Methodology - Trimester 1 Flashcards
Theory
A Hypothesis which is tested
Hypothesis
is merely an idea
is a prediction of the relationship of two variables
(independent and dependent)
- null hypothesis:
there will be not relationship btw. the variables
- alternative hypothesis:
there may be an important relationship btw. the variables
A good research topic
Capability:
- interested?
- achievable (time, money)
- current topic?
- enough data, new knowledge?
Appropriateness:
- meet examination standards?
- link to theory and to the idea that has been given to you?
- new insights?
clear defined research question
one aim and one objective
symmetry of potential outcomes (all of your results will have similar value whatever you find out)
Ways of thinking to find a research idea
rational and creative thinking
rational thinking
- examining own strengths and interests
- looking at past project titles
- searching literature
- scanning media
creative thinking
- notebook of ideas
- brainstorming
- relevance trees
- exploring relevance to business using literature
Refining ideas
- Delphi Technique
- preliminary study/initial inquiry
Delphi technique
A group of people who are interested or involved in the research idea generate and choose a more specific research idea after telling them the initial one. They should comment each idea and put further refinements to the idea.
Preliminary study/ initial inquiry
process of refining the research idea in order to create a research question and afterwards your project. Involves searching and evaluating further literature and other sources (visiting a company etc.)
Purpose of the research question:
descriptive research question
What, when, why, how, who where
To portray an accurate profile of people/situations/events
Purpose of the research question:
exploratory research question
how, what
To ask questions and assess phenomena in a new light.
Purpose of the research question:
explanatory research question
why
Goldilocks Test
to see if the rq is too big (demanding too many resources) or too small (insufficient substance) too hot (sensitivities) or just right.
Generate new insights in the idea.
General focus research question
form a general idea and go into something specific
after research topic
research aim and research objective
research aim
short statement of the purpose of your project
a good theory
is about the connections between phenomena, a story about why events, structures and thoughts occur.
A good theory explains and predicts.
deductive approach in the research project
when it is theoretically driven (when you test a theoretical position)
inductive approach
when the research topic is data driven (when you aim to explore a topic and develop theoretical explanations after collecting and analyzing the data)
Types of theories
Grand theories
(province (Fachgebiet) of natural scientists (Darwin)
Middle-range theories
(not able to change the way we think about the world, but are significant)
Substantive theories
(restricted to a particular time, research setting, group or population or problem)
research proposal
is to clarify your thoughts and create a structured outline of your research project
feasible
within your capabilities
The structure of your project
Title
- it should summarize your research question
Background
- introduction to the reader to the issue of your research and why it is worth it.
- showcase of your knowledge of relevant literature
- showing link btw. proposal and previous literature
Method
- longest section of proposal
- Research design: explains where you will cary out the research (quantitative, qualitative or multiple methods) + time frame
- The data collection: how data is collected and which type (secondary or survey) and the various analysis techniques during the research
Timescale
- divide research into different stages and explain how much time each one will take
Resources:
- finance, data access and equipment
References:
- literature sources to which you have referred to
literature review
- making reasoned judgments about the value of piece of work
- organizing ideas and findings of the value of a piece of work into a review
ways of using literature in your projects
- Preliminary search: helps you to generate and refine your research ideas and compose a research proposal
- Critical literature review: provides the context and theoretical framework for the research
- Placing research outcomes within a wider body of knowledge: part of your discussion chapter
Critically reviewing articles and books
- is about linking and contrasting the main ideas
How to adopt a critical perspective in your reading
- previewing: looking through the text to find its purpose
- annotating: conducting a dialogue with yourself, the author, and the ideas. (What does this mean)
- summarizing
- comparing and contrasting
Five critical questions:
- Why am I reading this?
- What is the author trying to do in writing this?
- What is the author saying that is relevant to what I want to find out?
- How convincing is the author?
