Methodological wishes for the next decade and how to make wishes come true

Abstract

We discuss seven methodological improvements that would stimulate important advancements in management research. We refer to these improvements as 'wishes' that we hope will materialize within the next decade. To promote the implementation of these improvements, we offer concrete and actionable recommendations that researchers can apply when designing and conducting empirical research and that journal editors and reviewers can consider when evaluating manuscripts for publication. These improvements address: (1) accelerating theoretical progress; (2) improving the construct validity of measures; (3) strengthening causal inferences; (4) incorporating multilevel design, measurement, and analysis; (5) balancing trade-offs between internal and external validity, (6) understanding the nature and impact of outliers; and (7) offering a realistic and useful description of a study's limitations. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd and Society for the Advancement of Management Studies.