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Business Research Methods (Chapter 16 The nature of qualitative research…
Business Research Methods
Business research strategies
1.2 Introduction
1.2.1 The nature of business research
1.3 Theory and research
1.3.1 What type of theory?
1.3.2 Deductive and inductive theory
1.4 Epistemological considerations
1.4.1 A natural science epistemology: positivism
1.4.2 Interpretivism
1.5 Ontological considerations
1.5.1 Objectivism
1.5.2 Constructionism
1.6 Relationship of epistemology
and ontology to business research
1.6.1 Competing paradigms
1.7 Research strategy: quantitative and qualitative
Influences on the conduct of business research
1.7.1 Personal values
1.7.2 The politics of business research
1.7.3 Practical considerations
1.8 Key points
1.1 Questions for review
Chapter 2 Research designs
Introduction
Criteria in business research
Reliability
Replication
Validity
Research designs
Experimental design
Cross-sectional design
Longitudinal design(s)
Case study design
Comparative design
Level of analysis
Bringing research strategy and research design together
Key points
Questions for review
Chapter 3 Planning a research project and formulating research
questions
Introduction
Get to know what is expected of you by your institution
Thinking about your research area
Using your supervisor
Managing time and resources
Formulating suitable research questions
Writing your research proposal
Preparing for your research
Doing your research and analysing your results
Checklist
Key points
Questions for review
Chapter 4 Getting started: reviewing the literature
Introduction
Reviewing the existing literature and engaging with what
others have written
Getting the most from your reading
Systematic review
Narrative review
Searching the existing
literature and looking
for business information
Electronic databases
Keywords and defi ning search parameters
Referencing your work
The role of the bibliography
Avoiding plagiarism
Checklist
Key points
Questions for review
Chapter 5 Ethics in business research
Introduction
Ethical principles
Harm to participants
Lack of informed consent
Invasion of privacy
Deception
Other ethical and legal considerations
Data management
Copyright
Reciprocity and trust
Affi liation and confl icts of interest
The difficulties of ethical decision-making
Checklist
Key points
Questions for review
Chapter 6 The nature of quantitative research
Introduction
The main steps in quantitative research
Concepts and their measurement
What is a concept?
Why measure?
Indicators
Using multiple-indicator measures
Dimensions of concepts
Reliability and validity
Reliability
Stability
Internal reliability
Inter-observer consistency
Validity
Face validity
Concurrent validity
Predictive validity
Construct validity
Convergent validity
Refl ections on reliability and validity
The main preoccupations of quantitative researchers
Measurement
Causality
Generalization
Replication
The critique of quantitative research
Criticisms of quantitative research
Is it always like this?
Reverse operationism
Reliability and validity testing
Sampling
Key points
Questions for review
Chapter 7 Sampling
Introduction
Introduction to sampling
Sampling error
Types of probability sample
Simple random sample
Systematic sample
Stratifi ed random sampling
Multi-stage cluster sampling
The qualities of a probability sample
Sample size
Absolute and relative sample size
Time and cost
Non-response
Heterogeneity of the population
Kind of analysis
Types of non-probability sampling
Convenience sampling
Snowball sampling
Quota sampling
Limits to generalization
Error in survey research
Key points
Questions for review
Chapter 8 Structured interviewing
Introduction
The structured interview
Accuracy and ease of data processing
Other types of interview
Reducing error due to interviewer variability
Interview contexts
More than one interviewer
In person or by telephone?
More than one interviewee
Computer-assisted interviewing
Conducting interviews
Introducing the research
Rapport
Know the schedule
Asking questions
Recording answers
Clear instructions
Question order
Probing
Prompting
Leaving the interview
Training and supervision
Other approaches to structured interviewing
Projective methods, pictorial and photo elicitation
Verbal protocol approach
Critical incident method
Repertory grid technique
Problems with structured interviewing
Response sets
The problem of meaning
Characteristics of interviewers
The feminist critique
Key points
Questions for review
Chapter 9 Self-completion questionnaires
Introduction
Self-completion questionnaire or postal questionnaire?
Evaluating the self-completion
questionnaire in relation
to the structured interview
Advantages of the self-completion questionnaire over the
structured interview
Disadvantages of the self-completion questionnaire in
comparison to the structured interview
Steps to improve response rates to postal questionnaires
Designing the self-completion questionnaire
Do not cramp the presentation
Clear presentation
Vertical or horizontal closed answers?
Identifying response sets in a Likert scale
Clear instructions about how to respond
Keep question and answers together
Diaries as a form of self-completion questionnaire
Advantages and disadvantages of the diary as a method
of data collection
Key points
Questions for review
Chapter 10 Asking questions
Introduction
Open or closed questions?
Open questions
Closed questions
Types of question
Rules for designing questions
General rules of thumb
Specific rules when designing questions
Vignette questions
Piloting and pre-testing questions
Using existing questions
Checklist
Key points
Questions for review
Chapter 11 Structured observation
Introduction
Problems with survey research on behaviour
So why not observe behaviour?
The observation schedule
Strategies for observing behaviour
Sampling
Sampling people
Sampling in terms of time
Further sampling considerations
Issues of reliability and validity
Reliability
Validity
Other forms of structured observation
Field stimulation
Organizational simulation
Criticisms of structured observation
On the other hand . . .
