Collaborative Research Design: Working with Business for Meaningful Results (Contributions to Management Science)

This book offers a comprehensive exploration of research methods for investigating business management processes, emphasizing the integration of academia and practice. It introduces innovative approaches that acknowledge the business community as stakeholders and advocates for their active involvement in the research process. With a focus on understanding the thoughts and behaviors of business managers, the book showcases a range of contemporary research methods. It challenges traditional research designs by presenting fresh perspectives on literature reviews, interviews, and observation studies. Additionally, it explores cutting-edge techniques such as vignettes, workshops, improvisation, theater, and computer-based simulation. The book also addresses data capture, generation, and analysis, incorporating various models, computer-aided text analysis, and innovative data display methods. By linking research philosophy with different research methods, the book highlights the importance of aligning reality and beliefs in driving knowledge creation. 

Ultimately, the book advocates for a more collaborative and co-created approach to research, fostering rigorous relevance in business market contexts. Written by experienced researchers in both academia and applied business research, the book presents carefully curated chapters that provide valuable insights into business management processes. It appeals to business researchers aiming to bridge the gap between theory and practice, engaging both practitioners and the academic audience in meaningful research endeavors.

Per Vagn Freytag is a Professor of Marketing at the University of Southern Denmark. His main area of research is business-to-business marketing, specifically segmentation and portfolio planning, with a focus on dyads and networks and understanding collaboration between firms. Throughout his career, he has been heavily involved in substantial knowledge-sharing and collaboration activities between universities and public and private firms and in developing methods suited for researching them.

Louise Young is an Emeritus Professor of Marketing at the University of Western Sydney (Australia) and was for many years a Visiting Professor at the University of Southern Denmark. Her research focuses on business relationships and networks and the methods best suited for researching them.  She is widely known for her pioneering work on trust and cooperation in business relationships. She also works in the areas of complexity theory and the way complexity manifests in networks and influences their nature and evolution. 

Majbritt Rostgaard Evald is an Associate Professor of Intrapreneurship and Organization at the University of Southern Denmark. Her field of specialization is Public-Private Innovation partnerships in which she explores inter-organizational innovation activities taking place across the private and public sectors. Among other things she researches issues of collaboration, implementation, commercialization and scaling.