Abstract

Today more and more researchers publish their qualitative works in top management and accounting journals. The contribution of this approach in management and accounting studies continues to gather momentum. Policy maker both in public and private sectors are increasingly recognizing the important and value of this method since it offers detail and rich analysis of management and accounting in an organization. However, there are still many researchers in these fields are reluctant or even reject to employ this method arguing that qualitative approach is not scientific and the results are also not scientific. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to discuss the issue of using qualitative method in management and accounting studies. The paper is started by looking the conceptualization of qualitative research. After that, a paradoxical view of qualitative and quantitative methods is discussed. This is followed by discussions of using qualitative research in management and accounting studies. Finally, the use of interpretive case study will be reviewed and discussed in this paper.