LEARNING FROM TESTIMONY ON QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH IN MANAGEMENT

Published testimony in management, as in other sciences, includes cases where authors have overstated the inferential value of their analysis. Where some scholars have diagnosed a current crisis, we detect an ongoing and universal difficulty: the epistemic problem of learning from testimony. Overcoming this difficulty will require responses suited to the conditions of management research. To that end, we reviewthe philosophical literature on the epistemology of testimony, which describes the conditions under which common empirical claims provide a basis for knowledge, and we evaluate ways these conditions can be verified. We conclude that in many areas ofmanagement research, popular proposals such as preregistration and replication are unlikely to be effective. We suggest revised modes of testimony that could help researchers and readers to avoid some barriers to learning from testimony. Finally, we imagine the implications of our analysis for management scholarship and propose hownewstandards could come about.

Automated summary

Published testimony in management sometimes overstates the inferential value of analysis, reflecting a universal difficulty in learning from testimony. Traditional proposals such as preregistration and replication may not be effective in all management research areas. Revised modes of testimony could help researchers and readers overcome barriers in learning from testimony, with implications for new standards in management scholarship.