Conducting interorganizational research using key informants

• Main Authors: KUMAR, Nirmalya, STERN, Louis W., ANDERSON, James C.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 1993
• Subjects: organizational properties; methodological note; marketing channels; supplier relations; management; performance; japanese; conflict; model; Marketing; Organizational Behavior and Theory
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lkcsb_research/5176; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/lkcsb_research/article/6175/viewcontent/ConductingInterorganizationalResearchKeyInformants_1993.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

In this article, we examine the use of the key informant methodology by researchers investigating interorganizational relationships. Authors have advocated the use of multiple informants to increase the reliability and validity of informant reports. However, interorganizational research still tends to rely on single informants. We investigated informant selection and obtaining perceptual agreement among multiple informants, two problems that may have inhibited widespread use of multiple informants. We suggest procedures for dealing with those problems and provide an illustrative application of our proposals.