Recent calls and pressures from research councils and professional societies advocate for an extended use of qualitative data. We critically examine these implications for ethnography in management and organization studies, where we find little guidance and reflection on the potential reuse of data. We aim to examine the methodological implications and challenges such an «opening» of ethnographic to further uses would bring for the research process. We build on recent discussions around the potential of qualitative «restudies», where we observe a focus on the temporal dimension of potential «returns» to previously collected material. However, we argue that reengagements with ethnographic data need to be considered in two other dimensions as well: The social dimension, where other analysts can potentially join the original data collector, and the factual dimension, where other topics can be studied in addition to the initial topic. We critically reflect how analytical distance in each of these two dimensions could potentially be expanded. As there is currently no unequivocal or consistent terminology for such a methodological extension, we bring together scattered discussions of the promises and pitfalls of social and factual distance to assess the potentials of such an «opening» of ethnography. Based on our analysis, we generate three trajectories for expanding the use of ethnographic data which we label reanalysis studies, revisitation studies, and studies using qualitative data repositories. More extensive uses of qualitative data offer promises for the ethnographic method, for research participants, and for the scope of research on management and organizations. However, the potential of such innovation hinges on a holistic reflection on the evolving research methods of the field.