- What can I make of the reading?
critical reading means
being able to evaluate what you read and relating to other information
Content of a critical review
needs to evaluate the research that has already been conducted in the area of your research project showing the key points and trends. By doing so you will provide the necessary background information for your research question and objectives.
- key academic theories within your area of research
- demonstration that knowledge is current
- clear reference to allow those who are reading your project report to find the original literature you cite
four aspects of a critical approach
- critique of rhetoric: evaluating a problem with effective use of language
- critique of tradition: using other sources
- critique of authority: question the dominant view in your source and compare it to other sources
- critique of objectivity: including in your review that the literature found is probably not always value-free
Literature sources available
- grey or primary literature: produced by all levels (government, academics, business and industry). Not controlled by commercial publishers.
- secondary literature: formally published items such as books and journals
Constructing a relevance tree
A relevance tree is an analytic technique that subdivides a broad topic into increasingly smaller subtopics thereby showing ‘all’ possible paths to the objective, and provides a forecast of associated costs, durations and probabilities for each element.
- research question or objective at top of tree
- identify >2 subject areas of importance
- subdivide each subject area into sub-areas
- identify the areas that you need to search immediately and those that you need to concentrate on
evaluating the literature
- assessing relevance (to rq?)
- assessing value (quality of research which has been conducted (theory robustness, methodological rigor, quality of reasons, contain biases (Vorurteil))
- assessing sufficiency
recording the literature
- bibliographic details which include all the relevant items you used for the project
systematic review
process for reviewing to locate the existing literature, evaluate the contribution and analyze the items found and allowing conclusions by reporting the evidence.
Not suitable for all research projects.
Plagiarism
means presenting work or ideas from others as if they were your own.
Research philosophy
relates to beliefs and assumptions about the development of knowledge. This is exactly what you do when entering the research: developing knowledge in a particular field.
two major research philosophies
Pluralism: in favor of diversity in philosophy, enriching businesses and management
Unificationists: see business and management as fragmented, thus it is no true scientific discipiline. They advocate (befürworten) unification of management research under one strong research philosophy, paradigm and methodology.
Paradigm
distinct set of concepts
Ontology
Ontology is the philosophical study of being. More broadly, it studies concepts that directly relate to being, in particular becoming, existence, reality, as well as the basic categories of being and their relations.
Epistemology
Epistemology is the study of the nature of knowledge, justification, and the rationality of belief.
Relates to concerns about valid, acceptable and legitimate knowledge and how we communicate the knowledge to others.
Axiology
is the philosophical study of value.
Refers to the importance of values and ethics in the research process and how we deal with our own values and the values of participants.
Objectivism concerning Ontology, Epistemology and Axiology
Objectivism is concerned with assumptions of natural sciences.
- in ontology: supports the position of realism, so in the social world only one true reality exists which is true.
- in epistemology: objectivists are searching for the truth about the social world by adopting assumptions of the natural scientist and through observable phenomena
- in axiology: research is value-free because they could bias their findings
Subjectivism concerning Ontology, Epistemology and Axiology
Subjectivism relates to assumptions about arts and humanities, so the social reality is made up of perceptions and consequent actions.
- in ontology: it includes nominalism (the order and structure we study is because we as researchers made it). Reality is socially constructed by social interaction in which social actors create partially shared realities (social constructionism). In the end there are multiple realities with chaos.
- in epistemology: knowledge is more about opinions and narratives
- in axiology: research is value-bond so values should be integrated in the research and be reflexive
Paradigm in research
Paradigms (set of concepts) are used to interpret social phenomena. Particular understandings are gained and it is attempted to make explanations.
Four sociological perspectives (?)
radical change (what is possible and what are the alternatives) vs. regulation (societies and human behaviour need to be regulated) and subjectivist vs. objectivist
Within the four sociological perspectives there are four paradigms
Functionalist paradigm
Interpretive paradigm
Radical structuralist paradigm
Radical humanist paradigm
Functionalist paradigm
- used in business management
- ontological position
- concerned with a rational explanation of why an organizational problem is happening
Interpretive paradigm
- related to the way humans try to make sense of the world around them
- when one is adopting this paradigm one is concerned with understanding the fundamental meanings attached to organizational life and understanding irrationalities
Radical Structural Paradigm
- concern is to approach research with aim to accomplish fundamental change. This is based on an analysis of organizational phenomena, looking for patterns of conflict. It involves working with structural patterns such as hierarchies.
