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There has been growing interest in the use of a variety of interpretative approaches to researching in the field of information systems. This type of research typically applies social theory to help develop an in‐depth interpretation of some of the features and characteristics of phenomena, which relate in some way to the application of information technology, its development or related policy‐making issues. While there are attempts at developing the “rigour” or “validity” of the process of interpretation, there are no holistic criteria or benchmarks by which this type of research can be evaluated. This paper uses an evaluation framework (NIMSAD), taken from the action research domain, in order to help benchmark interpretative research processes. This framework is used as a way of providing a benchmark dimension to the evaluation of the process of interpretative research in information systems.

This conceptual article aims to examine the application of interpretative phenomenology to research on teacher experience. It covers methodological theory and practical interpretative approaches that are pertinent for generating useful insights into an educational issue.

Drawing on an illustrative research on secondary teachers' disciplinary and pedagogical reasoning and classroom practices in Ghana, this article explores the author's musings and introspection around carrying out an interpretative phenomenological research and demonstrates how the approach helped to amplify teachers' voices.

The article demonstrates that the canons of interpretative phenomenology and qualitative research in general, while translatable to practice, need to be regarded as a series of emergent decisions and actions rather than prescriptive set of principles. The article explains that educational researchers must recognise interpretation as the lifeblood of the approach and move beyond the description of essences and explicate participants' experiences of phenomena using workable frames of interpretation.

The article extends the current methodological knowledge base by contributing to international discussions on qualitative research and to an understanding of the applicability of interpretative phenomenological research design to research on teacher reasoning and practice. It also serves as a useful methodological resource for novice researchers.

Accounting theorists agree that no comprehensive theory of accounting has yet been developed. In the absence of such a theory, the question arises whether sufficient accounting principles are created through accounting research. This article acknowledges that accounting principles are not solely the result of academic research and that current accounting practice through its standard‐setting process contributes far more to the development of accounting principles. Hence the role that accounting theory and research should play in developing accounting principles is a vital academic question. The discussion in the article focuses on the normative and descriptive (or the more modern positivistic) approach to the development of accounting theory, the positivistic nature of mainstream accounting research, a possible decision‐useful theory of accounting and the role of interpretative and critical research. All of these developments are beneficial to accounting since they open up accounting to a diversity of research approaches that will collectively improve the status of accounting research and possibly accounting theory. The role that these developments fulfil in creating appropriate accounting principles, however, is debatable.

The purpose of this paper is to offer a complete guide to a qualitative method for capturing critical moments of managerial practice that combines interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) and existential hermeneutic phenomenology (EHP).

This article is based on the findings of extensive research and describes in detail the specific steps that must be taken for complete replication of research. The research uses methods of IPA and critically develops the EHP framework with an emphasis on the analysis of interpersonal relationships.

Depending on the testing of the research method in practice, the article evaluates the IPA-EHP method as suitable for the research on critical moments of managerial lived experience, considering the causes of the crisis.

This article is based on demand from academics who would like to use this method to analyse managerial practice. Especially now, at a time associated with a number of challenging events, such as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, qualitative research is gaining in importance, even in management science. The original interpretative framework based on the phenomenology of Fink and Patočka is appropriate in this respect.

The purpose of this paper is to explore a possible way for service providers to learn from their customers' experiences and bridge gaps between their and their customers' perspectives. The research question is as follows: how can users' experiences be transformed through research‐based theatre, in particular Forum Theatre, into a utilizable format in the front‐end of interpretative, user‐driven service innovation in public health care organisations?

Research‐based theatre (RBT) is introduced in the study as both an artistic intervention technique – aiming to develop public health care services – and as a qualitative research method for interpretative user‐driven innovation processes.

The study provides a path for the application of Forum Theatre in interpretative user‐driven innovation and highlights the role of “the Joker” as a host of the interpretation.

Further studies could be based on international longitudinal participatory research and combine qualitative and quantitative research methods.

The study contributes to the discussion on the potential of innovation triggered in practical contexts. The potential itself seems to be relatively widely understood, but practical measures to exploit it still seem to be missing to a great extent. This study provides an example of a Finnish application of RBT as it explores the role of Forum Theatre as a sensemaking process in a fuzzy front‐end of innovation.

The study improves the understanding of the implementation of artistic interventions within a user‐driven service innovation in public health care services.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview and evaluation of interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) for the library and information science (LIS) community, as this method has only recently been used for exploring experiences of various phenomena related to LIS.

IPA is discussed within the phenomenological tradition. Two examples of recent IPA studies are examined in parallel to show application of the IPA method. Issues and challenges of applying IPA to LIS research questions are discussed.

IPA is an alternative phenomenological method, adding to the repertoire of qualitative methods used for LIS research. It was an effective method for exploring experience among information professionals: it was equally suitable for studying reference and information service work for academic library professionals and burnout experience for information and communication technology workers.

