BRM2016Q6 Flashcards

Question

**What are some leading questions to start your literature review?**

Answer 1

* what is the topic of my research? * why is this topic relevant, important or interesting? * how does this project relate to past research in this field? * what are the main concepts and theories that would be relevant? * what is the aim of the literature review, and how does it relate to the aim of my research? * what could be an appropriate working title for this review?

Answer 2

* critical review: assess value of existing research in critical light * theoretical review: evaluates and synthesizes a corpus of theory that has accumulated around a concept, theory, or phenomenon * scoping review: maps the territory for future research and develops a new research agenda

Answer 3

1. Introduction: topic, aim, and the scope of the review, why topic is of interest, organization of review 2. Main body: methodological and conceptual issues, sub-topics or themes, ended by a discussion leading to the identification of key findings 3. Conclusion: summary of review. Flaws and gaps in literature are identified which motivate and justify future research.

Answer 4

* Deriving theories from data vs. deriving theory and afterwards looking at data

Answer 5

Fx: Corporate profit * Realist: interested in a single figure that represents the difference between income and expenditure * Internal realist: will see a more complex position; what acquisitions and divestments have been taking place * Relativist: profit is just one of many indicators of corporate health (sales growth, innovation, stock-market valuations etc. also important). * Nominalist: how has the profit figures been constructed? are the management trying to hide or show particular things, have they tried to minimize tax liabilities to maximize their annual bonus payments etc.?

Answer 6

A gradual trend towards social constructionism from positivism. More mixed approaches of relatively weak positivism and relatively weak social constructionism in being used.

Answer 7

How engaged vs. detached the researchers is. Some argue that a researcher should strive to be independent and DETACHED from the people and processes that they are studying, whereas others argue that when studying social systems like complex organizations, there is positive value in getting closer to the things they are studying, and this is increasingly known as an ENGAGED style of research. (page 58-63) Quadrant A: Detached positivism; critical realism Quadrant B: Detached constructionism; hermeneutics, postmodernism, Quadrant C: Engaged constructivism; pragmatism, critical theory, Quadrant D: Engaged positivism;

Answer 8

The concept that human behavior can be affected and potentially “distorted” by the presence of an observer.

Answer 9

* Cross-sectional comparison: * post-test only design. Comparing two groups (proportions or means). This is not very strong as we would often be tempted to conclude causality on a variable on the difference seen between the two groups. However, we have to check for lurking and confounding variables, which is not necessarily possible * Longitudinal design * Before/After test of 1 group where “after” is taking our intervention into account (fx. giving a certain drug) * Problem is history effects (some other event has influenced the group) + maturation (getting smarter, healthier etc. during the period anyway) + testing effect (people might answer differently when asked the second time simply due to higher awareness) * Randomized control group * Comparing two groups that have been randomized. We compare before/after where one randomized group has been influenced by our intervention during the study and one has not been influenced by our intervention. Is there any different? * This makes sure that the risks of history effect and maturation effect are removed * Nonequivalent control group * Before/After test of two groups. However, the two groups are not randomized but created on some other criterion.

Answer 10

How can you generalize your results? If it is true in all situations (external), or if it only true within your organization (internal). E.g. Newton’s law of motion applies for the rest of the world, not only one country.

Answer 11

Imprecisely right (low bias, but low precision)

Answer 12

* Simple random sampling * Stratified random sampling * Systematic random sampling * Cluster sampling * Multi-stage sampling (combines the use of the other methods to achieve higher operational and technical efficiency).

Answer 13

* Convenience sampling * Quota sampling * Purposive sampling * Snowball sampling

Answer 14

Textual information and the analysis thereof.

Answer 15

1. The best way of learning about an organization or social system is through attempting to change it, and this, therefore, should be an objective of the action researcher 2. The people most likely to be affected by, or involved in implementing, these changes should as far as possible become involved in the research process itself.

Answer 16

A term used for action research where the researcher’s involvement in the process is taken a stage further.

Answer 17

That the researcher should “immerse” him or herself in a setting, and become part of the group under study in order to understand the meanings and significances that people give to their behavior and that of other ⇒ Strong form of constructionism.

Answer 18

* Emic: sounds within a language which can only be distinguished by speaker of that language: fx. four tones in Mandarin * Etic: American english sounding monotonic from the viewpoint of French and Italian speakers (they can hear that it is monotonous, whereas Americans often are unaware)

Answer 19

Originally from dominant positivist texts but can be constructed and used as a more mixed method. The case study looks into depth at one, or a small number of, organizations, events, or individuals, generally over time. Social constructionism epistemology often advocates for single cases Positivist epistemology often advocates for multiple cases.

