Here's a breakdown of key aspects:
* Context-dependence: Transferability acknowledges that research findings are often specific to the context in which the study was conducted. Factors like the participants' characteristics, the research setting, and the time period can all influence the results. A study on leadership styles in a specific company may not be directly transferable to a different industry or organizational culture.
* Generalizability vs. Transferability: While generalizability aims for broad application across diverse contexts (common in quantitative research), transferability emphasizes the potential for application to *similar* contexts. It's about making a reasoned judgment about the applicability of findings based on the similarities between the original context and the new context.
* Thick description: Qualitative researchers often achieve higher transferability through detailed and rich descriptions of the study context, participants, methods, and findings. This "thick description" allows readers to assess the extent to which their own context aligns with the research context and to judge the relevance of the findings.
* Analytic generalization: Rather than statistical generalization, transferability relies on analytic generalization. This involves comparing the characteristics of the original study's context with potential new contexts. If the contexts are sufficiently similar, the findings may be transferable.
* Reader's role: The responsibility of assessing transferability often falls on the reader or consumer of the research. The researchers provide the thick description, but the reader must determine the relevance of the findings to their specific situation.
In short, transferability is not about proving generalizability, but about providing sufficient information to allow others to determine if the findings are applicable to their own contexts. It's a pragmatic approach to understanding the limitations and potential of research findings.