Article review of “Understanding trajectories into private rental housing in older age”, focusing on the topic of research approaches: for Housing Studies students

Article review of “Understanding trajectories into private rental housing in older age”, focusing on the topic of research approaches: for Housing Studies students

 

How to present this article in Harvard reference format?

Petersen, M. & Tilse, C., 2026. Understanding trajectories into private rental housing in older age: a qualitative life course study. Housing Studies, 41(10), pp.2404-2425. doi:10.1080/02673037.2026.2617568 [accessed 22 Jan 2026].

 

What are the key research issues the article wants to address?

The key research issues the article addresses are:

1.    Understanding the trajectories that lead to private rental housing in older age, particularly how individual life events, social conditions, and policy contexts across the life course interact to contribute to older people renting privately rather than owning a home.

2.    Investigating the cumulative disadvantage and critical life events—such as marital separation, caregiving responsibilities, health challenges, violence, and financial losses—that impact housing security and result in private tenancy in later life.

3.    Exploring how social norms and housing policies, which traditionally assume home ownership as the main pathway to secure and affordable housing in retirement, may fail to protect low-income older people who rent privately and face housing stress.

4.    Identifying the implications of gender, single parenthood, and experiences of economic abuse on housing vulnerability in older age.

5.    Highlighting the need for early interventions across multiple policy domains and life stages to ameliorate long-term housing precarity outcomes for older private renters.

These issues reflect the limited understanding of how life course factors and social-policy environments jointly shape precarious private rental housing in older age, which the study seeks to address using a qualitative life course approach.

 

What research methods have been used in this study?

The study employed qualitative life history methods within a life course perspective. Key methodological components include:

1.    Life History Interviews: Conducted in-depth, in-person interviews with 76 older private renters (68 interviews total, including some couples). Interviews lasted approximately 90 minutes each. Participants recounted their life transitions, critical events, housing histories, and life circumstances over their lifespan.

2.    Timeline Construction: Each interview involved jointly constructing a hand-drawn timeline with participants to visually map key life events, transitions, and housing changes. This aided recall and helped contextualize housing trajectories within broader life experiences.

3.    Sampling: Purposive sampling targeted adults aged over 55 years, on pension or benefit income with limited assets, and who were current or past private renters. Participants were recruited from urban and regional/rural areas in one Australian state, excluding those with dementia or severe health issues that impair participation.

4.    Data Analysis: Analysis involved two phases:

• Phase 1: Creating individual life course charts synthesizing interview data on age, transitions, critical events, housing, income, social and policy conditions.
• Phase 2: Grouping life histories into four key trajectories based on patterns of cumulative advantage/disadvantage and critical events.

The Framework Method was used inductively to identify themes related to transitions, events, policies, social conditions, and housing outcomes. NVivo software supported further coding.

5.    Rigour: Ensured through prolonged engagement, peer debriefing, negative case analysis, independent coding by multiple researchers, and team discussions to refine trajectory categories.

This approach allowed deep exploration of how personal, social, and policy factors across the life course shape housing outcomes in older age.

 

Describe two main theories employed in this study.

The study primarily employs the following two theoretical frameworks:

1.    Life Course Perspective: This is the central conceptual framework guiding the study. The life course perspective emphasizes understanding individuals' housing trajectories in the context of their broader life experiences, events, and transitions over time. It integrates key concepts such as:

• Turning points and life transitions: Significant events that change life trajectories.
• Cumulative advantage and disadvantage: How advantages or disadvantages accumulate throughout life to impact later outcomes.
• Linked lives: Interconnectedness of individuals’ lives with family and social networks.
• Timing and sequencing of events: How the timing of critical events influences their impact.

This perspective also situates individual experiences within wider social and policy contexts, highlighting how structural conditions amplify or mitigate inequalities. The study uses this framework to analyze how critical life events, combined with social and policy contexts, culminate in housing precarity in older age.

