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Article
The Ethnographic Method in CSR Research: The Role and Importance of Methodological Fit
Business & Society
  • A. Erin Bass, University of Nebraska at Omaha
  • Ivana Milosevec, University of Wisconsin - Oshkosh
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
5-13-2016
Abstract

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) research has burgeoned in the past several decades. Despite significant advances, our review of the literature reveals a problematic gap: We know little about how culture, practices, and interactions shape CSR. On further investigation, we discover that limited research utilizes ethnography to understand CSR, which may provide some explanation for this gap. Thus, the purpose of this article is to illustrate the utility of ethnography for advancing business and society research via a multistage framework that demonstrates how three different types of ethnography may be applied to the exploration of CSR. We specifically focus on the alignment between stages in the research process, or methodological fit, as a key criterion of high-quality research. In doing so, we provide researchers embracing different worldviews a tool they may utilize to conduct and evaluate ethnographies in business and society research.

Comments

The final published version of this article can be found here: http://bas.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/05/10/0007650316648666.abstract.

Citation Information
A. Erin Bass and Ivana Milosevec. "The Ethnographic Method in CSR Research: The Role and Importance of Methodological Fit" Business & Society (2016)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/A_Bass/29/