Answer 20

“Comparative method” ⇒ looking at the same event/process in different settings or situations.

Answer 21

* Sequence of methods: qualitative first, quantitative first or both at the same time? * Dominance of methods: dominantly qualitative, or quantitative or balanced? * How do we analyze the mix of numerical and categorical data? See arguments for and against mixed methods at p. 97.

Answer 22

1. Identifying the unit of analysis 2. Universal theory or local knowledge? 3. Theory or data first? 4. Cross-sectional or longitudinal? 5. Verification or falsification? p. 98-101

Answer 23

Chapter 4 on page 104-105 together with the conclusion. Takes you through everything from background, rationale, research aims, data, sampling, access, ethics, unit of analysis, analysis, process, practicalities, theory, and outputs ⇒ Fort both strong positivist, positivist, constructionist, and strong constructionism

Answer 24

* Do not force participation * Do not make up data * Do not misinterpret data to your study’s benefit * Do not forget to cite other reports, especially if you do a replication study ⇒ plagiarism * Do not overpromise/oversell your study

Answer 25

* Primary: interview and field diaries * Secondary: company reports, letters, government reports, archival data, advertisements, newspaper articles, books and blog.

Answer 26

To collect information that captures the meaning and interpretation of phenomena in relation to interviewees’ worldviews.

Answer 27

Interviews not conducted face-to-face, but through email or phone.

Answer 28

* Synchronous (e.g. telephone or chat) * Asynchronous (e.g. email or internet forums) - disadvantage is that people can reflect and have better time to think, or they might drop out.

Answer 29

A technique used to get data on past incidents through an interview or questionnaire. The technique is used to get the respondents to report of something in the past, e.g. way a company failed. The disadvantage is that respondents often think in hindsight.

Answer 30

* Highly structured (market research) more standardized * Semi-structured (guided open interview) * Unstructured (ethnographic interview) more confidentiality However, have in mind that a totally unstructured interview, where the interviewee just speaks freely is likely not to produce any picture, and is often not recommended!

Answer 31

* First; revisit research questions, research design and sampling strategy * Second; have in mind how respondents might feel about your questions * Third; avoid theoretical concepts, jargons and scholarly talk. They should be clear and easy to understand * Fourth; questions should be open-ended, and should not be leading * Fifth; topic guides should follow the structure of opening question, questions around key topics and closing questions * Sixth; ask if they have anything to add

Answer 32

* Laddering up: interviewer explores why a particular construct is important to the person through exploring the person’s value system ⇒ Starts with a simple answer and then tries to dig into the “WHY” behind the answer. * Laddering down (pyramiding): interviewer explores a person’s understanding of a particular construct by asking for examples, elaborations, and stories of experience.

Answer 33

Probes can be useful: * Repeating question * Explanatory probes ‘what did you mean by that?’ * Focused probes ‘what sort of…?’ * Silence - let them break the silence * Repeat the last few words they said * Give ideas or suggestions * Mirroring ‘what you seem to be saying is…’

Answer 34

* obtaining trust * being aware of social interaction between interviewer and interviewee * appropriate attitude and language * getting access * choosing location for interview (quiet and with limited distractions) * recording interviews

Answer 35

A technique that is used to identify the ways in which respondents interpret their experience, draw conclusion about patterns of cause and effect, and behave according to those conclusions. Can be survey based on ratings (from 1-7 or 1-10 etc.) or visuals: fx. showing people different pictures to get their opinion on something. You might not be able to explain why the one is better than the other due to the complexity of how humans perceive the world (fx. within design) figure 6.2 I don’t understand this fully

Answer 36

A way of mapping data (that can also be set into a repertory grid) into dimensions and axes. Software will definitely be doing this for you (I can’t see how it is done otherwise). figure 6.3

Answer 37

A dendrogram main objective is to show how close the “constructs” are to one another in terms of how they have been scored ⇒ think of this as comparing means in Statistics; which letters connect. A, A, B, B, C, D This is in figure 6.4 added to the repertory grid. figure 6.4

Answer 38

‘a modelling technique that aims to portray managers’ ideas, beliefs, values and attitudes - and to show how they interrelate.

Answer 39

figure 6.5

Answer 40

Used to help groups think around issues as well as formulate plans figure 6.6

Answer 41

1. complete observer (avoid direct engagement) 2. observer-as-participant (engaging passively) 3. participant-as-observer (most common in business and management research) 4. complete participant (e.g. employee)

Answer 42

* Participant observation: only sporadically present, moving in and out, answer very specific questions. * Ethnography: more long-term oriented, also observe themselves, in-depth, understand entire social system or culture.