2.    Concept of Cumulative Disadvantage: Embedded within the life course perspective, cumulative disadvantage theory explains how disadvantages (e.g., poverty, interrupted work history, experiences of violence) accumulate over time, leading to increasingly precarious outcomes in later life. The study identifies how repeated critical life events, such as marital dissolution, health crises, and economic abuse, compound over the lifespan to restrict housing options and limit asset accumulation, resulting in private rental tenancy in older age.

These theories together provide a framework to understand not only the individual trajectories but also the interaction between personal agency, social relationships, critical events, and policy environments shaping housing insecurity among older private renters.

 

What research approaches (i.e. qualitative method, quantitative method and mixed research method) have been used in this study?

This study employs a qualitative research approach, specifically using life history interviews to explore older private renters' trajectories into private rental housing in later life. Key features of the qualitative approach in this study include:

• Conducting in-depth, single-session life history interviews of approximately 90 minutes with 76 participants (including some joint interviews with couples).
• Using timeline charts co-constructed with participants during interviews to map critical life events, transitions, and housing histories.
• Collecting rich qualitative data through audio recordings, detailed notes, and transcripts.
• Applying an inductive thematic analysis (framework method) to identify critical events, transitions, social and policy conditions, and housing outcomes.
• Grouping individual life course charts into four main trajectories based on commonality and differences in experiences.
• Ensuring rigour through prolonged engagement, peer debriefing, negative case analysis, and team-based coding discussions.

There is no indication of quantitative or mixed methods being used in this study; the focus is on qualitative, narrative data to capture complex life course dynamics and contextual factors influencing housing outcomes in older age.

 

What (reasoning) research approaches have been used in this study (i.e. inductive, deduct and abductive approaches)?

The research approach used in this study is primarily inductive reasoning. This is evidenced by the following points:

• The analysis was conducted inductively to identify transitions, events, policies, social conditions, and their impact on housing based on the participants' life history interviews without imposing preconceived categories or hypotheses.
• The framework method was used to develop themes and trajectories from the data itself, allowing patterns and key trajectories to emerge from participants' narratives.
• The researchers constructed individual life course charts and then grouped them according to commonalities and differences that emerged from the data, reflecting an inductive, data-driven approach.

The study does not describe testing pre-existing theories or hypotheses (which would indicate a deductive approach), nor does it explicitly adopt abductive reasoning (iterative interplay between observation and theory generation) although some elements of theory integration occur in the conceptual framework section. Overall, inductive reasoning is the dominant approach in developing understanding from qualitative data in this life course study.

 

Describe 3 main claims of the article in terms of Toulmin's model of argument.

Using Toulmin's model of argument—which consists of Claim, Data (Evidence), and Warrant (Reasoning)—the three main claims of the article can be described as follows:

1.    Claim 1: Older people who rent privately often experience cumulative disadvantage across their life course that leads to housing precarity in later life.

• Data: Analysis of 76 life history interviews identified four trajectories into private rental housing characterized by various forms of cumulative disadvantage, critical life events, and disrupted asset accumulation.
• Warrant: The life course perspective explains that housing outcomes in later life are embedded in a person’s earlier life experiences, transitions, and social and policy conditions, which accumulate advantage or disadvantage over time.

2.    Claim 2: Critical life events such as marital separation, health crises, and financial losses significantly disrupt housing stability and asset accumulation, often resulting in older people becoming private renters.

• Data: Participants reported key transitions and turning points including divorce, violence, caregiving roles, natural disasters, and financial fraud that either singly or cumulatively led to loss of housing and financial security.
• Warrant: These events act as turning points that interrupt trajectories of housing security by depleting resources and access to affordable housing options, as supported by qualitative data and life course theory.

3.    Claim 3: Social and housing policies have failed to adequately protect or support low-income older people who do not own homes, and early interventions across multiple domains are needed to mitigate long-term housing disadvantages.

• Data: The study highlights policy limitations such as lack of affordable housing supply, inadequate social housing eligibility, and insufficient support for women and vulnerable groups, despite social reforms. Participants’ narratives reveal consequential housing precarity linked to these gaps.
• Warrant: Effective policy interventions must consider the cumulative and interacting social and economic disadvantages across the life course rather than isolated solutions in older age, implying that reforms targeting earlier stages of life and housing systems are essential.