Radical Humanist Paradigm
- critical and subjectivist perspective of organizational life. Your research would be concerned with evoking change
major philosophies
positivism critical realsim interpretivism postmodernism pragmatism
Positivism
- research is done like a natural scientist
- builds on observable and measurable facts
- deductive approach of quantitative data
Critical realism
- however our senses can deceive us
- reality is external and consists of objects and structures
- the truth is an objective account which is free from bias
Interpretivism
- subjective perspective
- reality is complex and is socially and culturally constructed through language and culture
- builds on multiple meanings and interpretations
Interpretivism stems from intellectual heritages which are
Stems from different intellectual heritages:
- Phenomenology considers the way in which we as humans make sense of the world around us
- Hermeneutics is the theory and methodology of interpretation, especially the interpretation of biblical texts, wisdom literature, and philosophical texts.
- Symbolic interactionism is a sociological theory. It is a frame of reference to better understand how individuals interact with one another to create symbolic worlds, and in return, how these worlds shape individual behaviors.
Postmodernism
While encompassing a wide variety of approaches, postmodernism is generally defined by an attitude of skepticism, irony, or rejection toward the meta-narratives and ideologies of modernism, often calling into question various assumptions of Enlightenment rationality. Consequently, common targets of postmodern critique include universalist notions of objective reality, morality, truth, human nature, reason, language, and social progress.
Pragmatism
Pragmatism considers thought as an instrument or tool for prediction, problem solving and action, and rejects the idea that the function of thought is to describe, represent, or mirror reality.
- uses all approaches in order to being able to solve the research problem and is typically a multi.method research.
Research approaches
Deductive
Inductive
Abductive
Deductive research
Existing theory is identified
(deductive process starts)
Hypothesis is created
(If/then predictions to test the theory)
Hypothesis is tested with empirical observations –> the theory is either supported or not supported
(deductive process ends)
(here the inductive process can begin. When the hypothesis is not supported a new theory can be developed by using the inductive process.)
Inductive research
- quantitative data is used (empirical observations)
(inductive process starts) - patterns are observed
- empirical generalizations/ tentative (unverbindlich) hypotheses are created
- new theory is developed
(inductive process ends)
premise/premiss
a premise is an assumption that something is true
tentative
unverbindlich
Abductive research
also called abduction, abductive inference, or retroduction) is a form of logical inference which starts with an observation or set of observations then seeks to find the simplest and most likely explanation.
- the prediction may be true, if it is not a new prediction is made
In abductive approach, the research process starts with ‘surprising facts’ or ‘puzzles’ and the research process is devoted their explanation[2]. ‘Surprising facts’ or ‘puzzles’ may emerge when a researchers encounters with an empirical phenomena that cannot be explained by the existing range of theories.
When following an abductive approach, researcher seeks to choose the ‘best’ explanation among many alternative in order to explain ‘surprising facts’ or ‘puzzles’ identified at the start of the research process. In the course of explaining ‘surprising facts’ or ‘puzzles’, the researcher can combine both, numerical and cognitive reasoning.
Despite its increasing popularity in business studies, application of abductive reasoning in practice is challenging and you are advised to stick with traditional deductive or inductive approaches when writing your dissertation if it is the first time you are writing a dissertation…
Research design
In your dissertation you can define research design as a general plan about what you will do to answer the research question.
Important elements of research design include research strategies and methods related to data collection and analysis.
- Chose quantitative, qualitative or mixed methods of research design.
- nature of research design (exploratory, descriptive, explanatory, evaluative or combined)
- research strategies, time horizon, related ethical issues, quality of research design and practical constraints.
