Mixed Methods in Accounting Research: The Rationale and Research Designs

Mixed methods research is a wide field of study, and this paper laid the stage for integrating the enormous array of literature on mixed methods research. It examined what mixed methods research is, and the related strengths it has for accounting research. The article is written in the style of a literature review. It identifies and investigates essential definitions, possibilities, and risks in mixed methods studies by conducting extensive review on mixed methods research in a variety of social science fields. This allows the researcher to examine differences in how mixed methods research is conceptualized across different studies, and also assess the perceived benefits and limitations of specific mixed methods design choices. To this end, the researcher identifies a wide range of possibilities and challenges in conducting of mixed-methods research and demonstrates them with references to both published works as well as additional contributions to this special issue. Except for the use of mixed-method research in finance, there is a sparse discussion of the application and potential of mixed methods research in the existent accounting literature.