Towards the roadmap of engaging with counterfactuals in qualitative research: using counterfactuals for theory building in management and entrepreneurship studies

This record contains the dataset and review protocol to replicate the project “ Towards the roadmap of engaging with counterfactuals in qualitative research: using counterfactuals for theory building in management and entrepreneurship studies” The stored documents are subject to restricted access and will be made publicly available once the study is published. Scientific abstract: Counterfactuals run counter to the facts, theoretically accepted knowledge, current situations, and status quo in the given context. Counterfactuals as a tool for generating and framing alternative explanations, uncovering deeper details about phenomena, and establishing plausible causal relationships offer a substantial methodological refinement, especially in qualitative studies. Since qualitative research deals with the complexity of phenomena by allowing researchers to collect rich descriptions, to examine the phenomena more closely and in-depth, counterfactuals provide a welcome tool for extending the scope of such alternative explanations beyond what appears. Shedding light on how to use counterfactuals for theory-building purposes is pivotal given the ongoing discussion on rigorous reasoning, which emphasizes considering rigor throughout the iterative process involving the development of reasoning skills and disciplined imagination in theory-building. Nevertheless, we currently do not know whether and how counterfactuals are used in qualitative research. This research project aims to focus on the role of counterfactuals in qualitative theory-building via two research questions: How are counterfactuals used in qualitative research a) in management studies, and b) in entrepreneurship studies? To demonstrate this, this research offers a review of published papers in top management and entrepreneurship journals to present actual practices and provide a deeper understanding of the gains that materialize from engaging with counterfactuals. Finally, in light of the review of actual practices, this project aims to demonstrate a different way of engaging with counterfactuals and the benefits of employing counterfactuals in the diverse stages of qualitative theory building in management and entrepreneurship studies. Qualitative researchers will gain from this study when designing, conducting, and writing up their qualitative research for scientific discovery, as well as other stakeholders such as reviewers, editors, and even readers.