Quantitative data (method)
Quantitative data is a data collection technique or data analysis procedure, that generates or uses numerical data, such as questionnaire or data with graphs or statistics.
Qualitative data (method)
Qualitative data refers to a data collection technique that generates or uses non-numerical data (such as interview), or data analysis procedures (such as categorizing data).
The different methodological choices
Mono method
multiple methods
mixed methods
mono method
using a single data collection, technique and corresponding analysis procedure.
Then chose to use with quantitative or qualitative research design.
multiple methods
using more than one either quantitative or qualitative data collection technique and analysis procedure to answer the research question. This is increasingly advocated with business and management research.
- muli-method: uses more than one quantitative or qualitative method but does normally not mix the two, or one method is clearly used more often. With this method, the researcher is restricted whether he/ she uses quantitative (Multi-method quantitative study) or qualitative data (multi-method qualitative study)
- mixed method: combines quantitative and qualitative data collection techniques and analysis procedures
How quantitative and qualitative data can be combined
concurrent (gleichzeitig) mixed methods research
- refers to the separate use of qualitative and quantitative methods within the same time (single phase research design).
sequential mixed methods research
- involves more than just one phase of data collection and analysis. e.g. first qualitative data collection and then quantitative data collection or vice versa.
a double-phased research design
- sequential exploratory research design:
1. Qualitative data
2. Quantitative data - sequential explanatory research design:
1. Quantitative data
2. Qualitative data - sequential multi-phase design
using a mixture of both data types after each other >2 phases
qualitise
when quantitative data is taken ( frequencies are numerically coded and used for statistical analysis)
here quantitative and qualitative methods are merged
quantisise
when qualitative data is turned into text
embedded mixed methods research
relates to the research design when one methodology supports the other
- concurrent embedded design: embed one methodology within another while collecting data (e.g. some quantitative questions are integrated in an interview question)
The classical experiment
There is one experimental group (with a planned intervention/manipulation)
There is one control group
The participants are assigned randomly
Quasi-experiments
there are also one experimental group and one control group but the participants are not assigned randomly
experimental procedure: between-subjects design
- measure dependent variable (pre-test measure)
- planned intervention
- measure independent variable (post-test measure)
internal validity
how far the findings can be attributed to planned interventions and not to flaws in the research
external validity
extend to which the research results from a study are generalizable
survey
answer descriptive and exploratory questions
archival and documentary research
using documents
case study
Basically, a case study is an in depth study of a particular situation rather than a sweeping statistical survey. It is a method used to narrow down a very broad field of research into one easily researchable topic.
- single case study (using a single case and defining it as the actual case)
- multiple case studies (includes multiple cases to find out if the first case can occur in other cases)
- holistic case study: refers to the unit of analysis
- embedded case study: involves more than one unit of analysis
critical ethnography
radical purpose, where the researcher wants to explore and explain the impact of power, privilege and authority on the participants
action research
you participate yourself in the study
grounded theory
to explain social interactions and processes
- qualitative data
- adductive approach
three coding stages
- open coding (reorganization into categories
- axial coding (recognizing relationships btw. categories)
- selective coding (integration of these categories to build a theory)
narrative inquiry
analysing participants’ experiences
threats to reliability
participant error (alters the way a participant performs) participant bias (induced a false response) research error (alters the researcher's interpretation) researcher bias (induction of any bias in the researcher's recording of responses.
dependability
dependability mean recording all of the changes so that also others can understand and evaluate your research focus.
credibility
ensuring that you represent the research findings about the socially constructed realities of the participants in the way they intended to demonstrate their reality in the investigation.
