Doing Exemplary Research

Doing Exemplary Research is one of my favorite books because it is one of the most open and least contained books, out of whose intertextuality many other possible books can be written, journeys made, and exemplars established. It is a book that does much more than it says. It is capable of many readings, diverse indexing, and possible trajectories. It works, despite itself on occasion, as a postmodern text, rewritten every time it is read. Stewart Clegg in Contempory Sociology "The pieces by the original authors are very illuminating about the false starts, frustrations, and interpersonal problems in doing research in organizations, as well as difficulties associated with getting material published. In the book's last two chapters, the editors explore the common themes in the preceding chapters and then speculate about the broader significance of the seven exemplars. These two chapters are excellent and more insightful than most of the commentaries. Frost and Stablein reveal a number of common themes which are well illustrated with examples from the preceding discussions. . . . The book provides an excellent introduction to the nature of the research process as it is lived by researchers . . . as such it will be of immense use to students of research methodology." --Organization Studies "I could scarcely put Doing Exemplary Research down until I had finished it. I found it engrossing and enlightening. . . . Your book is the richest of all the texts and readings on organizational sociology to which I have been exposed. . . . You have made a tremendous contribution to my knowledge of the field and growth as a social scientist!" --Marcia R. Prior-Miller, Iowa State University "This book is an unusual and valuable one on how research in the social sciences is actually carried out. . . . The book's structure is itself innovative. . . . Frost and Stablein have themselves achieved a piece of exemplary research in this book. I found it engrossing and rewarding reading, and enthusiastically recommend it to anyone interested in how social scientists actually go about the process of doing good research. Its messages are of particular practical value to younger members of the research community who should benefit even more from their second and third readings. It could make the basis of a good short course within any post-graduate research program in business studies." --Creativity and Innovation Management "By having both junior and senior scholars reflect on the work that led up to their exemplary research publications, this book provides valuable insights into the contemplation, speculation, perspiration and frustration that constitute successful research. The emphasis on process in Doing Exemplary Research is unique and the book deserves a wide readership in all fields of management and the social sciences. In my class the students from mathematics, economics, and behavioral science backgrounds all found the book informative and, indeed, inspiring." --Kenneth R. MacCrimmon, E. D. MacPhee Professor of Management, University of British Columbia "Absorbing. Instructive. These are at least two of the terms that best describe this book for me. It is absorbing in the sense that any good book of short stories draws readers in and holds their interest tightly from one chapter to the next--virtually a 'can't put it down until I've finished' volume. It is, then, thoroughly engrossing in a charmingly engaging manner. However, the book is also much more than that--much more than the proverbial 'good read.' This is because it is also highly instructive in the way in which it makes you think and ponder while you are perusing it. No one, rookies or veterans alike, can come away from this collection of commentaries and observations without having learned something at a deeper level than before about the research process. This volume illuminates and teaches as well as entertains. . . . Together with their elicitation of authors' and experts' commentaries and their own analyses, (Frost and Stablein) have produced an exemplary book." --from the Foreword by Lyman Porter "This is a work of the spirit. It is an edited collection of moral journeys into the inner life and craft of scientific research in organization studies. . . . This format offers enlightening juxtapositions of the viewpoints of writers and readers of each research study and of the front-stage and back-stage goings-on of each research study. These juxtapositions also make for a dramatic structure that builds and holds the reader's interest. . . . Instead of lording over the reader with textbook commandments about how research ought to be done (commandments that confirm us all in sin), it beseeches the reader with moral stories of research done well. Far from the canonical ideal, these stories depict a research process that includes more error, more success, more effort, more serendipity, more despair, more humor, and more human drama. Charming anecdotes abound. . . . (These stories also) depict a research process that is a complex and nuanced whole, rather than a stylized construction of logical steps and simple techniques." --Lloyd Sandelands, University of Michigan Research is a curious process of immersion in ideas and data, passion, insight, challenge, uncertainty, persistence, and learning regardless of the outcome. Once in a while there comes along a book that opens a window on the research process, giving research a human face by introducing the human element into a methodical process. Doing Exemplary Research is just such a book. These fascinating recollections of research journeys provide an array of ideas and insights about how research takes place that leads to exemplary outcomes. Contributions feature recollections by the researchers on the origins, experiences, and outcomes of the studies and original expert commentaries upon those classic models. An exciting inside look at the give and take of scholarly collaboration and the process of doing empirical research, the candid accounts and revealing commentaries in this volume seek to demystify the research process and provide inspiration for future research. Doing Exemplary Research is an essential resource for advanced undergraduate and graduate students, as well as researchers across the social sciences. It will be of special interest to those in the organizational sciences, including organizational consultants, managers, and other professionals.