Retrospective reports of strategic‐level managers: Guidelines for increasing their accuracy
- 1 April 1985
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Wiley in Strategic Management Journal
- Vol. 6 (2) , 171-180
- https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.4250060206
Abstract
Strategic management studies frequently involve obtaining retrospective data from strategic‐level managers. The use of this data acquisition methodology has received relatively little codification and little critical review or comment. This seems unfortunate, as discussion and codification of the methodology could be useful for those academic researchers and corporate staff who study strategic decisions and organizational processes and for those managers who may be asked to provide the retrospective data. This paper is an attempt to remedy the current state of affairs. In particular, the paper reviews several sources of the data inaccuracies that commonly affect retrospective data and offers guidelines for reducing the occurrence or magnitude of these inaccuracies.This publication has 37 references indexed in Scilit:
- Strategic Decisions in Government-Controlled EnterprisesAdministration & Society, 1981
- Documentary Sources and Strategic Management ResearchAcademy of Management Review, 1979
- The Intentional Distortion of Information in Organizational Communication: A Laboratory and Field InvestigationHuman Relations, 1978
- Judgment under Uncertainty: Heuristics and BiasesScience, 1974
- Belief in the law of small numbers.Psychological Bulletin, 1971
- Conflicting Group Norms and the "Third" Person in the InterviewAmerican Journal of Sociology, 1962
- Upward Communication in Industrial HierarchiesHuman Relations, 1962
- Interviewing the Business EliteAmerican Journal of Sociology, 1957
- The Informant in Quantitative ResearchAmerican Journal of Sociology, 1955