triangulation for validation
using two or more independent sources of data and methods of collection to confirm validity
concepts
are the labels we attribute to social phenomena. (motivation, consumer confidence and education)
operationalization
turning concepts into variables
variables
measurements of social phenomena
independent variable
variable that is being manipulated or changed to measure its impact on a dependent variable
dependent variable
changes in response to changes in other variables
mediating variable
variable that is between IV and DP and helps explain the relationship between the two
moderator variable
variable that increases or decreases the effect
control variable
variable that is kept constant
confounding variable
variable that influences both the dependent variable and independent variable causing a false association
causal relationship
implies that an element influences another one
spurious relationship
Scheinkorrelation
bi-directional causation
an element is at first influenced by another factor which, in turn, influences the former
research onion
helps the researcher walk through the research design project. Composed of different layers: 1. Philosophies 2. Approaches 3. Strategies 4. Choices 5. Time horizons 6. Techniques and procedures
- Philosophies
Positivism
Realism
Interpretivism
Pragmatism
- Approaches
Deductive
Inductive
- Strategies
Experiment Survey Case Study Action research Grounded theory Ethnography Archival research
Choices
Mono method
Mixed methods
Muli-method
Time horizons
cross sectional
longitudinal
techniques and procedures
data collection
data analysis
Ethics in the context of research
“Ethics refers to the standard of behavior that guides your conduct (Durchführung) in relation to the rights of those who become the subject of your work, or are affected by it”
Should confirm the social norm.
traditional access
relates to face-to-face interactions
internet-mediated access
virtual access to questionnaires, discussion etc.
intranet-mediated access
virtual access as an employee in an organization using its intranet
hybrid access
combination of traditional and internet-mediated access
levels of access
physical
continuing
cognitive
physical access/entry
difficult
sometimes the request does not reach the person who makes the final decision (gatekeeper or broker)
continuing access
once access is granted, it appears to be an iterative process.
cognitive access
gaining acceptance and trust of participants
intrusive methods (eindringlich)
might need to be undertaken for longitudinal studies (when access is needed on several occasions)
personal entry
it is important to gain personal access to the data
- is it practicable to negotiate access for the research
- is it sufficient? Does the access meet the minimal requirements for achieving the research proposal?
Deontological view
the rules should guide the researcher’s conduct of the project. Therefore, not following the rules cannot be justified.
Teleological view
the consequence of a conduct should decide whether the act of conduct is justified or not and not the predetermined rules.
inferred (Geschlussfolgert) consent
when the participant not fully understands his rights and the researcher infers consent about the use of data from fact of access.
covert study
those being observed do not know this
habitual
those being observed get used to the presence of the observer
Methodology
theory of how research should be done
How is management research conducted?
eclectic nature (vielseitig) drawing upon knowledge from sociology, geography, psychology, economics and statistics
The purpose of business and management research
new insights for management are obtained by using knowledge from a range of disciplines (there is a circle of theory and practice which; the one influences the other)
Modes of knowledge creation
Modes 1,2,3, 0
Mode 1 of knowledge creation
research in which questions are set and solved by academic interest (fundamental nature)
Mode 2 of knowledge creation
research is driven by practical implementation (applied nature)
- universities and businesses work together
- the double hurdle( theoretical and methodological) is fixed by practical implementation
Mode 3 of knowledge creation
- research is socially useful (climate change study) also for future generations
Mode 0 of knowledge creation is insidious (hintertückisch)
- knowledge production is based on power and patronage
- sponsor and researcher work together (e.g. pharmaceutical industry)
Research-practice gap
Failure of organizations and managers to base practices on the best available evidence. Managers tend to rely on personal experiences excluding scientific knowledge.
Management is categorized as design science by some
this is a solution orientated research (others say that is not correct)
Basic/ fundamental/ pure research
expand knowledge
Applied research
improve understanding a particular problem
The process of researching is multi-staged
- Formulating & clarifying the topic
- reviewing the literature
- designing the research
- collecting data
- analyzing data and writing it up
(mostly no linear process)
Reflection:
Observing own research practice
Reflexivity
thinking about your role in the research and it’s influence on the research
learning cycle
- experience
- reflection and observation of experience
- forming an abstract concept
- testing concept in a new situation
