IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/rajsxx/v11y2019i4p513-522.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Beyond the ‘usual suspects’ – Alternative qualitative methods for innovation policy studies

Author

Listed:
  • Nadja Nordling
  • Rhiannon Pugh

Abstract

In this paper we make three points about the current state and promising future directions of qualitative research in our field of innovation policy research. First, we argue that research design and methods are dealt with quite superficially in most innovation policy studies papers and journals providing little guidance to new scholars as to how to approach their research. Secondly we argue that when methods are discussed, it tends to be a narrow range of qualitative methods that are used – most commonly a case study approach drawing on interviews and document analysis. Thirdly, we suggest broadening our approach to contain more participatory and action-based research; these are suggested as ways to include more groups in the research design, increase the impact of our work and allow us a deeper understanding of the formulation and development of innovation policy as is possible. We do not argue that the old methods should be put aside but that new additional approaches could be considered to capture the essence of innovation policy formulation.

Suggested Citation

  • Nadja Nordling & Rhiannon Pugh, 2019. "Beyond the ‘usual suspects’ – Alternative qualitative methods for innovation policy studies," African Journal of Science, Technology, Innovation and Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(4), pages 513-522, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:rajsxx:v:11:y:2019:i:4:p:513-522
    DOI: 10.1080/20421338.2018.1537106
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20421338.2018.1537106
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/20421338.2018.1537106?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:rajsxx:v:11:y:2019:i:4:p:513-522. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/rajs .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.