The flexible pattern matching approach has witnessed increasing popularity. By combining deduction with induction in logic, flexible pattern matching is well suited for exploration and theory development. The paper discusses its logic, advantages and process of this approach while offering a review of research adopting this approach. We also compare and contrast it with another popular qualitative data analysis technique, the grounded theory approach, to further ground the method on the established knowledge and elaborate its strength and fitting context. This paper advances the flexible pattern matching approach by suggesting a five-step roadmap to conduct qualitative research with the approach.

灵活的模式匹配方法越来越受欢迎。通过将推论与逻辑归纳相结合，灵活的模式匹配非常适合于探索和理论发展。本文讨论了这种方法的逻辑，优势和过程，同时对采用这种方法的研究进行了综述。我们还将其与另一种流行的定性数据分析技术（扎根的理论方法）进行比较和对比，以进一步将该方法基于已建立的知识，并详细阐述其强度和适合的背景。本文提出了一种五步路线图，以对该方法进行定性研究，从而提出了灵活的模式匹配方法。