Using Eisenhardt's Method to Study Ethnic Entrepreneurial Communities

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to explain the Eisenhardt case based method of theory development using an example of a study on ethnic entrepreneurial communities in Karachi. The paper servers' two purposes: (a) It serves as a guide, for the future researchers studying the entrepreneurial activity in Pakistani context, to establish the internal validity of the methodology which can be challenging particularly when the data is in the form of subjective responses of participants with a traditional sociocultural background. (b) To ensure the reliability of a case based study the detailed articulation of the research methodology is necessary, so that the future researchers can conveniently replicate the process. For these reasons the paper goes in detail to explain the intricacies and challenges faced during the nine stage process of data collection, processing, triangulation and analysis, while ensuring the internal validity of the analysis. Discussion on the outcome of the research is not included as it will require a separate paper.

The heuristics applied by tech entrepreneurs in the Middle East during opportunity evaluation

“…The method can be applied to analyze data and deduce meaningful results from the studied cases. Its appeal in qualitative research is that it combines the techniques of two well-applied methods: grounded theory and the case-study method (Javaid and Hyder, 2018). Thus, it can combine multiple data streams generated in different formats (e.g.…”

“…The analysis is comprehensive and involves both within-case and cross-case analyses. This process allows the researcher to recognize patterns or trends across multiple cases (Javaid and Hyder, 2018).…”