The necessity, logic, and forms of replication

426

327

Research Summary: We used interviews with elite informants as a case study to illustrate the need to expand the discussion of transparency and replicability to qualitative methodology. An analysis of 52 articles published in Strategic Management Journal revealed that none of them were sufficiently transparent to allow for exact replication, empirical replication, or conceptual replication. We offer 12 transparency criteria, and behaviorally-anchored ratings scales to measure them, that can be used by authors as they plan and conduct qualitative research as well as by journal reviewers and editors when they evaluate the transparency of submitted manuscripts. We hope our article will serve as a catalyst for improving the degree of transparency and replicability of future qualitative research. Managerial Summary: If organizations implement practices based on published research, will they produce results consistent with those reported in the articles? To answer this question, it is critical that published articles be transparent in terms of what has been done, why, and how. We investigated 52 articles published in Strategic Management Journal that reported interviewing elite informants (e.g., members of the top management team) and found that none of the articles were sufficiently transparent. These results lead to thorny questions about the trustworthiness of published research, but also important opportunities for future improvements about research transparency and replicability. We offer recommendations on 12 transparency criteria, and how to measure them, that can be used to evaluate past as well as future research using qualitative methods.

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 62%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transparency and replicability in qualitative research: The case of interviews with elite informants

Aguinis

Solarino

2019

426

327

“…Debates abound about proper placebo pool selection and use of matching techniques, which can lead to controversies and justify the importance of replication in our field (see controversy on financial activism: Bebchuk, Brav, Jiang, & Keusch, 2017;Cremers, Giambona, Sepe, & Wang, 2018). Furthermore, quasi-replications as defined by Bettis et al (2016) allow to go beyond statistical matching issues and confirmation tests by facilitating the analysis of different theories (e.g., CSR activism vs. CSR visibility).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Attention to several elements might be useful in testing the robustness of the study, including assumptions about relevant comparison groups, use of alternative analytic techniques, and considering possible outcomes beyond stock market price reactions. Our study offers a quasi‐replication (Bettis, Helfat, & Shaver, , fig. 3) and extends the study in order to examine the robustness of their results and whether additional insights can be drawn from this particular empirical setting (Ethiraj, Gambardella, & Helfat, )…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Do investors actually value sustainability indices? Replication, development, and new evidence on CSR visibility

Durand

Paugam

Stolowy

2019

142

Research Summary In this study, we replicate and expand Hawn et al.’s study (Strategic Management Journal, 2018, 39, 949–976) that used Dow Jones Sustainability World Index (DJSI) events to measure variations in firms' Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)‐activism and examined their effect on a firm's stock price. We use DJSI events to capture variations in firms' CSR visibility, holding CSR activism constant by restricting our analyses to CSR‐equivalent firms. First, we find similar results on stock price (i.e., no impact) and on trading volumes. Second, because professional market participants pay more attention to CSR‐oriented firms and use visible cues such as DJSI events, we study and find that additions to DJSI lead to more analysts following a firm, and that continuations on the DJSI lead to an increase in equity being held by long‐term investors. Managerial Summary We replicate and complement a recent study that showed that the events of a firm's addition, continuation, or deletion in a major sustainability index (DJSI) had little impact on stock market reactions (Hawn et al. Strategic Management Journal, 2018, 39, 949–976). We redefine the comparison set that was previously used and compare across observationally equivalent firms in terms of CSR orientation in order to isolate the visibility effect of DJSI events. We find that these events do not significantly impact stock price and trading volumes. However, we expand the analysis and find that sustainability events attract more attention from financial analysts and lead to an increase in the percentage of shares held by long‐term investors indicative of a trend that professional investors pay more attention to CSR‐visible firms over time.

“…As for the design of our study, we adopt a quasi–replication (see Bettis, Helfat, & Shaver, ), that is, we employ the same specification and tests adopted in the original study in a different context. The sample context of their study was the United States, and adopted the state as the boundary for agglomeration benefits, mainly because “previous studies of foreign investment location show that the state is an important spatial unit that foreign investors consider when making direct investment location choices” (SF, 2000: 1181).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Location and survival of MNEs' subsidiaries: Agglomeration and heterogeneity of firms

Mariotti

Mosconi

Piscitello

2019

Research summary Our study provides a quasi–replication of Shaver and Flyer (2000), which was among the first studies that challenged the positive role of agglomeration in determining companies' location choice and performances, thus changing the way management scholars view companies' attitude towards agglomeration forces. We employ the same research design, specification and tests, and a different population, to discuss the generalizability of the original study. Building on the framework of Shaver and Flyer (2000), our findings offer intriguing new empirical evidence highlighting the importance of the differential between entering foreign firms and host country firms as a crucial condition in understanding agglomeration forces and adverse selection mechanisms. Managerial summary Our exercise confirms that agglomeration forces act differently on stronger versus weaker multinational enterprises (MNEs). However, we find that stronger MNEs tend to avoid location in highly specialized areas when they are afraid of knowledge leakages towards host country–based rivals that have enough absorptive capacity to benefit and improve their competitive advantages. Managerial implications are quite relevant. Indeed, when MNEs avoid co–location in highly specialized areas, they also limit their own access to local knowledge and other agglomeration economies, such as supply networks and qualified workforce. Thus, MNEs managers need to design and implement devices that, on the one hand prevent local leakages of their knowledge and, on the other, do not hinder their access to local unique knowledge and resources.