Full-Cycle Research Methods
Ethnography • Interviews • Field and Natural Experiments
I use full-cycle methodology in many of my projects. This method has been theorized about in fields ranging from management to sociology to psychology, but there was very little precedent for applying it in practice. Through experimentation I have developed the following approach to performing full-cycle research: I start with a qualitative field study, usually an ethnography or interviews, to develop a deep understanding of a setting, uncover an interesting puzzle, and derive key hypotheses. This step enables me to thoroughly understand the setting and pursue the most practically relevant and theoretically important questions possible. Once I have hypotheses, I switch gears to causally testing them using field or quasi-experiments. This approach ensures that the qualitative data were not anecdotal, but grounded in systematic patterns. Finally, I often come back to non-experimental qualitative or quantitative methods, such as surveys, in order to enrich the theory established in the earlier studies by uncovering mechanisms and demonstrating generalizability. I find this method to be beneficial and thorough, and I hope to see its usage increase in the future. To that end, I have presented on full-cycle research at many Academy of Management panels, and I have designed and taught my own PhD-level course, Full-Cycle Research Design. My hope is that educating future scholars about its benefits and coaching them through its practical hurdles will help full-cycle research to grow, yielding richer and more rigorously tested organizational theories.
Writing on this method
Full-Cycle Methodology: Opportunities and Challenges for Organization Research
Representative press coverage
Interview on Using Full-Cycle Research Methodology
Ethnography Atelier, February 18, 2019
