The Comparative Method and Comparative Management: Uneasy Bedfellows or Natural Partners?

The article considers the relationship between the comparative method and comparative management research. It begins with a comparison of quantitative and qualitative approaches and delineates the distinctive place of the comparative method. The comparative method originated in disciplinary fields such as comparative politics and comparative sociology, which took countries or societies as the main units of analysis. Since management research is mainly concerned with organisation-level practices and strategies, the comparative method and comparative management were perceived as 'uneasy bedfellows'. However, recently there has been a resurgence of the use of comparative methodologies in management research. The article highlights two developments linked with this trend. On the one hand, methodological innovations in Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) opened up new opportunities for the analysis of medium-N samples. On the other hand, the stream of comparative capitalisms and business systems provided a springboard to compare across countries, whilst using industries or organisations as the unit of analysis. Overall, the article argues that these theoretical and methodological developments suggest that the comparative method is a 'natural partner' of comparative management, and that the renewed relevance and deeper engagement with comparative methodology is set to further enrich methodological pluralism in international management research.