Using Grounded Theory to Avoid Research Misconduct in management Science

In this article, I show that several of the most common forms of research misconduct in quantitative research in management science could be avoided if researchers made open, comprehensive use of the well-established Grounded Theory paradigm when using quantitative data. Investigating various mainstream management research outlets, I found that this is scarcely ever the case. I propose some viable alternatives for the design of quantitative and mixed studies in management science. If these alternatives are used, researchers could follow the main basic assumptions that lie at the roots of Grounded Theory, and make sure these assumptions are clearly stated in order to avoid being pushed toward episodes of misconduct that have become common in the field of management science.