Breaking incommensurability boundaries? On the production and publication of interparadigmatic research
Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management
ISSN: 1176-6093
Article publication date: 29 August 2023
Issue publication date: 25 October 2023
Abstract
Purpose
This essay takes issue with the incommensurability thesis, which assumes that meaningful research work across different paradigms cannot occur. Could it be that the thesis understates the case for meaningful relationships to develop across paradigms? Is it possible that researchers can authentically and rewardingly collaborate across paradigms and create joint studies published in established journals?
Design/methodology/approach
Based on the observation that interparadigmatic research exists, the authors investigate two questions. How is interparadigmatic research expressed in the accounting research literature? How can we comprehend the process that underlies the development and publication of interparadigmatic research, focusing on cohabitation involving the positivist and interpretive paradigms of research?
Findings
To deal with the first question, the authors focus on two interparadigmatic articles: Greenwood et al. (2002) and Paugam et al. (2021). The authors find each article showcases a dominant paradigm – whereas the role of the other paradigm is represented as secondary; that is, complementing and enriching the dominant paradigm. To address the second question, the authors rely especially on their involvement as coauthors of three interparadigmatic studies, published between 2019 and 2022 in FT50 journals. The authors’ analysis brings to the fore a range of facilitators that fit their experiences, such as the development of cross-paradigmatic agreement within the authorship to cope with the complexity surrounding the object of study, the crafting of methodological compromises (e.g. regarding the number of documents to analyze) and the strategizing that the authorship enacted in dealing with journal gatekeepers.
Originality/value
From the authors’ experiences, they develop a model, which provides a tentative template to make sense of the process by which interparadigmatic research takes place. The model highlights the role of what the authors call “epistemic mediation” in producing interparadigmatic studies.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge comments from Editor Lukas Goretzki, discussant Steven Salterio, two reviewers and participants at the 2021 Association francophone de comptabilité (AFC) Annual Meeting (Bordeaux, France) and the 2023 Canadian Academic Accounting Association (CAAA) Conference (Québec City, Québec). The authors thank Beverly Akerman for her much-appreciated editorial help. Responsibility for the ideas expressed, or for any errors, remains entirely with the authors. Hervé Stolowy expresses his thanks to the HEC Foundation (9B82F1901+) for funding the research project. Luc Paugam acknowledges the financial support of S&O Institute. Luc Paugam and Hervé Stolowy are members of the GREGHEC, CNRS Unit, UMR 2959.
Citation
Gendron, Y., Paugam, L. and Stolowy, H. (2023), "Breaking incommensurability boundaries? On the production and publication of interparadigmatic research", Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management, Vol. 20 No. 5, pp. 675-694. https://doi.org/10.1108/QRAM-09-2022-0147
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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