Thematic analysis to explore strategy implementation barriers

Thematic analysis is frequently used in social sciences, but rarely in strategy research. Arguably, poor demarcation, insufficient methodological clarity, limited explanation of analytical process, and rigour issues have contributed towards this. This paper presents a reflective account of an adapted thematic analysis process used to analyze the complex issues of strategy implementation barriers. This adapted process emerged as thematic analysis progressed and draws on the methodological developments of thematic analysis in other social sciences like psychology, rigour guidelines in the qualitative research literature and process thinking. The adapted analysis process as practised differs from the prescriptive descriptions in the existing thematic analysis literature. The issues of data familiarity, theme searching and review and thematic mapping are discussed for procedural details and rigour considerations. This paper contributes to the qualitative analysis in strategy research literature by illustrating the key elements of rigorous thematic analysis using empirical examples of strategy implementation barriers.