Introduction of the exploratory text analysis method: a critique on Islamic management research methods

This article tried to critically review the methodology of Islamic management articles and introduce and explain a new method in Islamic management research entitled "exploratory text analysis." For this purpose, after a comprehensive and analytical review of prevailing research methods in Islamic management research and identifying the gap in the methodology of this field, the new method of "exploratory text analysis" has been introduced in an eight-step process, initially. Next, its features and differences compared to other methods had explained. Then, a sample of work done with this method, titled "exploration of Imam Ali's leadership model from Malik Ashtar's treaty" and its stages were described. The results of this research showed that the introduced method has a suitable capacity to discover and extract the conceptual pattern hidden in Islamic texts. It provides the possibility to receive the main message and the intention of the author of the text independently and comprehensively and without prejudice.