A Guide to Abductive Thematic Analysis

Authors

Jamie Thompson, Edinburgh Napier UniversityFollow

Abstract

Thematic analysis is an increasingly popular method for analysing qualitative data within the social sciences. Current guides for conducting thematic analysis promote the method’s broad flexibility across research designs, which has resulted in criticism that the method lacks the rigour and structure necessary for credible academic research. Recognizing the challenges faced by qualitative scholars, I developed and present an 8-step prescriptive approach specific to abductive methodologies incorporating many concepts from seminal works in thematic analysis, and importantly maintaining the balance of theorising with empirical data, which is the core of abductive research.

Keywords

thematic analysis, abductive, themes, coding, code-book

Author Bio(s)

Jamie is a lecturer at Edinburgh Napier University. Jamie's research interests are in Qualitative research methods; Research philosophy; Social and online marketing; and Tourism marketing. Please direct correspondence to j.thompson@napier.ac.uk.

Publication Date

5-19-2022

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

DOI

10.46743/2160-3715/2022.5340

Recommended APA Citation

Thompson, J. (2022). A Guide to Abductive Thematic Analysis. The Qualitative Report, 27(5), 1410-1421. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2022.5340

ORCID ID

0000-0001-5508-4780