Answer 43

A worker in a firm conducting research, and ‘implies that researcher participants are unaware of the fact that a particular co-worker conduct research’. May find themselves dealing with a lot of ethical issues.

Answer 44

E.g. researching in a company with permission, but you don’t necessarily tell what you are researching, or research of employees with permission from management without the workers' knowledge.

Answer 45

Where you reflect on your own role as an ‘insider’.

Answer 46

That researchers need to think about their roles and the way they affect the research process, Alvesson and Skölberg define it as a ‘continuous awareness and attention to the way different kinds of linguistic, social, political and theoretical elements are woven together in the process of knowledge development, during which empirical material is constructed, interpreted and written’.

Answer 47

1. obtain sponsorship by a legitimate authority (e.g. if you are a student, it may be better to tell that your survey is a part of research carried out by your supervisor) 2. make the current task appear important (show how previous findings have made huge impacts) 3. ensuring confidentiality and security of information

Answer 48

That most people behave differently when we know (or think) that we are being observed.

Answer 49

1. Each item should only express one idea 2. Avoid jargon and colloquialisms 3. Use simple expressions (active tense is better than passive tense), and divide longer statements into a series of simple steps 4. Avoid the use of negatives (you can miss the negative words and it is confusing to respond disagree to a negative statement) 5. Avoid leading questions

Answer 50

1. Group together related questions that cover similar topics 2. Ask about facts before opinions 3. Place sensitive or objectionable questions near the end 4. It is usually better to ask questions about events in the order that they occurred (either from no and work backwards, or from the past and work forwards)

Answer 51

The relationship between a set of observed variables and the construct that they are intended to measure.

Answer 52

Observed variables: those that are measured directly by the researcher Latent variables: the constructs that the researcher assumes are causal factors influencing how sample members respond to the observed variables.

Answer 53

Skal vi lige have styre på

Answer 54

EFA: Method of choice for analyzing the measurement model when you have no clear idea what constructs might underlie you questionnaire CFA: When you have a clear idea what construct might underlie you questionnaire, you use CFA to confirm a structure.

Answer 55

Not necessarily - or not likely. “there is more to seeing than meets the eyeball”. What people see is affected by their perceptions of the world (experiences, knowledge, cultural upbringing).

Answer 56

* Perceptions influence the observations * To what extent judgment about an observation, depend on what is already known/assumed In other words, science is facts as they have been observed and perceived until now but it is not necessarily a law of nature.

Answer 57

An argument where you without logic (in a scientific matter) extrapolate events to conclude that something always holds true such as being fed every day at 9am or that all metals expand when heated because the first 10 metals did so.

Answer 58

A logically derived argument.

Answer 59

* Condition 1: Large number of observations (necessary) * Problem: ‘large’ is a vague term - how much is ‘large’? * Condition 2: Observations must be repeated under a wide variety of conditions (necessary) * Problem: what counts as a significant variation? * Condition 3: No accepted observation statement should conflict with the derived law (essential) * Problem: little scientific knowledge will survive this “If a larger numbers of **As** have been observed under a variety of conditions, and if all those **As** without exception possess the property **B**, then all As have the property **B**.

Answer 60

1. Premise: All books on philosophy are boring 2. Premise: This book is a book on philosophy 3. Conclusion: This book is boring And it follows that: *if the premises are true, then the conclusion must be true.*

Answer 61

The alternative to inductivism. Scientific theories are falsifiable and the most falsifiable theory is preferred until it is falsified. * Mars moves in an ellipse around the sun * All planets move in ellipses around the sun We prefer (b) until it is falsified and we conclude that it does not hold true.

Answer 62

Whenever, a fact is falsified, you have to renew the fact statement. Fx. all bread nourishes After people getting ill from eating bread in a French village, an ad hoc adjustment to the statement would be “All bead, with the exception of that particular batch of bread produced in the French village in questions, nourishes’” ⇒ The hypothesis/statement above does not lead to new tests. Instead, the statement should be rewritten into an acceptable fact such as: “all bread nourishes except bread made from wheat contaminated by a particular kind of fungus (followed by a specification of the fungus and some of its characteristics)”.

Answer 63

If we had only used the idea of falsificationism, some of the most prominent scientific facts would never have been found such as gravity (Newton), Atom theory (Bohr).

