MANAGEMENT RESEARCH METHODOLOGY: PROSPECTS AND LINKS TO PRACTICE Available to Purchase

Future developments in methodology have the potential to improve management research and better couple it to management practice. These developments are on six fronts: (1) computer technology, (2) data capture and experimentation, (3) privacy, confidentiality, and data access, (4) causation, (5) modeling and simulation, and (6) Bayesian statistics. The potential of each is explored, and problems, both technical and administrative, in fulfilling this potential are identified. On the computer and communications front, the key elements are the use of relational database management systems, increased computing power for analysis purposes, and computer networking. On the privacy, confidentiality, and data access front, the key elements are new capabilities for data capture through real‐time surveillance, inferential disclosure threats in computer databases, the demand for more access to detailed data, and public concerns for privacy invasion. Management research is a search for causal mechanisms that can be investigated through empirical studies and that facilitate control of complex processes. In the modeling area, there will be (1) greater use of computing power, (2) less use of model‐independent statistical hypothesis testing, and (3) easier to use computer software for modeling and simulation. The Bayesian perspective of consistently expressing uncertainty through probability distributions will become more widely used in management research.