The application of content analysis as a research method in management sciences

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to present the potential of content analysis as a method to study the psychological traits of firms’ core decision makers. Research shows that these traits play a fundamental role in shaping corporate strategy and performance. The paper is theoretical, explaining the essence, origin and advantages of the method, indicating the application examples in sociology with an emphasis on the increasingly frequent use in management studies. It also identifies various methodological approaches of collecting data from written communication, showing the possible ways for scientists to bypass accessibility limitations to primary sources. The analysis of results shows a high validity of linguistic techniques used for assessing the antecedent psychological traits of core decision makers.