Challenges and Best-practice Recommendations for Designing and Conducting Interviews with Elite Informants

Angelo M. Solarino; Herman Aguinis

doi:10.1111/joms.12620

Challenges and Best-practice Recommendations for Designing and Conducting Interviews with Elite Informants

Angelo M. Solarino^*, Herman Aguinis

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

Elite informants (i.e., those in the upper echelon of organizations) are a key data source for building and testing theories in management research. We offer best-practice recommendations to overcome challenges in designing and conducting interviews with elite informants (EIs) based on a comprehensive and multidisciplinary literature review and information provided by subject matter experts (i.e., authors of recently published articles that included EI interviews). Given unique characteristics of EIs and differences compared to interviewing non-EIs, we provide recommendations on how to address challenges related to: (1) research design (e.g., what is the best order for the interviews?); (2) data collection (e.g., how can researchers access EIs? what is the best format for the interview? how can researchers obtain more honest responses?); and (3) reporting of results (i.e., what information should researchers report and to whom?). Finally, we offer suggestions for future EI research focusing on methodological issues.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	649-672
Number of pages	24
Journal	Journal of Management Studies
Volume	58
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/joms.12620
Publication status	Published - May 2021
Externally published	Yes

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
We thank the following individuals (and 9 additional ones who wished to remain anonymous) for generously sharing their wisdom and expertise about challenges and solutions in interviewing elite informants: Tina Ambos (U. of Geneva), Shahzad Ansari (U. of Cambridge), Julian Birkinshaw (London Business School), Cyril Bouquet (IMD Business School), Donal Crilly (London Business School), Fleur Deken (VU University), J.P. Egger (New York U.), Shmuel Ellis (Tel Aviv U.), Yair Friedman (Tel Aviv U.), Shane Greenstein (Harvard Business School), Yidi Guo (Tsinghua U.), Joern Hoppmann (U. of Oldenburg), Michael G. Jacobides (London Business School), John Joseph (U. of California), Nadine Kammerlander (WHU), Gareth Keeves (U. of Michigan), Ji Youn (Rose) Kim (U. of Kentucky), Mary Dean Lee (McGill U.), Michael Mannor (U. of Notre Dame), Felipe Monteiro (INSEAD), Jennifer Oetzel (American U.), Chang Hoon Oh (Simon Fraser U.), Elizabeth Pontikes (U. of California), Mia Raynard (WU Vienna), Yuliya Snihur (TBS Business School), Vangelis Souitaris (City U. of London), Madeline Toubiana (U. of Alberta), Pieter Vandekerkhof (U. of Hasselt), Dennis Veltrop (U. of Groningen), Heather Vough (U. of Cincinnati), Timo Vuori (Aalto U.), Ruxi Wang (Renmin U.), Jim Westphal (U. of Michigan), Maggie Zhou (U. of Michigan), and Christoph Zott (IESE).

Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 The Authors. Journal of Management Studies published by Society for the Advancement of Management Studies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd

Funding

We thank the following individuals (and 9 additional ones who wished to remain anonymous) for generously sharing their wisdom and expertise about challenges and solutions in interviewing elite informants: Tina Ambos (U. of Geneva), Shahzad Ansari (U. of Cambridge), Julian Birkinshaw (London Business School), Cyril Bouquet (IMD Business School), Donal Crilly (London Business School), Fleur Deken (VU University), J.P. Egger (New York U.), Shmuel Ellis (Tel Aviv U.), Yair Friedman (Tel Aviv U.), Shane Greenstein (Harvard Business School), Yidi Guo (Tsinghua U.), Joern Hoppmann (U. of Oldenburg), Michael G. Jacobides (London Business School), John Joseph (U. of California), Nadine Kammerlander (WHU), Gareth Keeves (U. of Michigan), Ji Youn (Rose) Kim (U. of Kentucky), Mary Dean Lee (McGill U.), Michael Mannor (U. of Notre Dame), Felipe Monteiro (INSEAD), Jennifer Oetzel (American U.), Chang Hoon Oh (Simon Fraser U.), Elizabeth Pontikes (U. of California), Mia Raynard (WU Vienna), Yuliya Snihur (TBS Business School), Vangelis Souitaris (City U. of London), Madeline Toubiana (U. of Alberta), Pieter Vandekerkhof (U. of Hasselt), Dennis Veltrop (U. of Groningen), Heather Vough (U. of Cincinnati), Timo Vuori (Aalto U.), Ruxi Wang (Renmin U.), Jim Westphal (U. of Michigan), Maggie Zhou (U. of Michigan), and Christoph Zott (IESE).

Keywords

elite informants
methodology
qualitative research
review

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10.1111/joms.12620

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Cite this

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title = "Challenges and Best-practice Recommendations for Designing and Conducting Interviews with Elite Informants",

abstract = "Elite informants (i.e., those in the upper echelon of organizations) are a key data source for building and testing theories in management research. We offer best-practice recommendations to overcome challenges in designing and conducting interviews with elite informants (EIs) based on a comprehensive and multidisciplinary literature review and information provided by subject matter experts (i.e., authors of recently published articles that included EI interviews). Given unique characteristics of EIs and differences compared to interviewing non-EIs, we provide recommendations on how to address challenges related to: (1) research design (e.g., what is the best order for the interviews?); (2) data collection (e.g., how can researchers access EIs? what is the best format for the interview? how can researchers obtain more honest responses?); and (3) reporting of results (i.e., what information should researchers report and to whom?). Finally, we offer suggestions for future EI research focusing on methodological issues.",

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note = "Funding Information: We thank the following individuals (and 9 additional ones who wished to remain anonymous) for generously sharing their wisdom and expertise about challenges and solutions in interviewing elite informants: Tina Ambos (U. of Geneva), Shahzad Ansari (U. of Cambridge), Julian Birkinshaw (London Business School), Cyril Bouquet (IMD Business School), Donal Crilly (London Business School), Fleur Deken (VU University), J.P. Egger (New York U.), Shmuel Ellis (Tel Aviv U.), Yair Friedman (Tel Aviv U.), Shane Greenstein (Harvard Business School), Yidi Guo (Tsinghua U.), Joern Hoppmann (U. of Oldenburg), Michael G. Jacobides (London Business School), John Joseph (U. of California), Nadine Kammerlander (WHU), Gareth Keeves (U. of Michigan), Ji Youn (Rose) Kim (U. of Kentucky), Mary Dean Lee (McGill U.), Michael Mannor (U. of Notre Dame), Felipe Monteiro (INSEAD), Jennifer Oetzel (American U.), Chang Hoon Oh (Simon Fraser U.), Elizabeth Pontikes (U. of California), Mia Raynard (WU Vienna), Yuliya Snihur (TBS Business School), Vangelis Souitaris (City U. of London), Madeline Toubiana (U. of Alberta), Pieter Vandekerkhof (U. of Hasselt), Dennis Veltrop (U. of Groningen), Heather Vough (U. of Cincinnati), Timo Vuori (Aalto U.), Ruxi Wang (Renmin U.), Jim Westphal (U. of Michigan), Maggie Zhou (U. of Michigan), and Christoph Zott (IESE). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2020 The Authors. Journal of Management Studies published by Society for the Advancement of Management Studies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd",

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doi = "10.1111/joms.12620",

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Challenges and Best-practice Recommendations for Designing and Conducting Interviews with Elite Informants

Abstract

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Keywords

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