Purposeful sampling and saturation in qualitative research methodologies: recommendations and review

Abstract

Qualitative research has been flourishing in business and management research over the past decades. The insights gathered from rich qualitative data fundamentally depend on the analyzed subjects and case(s). Hence, highly substantial to qualitative research is how to achieve purposeful case selection and saturation of cases and informants. Our study reviews previous research on purposeful case selection and saturation. We specify that considering the level of analysis is particularly challenging in business and management research as cases are not typically individuals but rather aggregated individuals or collective entities, such as units, organizations, or types of organizations. Furthermore, informants and cases can provide coherent or differing information (‘harmony’ and ‘discord’) on different levels and across informants or cases so influencing purposeful selection and especially saturation. Our study zooms in on three qualitative approaches in business and management research: the so-called Gioia, the Eisenhardt, and the flexible pattern matching approach. We review how empirical studies following those approaches have explained the purposeful case selection and the saturation as well as what number of informants and cases they used. From these reviews, we deduct critical reflections, considerations, and guidelines about harmony and discord when including different informants and cases in the qualitative research process.