<ARTICLES>Qualitative Data Collection and Analysis: Some Methodological Reflections

Abstract

This article revisits the author's doctoral research (2006-2011), and more specifically its qualitative data collection and analysis. The research topic was interfirm relations in the automotive industry, with case studies in two major automobile clusters in France/Germany and Japan. I chose an empirical and qualitative approach that involved interviewing 56 company representatives and observing the labor process in 50 factories. The data collection and analysis mainly derived from the elaboration of an interview guide with reference to previous theories directly or indirectly related to the topic. Roughly twelve years later, I reexamine and compare this analytical framework with some guidelines from grounded theory, a major methodological approach to data collection and analysis in social sciences. Contrary to the conventional viewpoint that an extensive literature review prior the data collection helps the researcher to define his/her perspective and focus, it postulates that the social scientist can “discover” or generate hypotheses and theories from the systematic comparison of data and creation of codes without the interference of previous theories. In this view, the literature might obstruct the generation of theories grounded in the data. This attempt to consider and examine the contribution of grounded theory to conducting qualitative research is also an invitation for young social researchers to bear in mind the relevance of the systematic, iterative, and dynamic dialogue between the collection of empirical data and prior theories.