Analysis to Understand Networks of Concepts. In: Freytag, P., Young, L. (eds) Collaborative Research Design. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-5008-4_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-5008-4_11
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-10-5006-0
Online ISBN: 978-981-10-5008-4
eBook Packages: Business and ManagementBusiness and Management (R0)