These claims collectively argue that later-life private rental housing insecurity is the product of a complex interplay of personal life histories and structural factors, warranting a holistic and life course-informed policy response.

 

Describe two main research limitations of this study.

Two main research limitations of the study as described are:

1.    Sample Representativeness: The study’s sample overrepresents women and does not include participants identifying as Indigenous, LGBTQ+, or refugees. This limits the generalizability of findings across diverse populations of older private renters and overlooks how intersectional identities might uniquely shape housing trajectories and experiences of precarity.

2.    Exclusion of Participants with Cognitive or Severe Health Issues: People with dementia or debilitating health conditions were excluded from the sample due to the demands of the life history interview method. This omission means the study may not fully capture the experiences and challenges of the most vulnerable older renters who have impaired capacity to participate in lengthy qualitative interviews, possibly biasing results toward those with relatively better health.

Article review of “The effects of cloud technology on management accounting”: for advanced management accounting study

Article review of “The effects of cloud technology on management accounting”: for advanced management accounting study

 

How to present the reference of this article in Harvard reference format?

Strauss, E., Kristandl, G. & Quinn, M., 2015. The effects of cloud technology on management accounting and decision making. Research Executive Summary Series, 10(6). Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, London. Available at: [URL if available] [Accessed date].

 

What are the key research issues the article wants to address?

The article identifies the following key research issues it aims to address:

·        To explore the reasons why businesses adopt or do not adopt cloud technology.

·        To assess the extent of cloud technology use in finance, management accounting, and similar systems.

·        To establish how cloud technology affects the provision of decision-making information, particularly focusing on information format and any change in the role of the management accountant in providing information.

These research objectives are outlined to gain initial insights on how cloud computing affects management accounting and decision making, addressing a gap in the existing literature on the subject.

 

What research methods have been used in this study?

The study used a mixed methods research approach, combining the following methods:

1.    Literature Review: The researchers conducted a review of information technology literature to gain foundational knowledge about cloud technology, its benefits, and challenges.

2.    Expert Interviews: Three interviews were conducted with technology experts:

·        A founder/managing director of a cloud storage solution provider (technical expert).

·        A founder/managing director of a technology firm that uses and sells cloud technology.

·        A sales manager from a leading accounting software provider offering both traditional desktop and cloud-based software. These interviews provided technical insights and practical perspectives on cloud technology adoption.

3.    Survey: Based on the findings from literature and interviews, a survey was designed targeting primarily small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The survey was sent to members of the Controller Panel at WHU Otto Beisheim School of Management, Germany, which consists mainly of heads of controlling. Out of 182 contacted, 139 responses were received (76% response rate), covering a broad range of industries with over 90% of firms classified as SMEs.

 

This mixed methods approach aimed to gather both qualitative and quantitative data to explore cloud technology usage in management accounting thoroughly.

 

Describe two main theories employed in this study.

The study does not explicitly state specific named theories employed but references key theoretical perspectives and concepts that underpin the research:

1.    Technology Adoption and Change Theory: The study is grounded on the idea that advances in information technology drive changes in management accounting and decision-making processes. This is supported by references to prior research indicating that technological progress is a key force influencing management accounting practices (e.g., Scapens et al., 2003; Dechow et al., 2007). The notion of cloud computing as a utility model providing on-demand, scalable resources aligns with theories of technology adoption that focus on perceived benefits, risks (such as data security), and organizational readiness affecting uptake.

2.    Information and Management Control Theory: The interaction between information technology and management control systems is another theoretical foundation cited. For example, Dechow, Granlund, and Mouritsen (2007) emphasize the relationship between IT and management control practices. This relates to how cloud technology affects information provision for decision making, information formats, and the management accountant's role—highlighting the theory that information systems influence managerial control and decision-making structures.

