Natural language processing techniques in management research

Numerous applications of machine learning have gained wide acceptance in the field of management research only in the last decade. Natural Language Processing as well as Machine Learning algorithms enable the organizational researcher to peer into new streams of data and derive insights unavailable from traditional data sources. As textual information becomes more available to researchers and the tools needed to extract information out of textual data become more accessible, many new avenues for research open to those comfortable using these tools. This chapter covers NLP methods and points to a variety of research articles as examples. Core machine learning concepts and popular machine learning classification algorithms are reviewed, together with tools, libraries, and languages that enable non-programmers and programmers alike to run ML algorithms. The chapter ends with a discussion of risks of use of ML in organizations, with insights drawn from the ML fairness literature.