Only a few LIS studies have used IPA and no discussion or evaluation of the method has been published for this field. This paper provides a discussion of the method for LIS researchers interested in this emerging phenomenological method.

Takes a somewhat reflexive look at the politics of qualitative research in advertising and draws some analogies with academic research in marketing. The main basis for the discussion is a qualitative study of advertising which utilised a discourse analytic approach to dyadic depth interviews within a social, constructionist, ontological framework. The findings from the study drew attention to the political as opposed to epistemological problems of legitimisation for qualitative forms of understanding. Where qualitative forms of knowledge and understanding are considered legitimate, the social order of power relations within the organisation changes.

This chapter examines how hospitality and tourism researchers can use ‘expressive text’ (or writing) to express the lived quality of an experience in order to ‘show what an experience is really like’ rather than ‘tell what it is like’. Expressive text refers to written language forms such as narrative, poetry and metaphor that can be used as tools in research to vividly represent the meaning and feeling conveyed in an experience. The expressive text-based approach to researching lived experience provides a textual link between experience and its expression. For this reason, it is especially useful when working with lived experience accounts of phenomenological and hermeneutic research.

The expressive text-based approach suggested here is still a relatively under explored arena within hospitality and tourism research. As a relatively under explored arena, the rich insightful knowledge that can be gained from understanding practitioner experience is rarely a central focus of scholarly writings about the workplace in hospitality and tourism contexts. However, in order to be fully appreciated as a discipline in its own right and to advance knowledge of the field, understanding the typical and significant attributes of hospitality and tourism work will be decidedly helpful.

One of the difficulties of working with lived experience accounts is finding a suitable research approach that helps to both retain the lived elements of the experience and ensure the rigour of the inquiry. An expressive text-based methodological framework that has a phenomenological and hermeneutic philosophical underpinning is argued to be suitable for this purpose. Therefore, the focus of this study is to discuss such a methodology and explain the reasons for its content, style and structure in researching lived experience. The approach that is proposed here consists of a five-tiered textually expressive methodology that is employed to contextualise, portray and interpret the lived experience meanings in order to understand the significance of the experience in relation to relevant discourses in hospitality and tourism studies, and to consider implications for policy and professional practice. The guiding questions of the five-tiered framework cover the following issues: (1) What is the context of the lived experience? (2) What is the lived experience of this practice like? (3) What is the meaning of this experience for the practitioner? (4) What is the significance of the experience in contributing to the advancement of knowledge within the field? (5) What are the implications for practice and professional development?

To illustrate uses of this methodology in research, the study here includes an example showing portrayals and interpretations of the typical and significant lived nature of hospitality reception work. This shows and communicates the full meaning of the episode, circumstances or situation. The chapter then concludes with some reflections on benefits as well as tensions in working within an expressive text-based phenomenological and hermeneutic framework.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the profile of accounting research in the two academic accounting research journals in South Africa (Meditari Accountancy Research and SA Journal of Accounting Research) during the ten‐year period from 2000 to 2009.

The archival research method is applied, which analyses existing data (in this case the articles published in the South African (SA) accounting research journals) to come to research conclusions. The research method used to analyse the related articles in the SA accounting research journals is based on various international studies. The following dimensions are assessed: authorship; research field; the nature of the research; and research methods. Authorship is classified by institution, and the top seven authors by relative contribution are also identified. Both empirical and theoretical work are classified separately in different research methods.

These different dimensions provide a broad‐based review of the current profile of accounting research in South Africa.

Other refereed academic articles in the field of accounting have been published in non‐accounting specific SAPSE‐approved journals. These articles are also excluded from the scope of this research since the journals in which they are published have not been established by accounting academics specifically.

The motivation for doing this research is to identify the current profile of accounting research in South Africa that could be used as a basis for future research‐related development.

Knowledge of the profile of accounting research in South Africa could provide opportunities for scholars to expand identified research areas and explore methods that are currently under‐developed in the South African accountancy research field. The paper also acknowledges the contributions by the most prolific authors in the identified journals.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the application of social theory as conceptual methodology in the design of case study research.

The authors examine how social theory can be used to design case study research when the choice of theory is made before or during the empirical enquiry. Rather than simply presenting the elements of design, the focus is on the ways the elements relate and connect to each other, i.e. how a researcher can design each step to facilitate the work that needs to be done in the others.

A circular research design starts and finishes with the theory. The conceptual tools that social theories offer can be used to guide researchers into the empirical field and out of it. A conceptually driven design facilitates the interconnection between the various steps of a research project and can keep theory, research problem and data closely connected.

There is a role for systematic research design in interpretative case studies in management accounting and control. Although this paper uses strong structuration theory, the circular design proposed can be applied for other social theories and methodologies where an abductive approach is appropriate.

There are very few papers that explicitly demonstrate the implications of research design choices in case study research. In particular, the authors contribute to discussions on the conduct of interpretative research in management control and demonstrate that, especially for structuration theory, a conceptual methodology approach to research design, data collection and analysis can lead to theoretical insight.