Answer 64

1. balance between focus and depth vs. interdisciplinary approaches and breadth 2. question of the rigor and appropriateness used 3. the role of macroeconomic issues vis-á-vis microeconomic ones 4. broader geographical focus (not just focusing on US)

Answer 65

1. most frequently used concepts within a body of text 2. relationship between these concepts

Answer 66

A semantic extraction designed to: 1. construct classifiers for multiple concepts able to predict whether a text contains the concept 2. provide a name for each concept 3. characterize the message conveyed by the text 4. allow manual customization of the concept set prior to learning of the representation

Answer 67

Construction of a map showing the concepts’ relational characteristics through a co-occurrence matrix: 1. concept frequency 2. concept connectedness 3. direct inter-concept relative co-occurrence frequency 4. total inter-concept co-occurrence

Answer 68

* methods * performance * strategy * manufacturing * exchange rates

Answer 69

1. research drawn on ideas from two or more disciplines 2. disciplines mixed in a way such that they together produce something new and useful 3. the result could not have been obtained to using one discipline alone (it is not necessarily team-based, you can research interdisciplinary alone as well)

Answer 70

Researchers from different disciplines working independently on the same problem

Answer 71

It is an old text that raises question to the future of international business research, as there has previously existed 3 main research areas: * FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) - Post WWII - 1970 * MNE (Multinational Enterprises) - 1970 - 1990 * Globalisation - 1980 - 2000 His question is: what is the next big question in international business research? He also question if we even need a big question, and set up the following topics to be potential questions: * M&A * Knowledge management * Geography and Location * Globalisation * Fragmentation * New Institutions (NGO)

Answer 72

* Objectives of research * A kind outline, listing all the broad categories you feel may be relevant * First, start with casual small-talk before beginning the interview, where you always should start with a few easy/non-threatening questions before going into the serious and sensitive questions, that you should restate/rephrase (probing) later on to get answers to the sensitive questions. * Avoid double-barreled questions (Questions where you ask for two things at once) * Face-to-face, paper-, e-mail, web-, telephone- interview, CATI, or CAPI (or CASI) * Voice capture or note taking? * Have answers ready to informant statements such as “I don’t know much about this”, “maybe you should interview someone else as I don't know” and “why was I picked?”.

Answer 73

1. outlining: list all broad categories that might be relevant * Be aware: what subjects occur ‘naturally’ and what subjects do you have to ‘force’ * For each area 3-5 specific data items * Create a semistructured interview guideline for at least 6 items 2. sequencing: p. 119 shows a structure for semi standardized interviews * Have in mind if the topic is sensitive * Use transitions when changing topics 3. Pretesting: * The schedule should be critically examined by people familiar with the topic * Several practice interviews - do you get the right information? Does the respondent perceive the question as intentioned? * Analyze the practise data.

Answer 74

The central focus of the study and are geared towards eliciting specific desired information

Answer 75

Roughly equivalent to essential ones, but are worded slightly differently, and are included in order to check on the reliability of responses.

Answer 76

May be essential demographic or general questions, that are unnecessary for gathering the important information, but can be invaluable for drawing out a complete story from a respondent. May also something work as a question to move away from sensitive topics and ‘cool’ down the respondent and remind him that you are not judging, but only want to gather information.

Answer 77

Is a question to draw a more complete story and make the respondent elaborate. E.g. questions as ‘what happened next?’ or ‘could you tell me more about that?’.

Answer 78

That you ask questions simplified to the level of the least sophisticated of all potential respondents

Answer 79

Questions that are asked in a way such that they close down or inhibit interview subjects. The word ‘why’ tend to produce mostly negative responses in American culture. Examples: ‘Do you masturbate?’ can instead be asked: ‘About how many times a week would you say you masturbate?’.

Answer 80

When you ask to questions in the same question. Solution is to separate the questions.

Answer 81

When you ask a long and complex question such that the respondent may not really hear the question in its entity.

Answer 82

When specific words or answers are avoided (politics!). Among the most serious obstacles to overcome for an interviewer.

Answer 83

Asking a question and pausing consciously, to let the respondent answer my elaborately.

Answer 84

When you try to convey that you listen and understand what the respondent says.

Answer 85

That people speak in different paces, and you should avoid unintentional interruptions.

Answer 86

* Support arguments referring to authorities * Enable others to consult sources with ease to for example get a deeper understanding of the issue you are addressing or to confirm your interpretation * to provide evidence of wide reading and research * Academic courtesy and indication of academic honesty ⇒ Avoiding plagiarism

Answer 87

* Subject search (fx through Google Scholar) * Citation trawling (Scopus) * Relation searching * Author stalking

Answer 88

Seeing an effect on employee productivity simply from being observed by the experimenter (researcher, management or whatever)

Answer 89

* Inductive: Empirical knowledge, information, focus on from specific to general * Deductive: rationalism, from general to specific