The Poor and Embarrassing Cousin to the Gentrified Quantitative Academics: What Determines the Sample Size in Qualitative Interview-Based Organization Studies?

Authors

  • Eneli Kindsiko University of Tartu
  • Helen Poltimäe University of Tartu

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-20.3.3200

Keywords:

qualitative research, interview, saturation point, organization studies, sample size

Abstract

It is essential for scholars to reflect on their research practices and critically assess scientific rigor. In the current article, we aim to critically review the state of qualitative research in organization studies by focusing on trends in sample sizes. Organizational scholars presenting qualitative, interview-based manuscripts tend to face the ongoing challenge of how many interviews are enough. The research reported in this article, covering 11 years and investigating 855 interview-based studies, provides empirical evidence that, across the years, the number of interviews seems to be rather high. The total sample included studies with more than 100 interviews (7% of the sample), more than 50 interviews (34%) and studies with more than 30 interviews (62%). Furthermore, when studies start to increase in sample size, they often do so at the expense of homogeneity across respondents. We conclude by giving some possible explanations for why we are facing such a situation today.

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Author Biographies

Eneli Kindsiko, University of Tartu

Eneli KINDSIKO is an associate professor of qualitative research at the School of Economics and Business Administration, University of Tartu in Estonia. She holds a double master degree in philosophy (2010) and economics (2013) and a doctoral degree in economics (2014) from University of Tartu. Her main research interests are within the field of qualitative research, management, academic career, and career patterns of PhDs.

Helen Poltimäe, University of Tartu

Helen POLTIMÄE is a lecturer in economic modeling at the School of Economics and Business Administration, University of Tartu in Estonia. She holds a master degree (cum laude) in economics (2008) and a doctoral degree (2014) from University of Tartu. In her PhD thesis, she modeled the different effects of Estonian environmental taxes. She has participated in several projects related to environmental economics and supervised students in applying quantitative methodology. She is teaching courses related to quantitative research methods, statistics and econometrics.

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Published

2019-09-26

How to Cite

Kindsiko, E., & Poltimäe, H. (2019). The Poor and Embarrassing Cousin to the Gentrified Quantitative Academics: What Determines the Sample Size in Qualitative Interview-Based Organization Studies?. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 20(3). https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-20.3.3200