Thus, although not named as "main theories," these perspectives form the theoretical basis for understanding cloud technology's influence on management accounting and decision making in the study.

 

Highlight 3 main empirical findings of this article.

The three main empirical findings of the study are:

1.                                  Low Adoption of Cloud Technology in Finance and Management Accounting Systems: Only about 25% of respondent firms have adopted cloud technology for business systems beyond common uses like email. Within this group, finance and management accounting systems are the least likely to use cloud technology compared to other areas such as CRM and other business processes.

2.                                  Data Security Concerns as the Primary Barrier to Adoption: The overwhelming reason for not adopting cloud technology is concern over data security and protection. Despite technology experts suggesting that cloud providers often offer more robust security than typical SME configurations, businesses remain wary, indicating a gap in understanding or communication about actual security benefits.

3.                                  Cloud Technology Improves Decision Making but Collaboration Gains Are Limited: An overwhelming 93% of respondents agreed that cloud technology has contributed positively to decision making, with 32% stating it improved decision making compared to previous systems. However, the expected collaborative advantage is less than anticipated, with 77% reporting no significant change in the level of involvement in decision making using cloud technology versus previous systems.

These findings highlight the current state of cloud adoption in management accounting, the barriers faced, and the impact on decision-making practices

 

Describe 2 main claims of the article in terms of Toulmin's model of argument.

Using Toulmin's model of argument, two main claims of the article can be described as follows:

1.    Claim 1: Cloud computing offers significant advantages for management accounting and decision-making, but adoption in finance processes is limited primarily due to data security concerns.

·        Grounds (Evidence): Survey results show only 25% of firms have adopted cloud technology for business systems, with finance and management accounting systems least likely to use it. Data security concerns were identified as the primary reason for non-adoption, despite technology experts asserting cloud security can be stronger than typical SME systems.

·        Warrant (Reasoning): Because cloud computing can deliver cost savings, scalability, ease of administration, and flexible access to information, its advantages should encourage adoption. However, concerns over security act as a barrier that limits uptake in finance-related systems.

·        Backing: Interviews with technology experts confirm both the advantages of cloud computing and that most firms default to private or hybrid clouds to mitigate security concerns. The literature also supports cloud computing advantages and security features.

2.    Claim 2: Cloud technology improves access to decision-making information and contributes positively to decision making, but the collaborative advantage is less realized than expected.

·        Grounds (Evidence): 93% of respondents agree cloud technology contributes to decision making; 32% say it improves decision-making compared to prior systems. However, 77% report the level of involvement in decision making (collaboration) remains the same compared to earlier systems.

·        Warrant (Reasoning): Cloud technology's ubiquitous access and mixed graphical/numeric reporting formats simplify information provision and access, enabling better decision making. Yet organizational and cultural factors may limit increased collaboration.

·        Backing: Survey data show most cloud access occurs on corporate devices during regular hours, with less use of personal or mobile devices, indicating limited change in physical or temporal decision-making contexts.

These claims integrate evidence, reasoning, and contextual support to argue both the potential benefits and the current limitations of cloud technology in management accounting

 

Describe 2 main research limitations of the study.

Two main research limitations of the study are:

1.                        Sample Composition and Size: The study’s survey largely involved small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), with over 90% of respondents classified as SMEs, primarily from Germany and surrounding regions through the Controller Panel at WHU Otto Beisheim School of Management. This limits the generalizability of the findings to larger firms or firms in other countries where cloud adoption and cultural work practices may differ significantly.

2.                        Exploratory Nature and Depth of Analysis: The research was exploratory with a relatively small sample size (139 responses) and limited qualitative data on how cloud technology specifically affects the evolving role of management accountants and detailed decision-making processes. The study did not provide in-depth accounts or longitudinal analysis, thus restricting insights into long-term impacts or detailed transformational changes arising from cloud adoption.

 

These limitations suggest that further research is needed to examine diverse organizational contexts, larger samples, and deeper qualitative inquiry into the evolving implications of cloud technology for management accounting.