Mind the gap and find common ground: empirical research in multiple firms

The contribution of academic research to projects in industry has been discussed and highlighted; yet it is still not easy for an academic researcher to establish collaboration with industrial partners. In this paper we describe an empirical research conducted in collaboration with multiple firms. This research was originally initiated as a single case study in collaboration with one firm, and gradually evolved to be an interpretive study in seven global firms. This transition helped us to overcome challenges that emerged while we were conducting a qualitative research based on a single case study. In this paper we present the reasons that led us to expend beyond the original case study, and discuss the benefits as well as the pitfalls of collecting empirical data, and specifically conducting interviews, in multiple firms.