UCL School of Management

Research project

Visualization in qualitative research

Summary

Visualization of emerging theoretical ideas has always been central to my work. I extensively use tables to organize my observations and ensure systematic support for tentative interpretations. This ongoing project, in collaboration with other like-minded colleagues and friends, combines my own experience with an analysis of other researchers’ work to try to articulate how visualization supports theorizing in qualitative research. The ambition is not only to provide practical guidance to novice scholars but also to help unravel, more generally, the black box of theorizing from qualitative data.  

Relevance

Over the years, this project has inspired the content of doctoral seminars and several professional development workshops around the world. This content is constantly refined to incorporate new experiences and observations, and has resulted in a few invited pieces aimed at sharing these reflections more generally (Ravasi, 2017; Langley & Ravasi, 2019; Cloutier & Ravasi, 2020). 

Selected publications

Ravasi, D. (2017). Visualizing our way through theory building. Journal of Management Inquiry, 26 (2), 240-243. doi:10.1177/1056492616680575 [link]
Langley, A., & Ravasi, D. (2019). VISUAL ARTIFACTS AS TOOLS FOR ANALYSIS AND THEORIZING. In T. B. Zilber, J. M. Amis, J. Mair (Eds.), PRODUCTION OF MANAGERIAL KNOWLEDGE AND ORGANIZATIONAL THEORY: NEW APPROACHES TO WRITING, PRODUCING AND CONSUMING THEORY (pp. 173-199). EMERALD GROUP PUBLISHING LTD. doi:10.1108/S0733-558X20190000059010 [link]
Ravasi, D. (2019). Interpreting aesthetic video data. M@n@gement, 22 (2), 316-335.
Cloutier, C., & Ravasi, D. (2021). Using tables to enhance trustworthiness in qualitative research. Strategic Organization. doi:10.1177/1476127020979329 [link]
Last updated Saturday, 21 November 2020

Author

Research groups

Organisations & Innovation

Research areas

Organization theory

Research topics

Research methods