Checklist
Key points
Questions for review
Chapter 12 Content analysis
Introduction
What are the research questions?
Selecting a sample
Sampling media
Sampling dates
What is to be counted?
Subjects and themes
Dispositions
Words
Images
Significant actors
Coding
Coding schedule
Coding manual
Potential pitfalls in devising coding schemes
Advantages of content analysis
Disadvantages of content analysis
Checklist
Key points
Questions for review
Chapter 13 Secondary analysis
Introduction
Other researchers’ data
Limitations of secondary analysis
Accessing the UK Data Archive
Advantages of secondary analysis
Official statistics
Condemning and resurrecting official statistics
Offi cial statistics as a form of unobtrusive measure
Reliability and validity
Key points
Questions for review
Chapter 14 Quantitative data analysis
Introduction
A small research project
Missing data
Types of variable
Univariate analysis
Diagrams
Measures of central tendency
Frequency tables
Measures of dispersion
Bivariate analysis
Contingency tables
Pearson’s r
Relationships not causality
Spearman’s rho
Phi and Cramér’s V
Comparing means and eta
Multivariate analysis
Could there be an intervening variable?
Could a third variable moderate the relationship?
Could the relationship be spurious?
Statistical significance
Correlation and statistical significance
Comparing means and statistical significance
The chi-square test
Checklist
Key points
Questions for review
Chapter 15 Using SPSS for Windows
Introduction
Getting started in SPSS
Defi ning variables: variable names, missing values,
variable labels, and value labels
Entering data in the Data Viewer
Recoding variables
Beginning SPSS
Computing a new variable
Data analysis with SPSS
Generating the arithmetic mean, median, standard deviation,
the range, and boxplots
Generating a contingency table, chi-square, and Cramér’s V
Generating a histogram
Generating Pearson’s r and Spearman’s rho
Generating a pie chart
Generating scatter diagrams
Generating a bar chart
Comparing means and eta
Generating a frequency table
Generating a contingency table with three variables
Further operations in SPSS
Retrieving your data
Printing output
Saving your data
Key points
Questions for review
Chapter 16 The nature of qualitative research
Introduction
The main steps in qualitative research
Theory and research
Concepts in qualitative research
Reliability and validity in qualitative research
Alternative criteria for evaluating qualitative research
Recent discussions about quality criteria for qualitative
research
Adapting reliability and validity for qualitative research
The main preoccupations of qualitative researchers
Emphasis on process
Flexibility and limited structure
Description and the emphasis on context
Concepts and theory grounded in data
Seeing through the eyes of the people being studied
The critique of qualitative research
Difficult to replicate
Problems of generalization
Qualitative research is too subjective
Lack of transparency
Is it always like this?
Some contrasts between quantitative and qualitative
research
Some similarities between quantitative and
qualitative research
Researcher–subject relationships
Cognitive mapping
Feminism and qualitative research
Action research
Collaborative and participatory research
Key point
Questions for review
Chapter 17 Ethnography and participant observation
Introduction
Organizational ethnography
Access
Ongoing access
Key informants
Overt versus covert?
Roles for ethnographers
Active or passive?
Sampling
Theoretical sampling
Not just people
Purposive sampling
Field notes
Types of field notes
Bringing ethnographic fi eldwork to an end
Can there be a feminist ethnography?
Visual ethnography
Key points
Questions for review
Chapter 18 Interviewing in qualitative research
Introduction
Differences between the structured interview and the
qualitative interview
Unstructured and semi-structured interviewing
Using an interview guide: an example
Recording and transcription
Kinds of questions
Telephone interviewing
Preparing an interview guide
Sampling
Feminist research and interviewing in qualitative research
Qualitative interviewing versus participant observation
Advantages of qualitative interviewing in comparison to
participant observation
Overview
Advantages of participant observation in comparison to
qualitative interviewing
Checklist
Key points
Questions for review
Chapter 19 Focus groups
Introduction
Uses of focus groups
Conducting focus groups
Size of groups
Level of moderator involvement
How many groups?
Selecting participants
Recording and transcription
Asking questions
Beginning and finishing
Group interaction in focus group sessions
The focus group as a feminist method
Limitations of focus groups
Checklist
Key points
Questions for review
Chapter 20 Language in qualitative research
Introduction
Fine-grained approaches
Conversation analysis
Discourse analysis
Narrative analysis
Rhetorical analysis
Context-sensitive approaches
Critical discourse analysis
Overview
Key points
Questions for review
Chapter 21 Documents as sources of data
Introduction
Personal documents
Public documents
Organizational documents
Mass media outputs
Visual documents
Virtual documents
The world as text
Readers and audiences—active or passive?
The reality of documents
Interpreting documents
Semiotics
Hermeneutics
Qualitative content analysis
Historical analysis
Checklist
Key points
Questions for review
Chapter 22 Qualitative data analysis
Introduction
General strategies of qualitative data analysis
Analytic induction
Grounded theory
More on coding
Turning data into fragments
Problems with coding
Steps and considerations in coding
Secondary analysis of qualitative data
Key points
Questions for review
Chapter 23 Computer-assisted qualitative data analysis:
using NVivo
Introduction
Is CAQDAS like quantitative data analysis software?
No industry leader
Lack of universal agreement about the utility of CAQDAS
Learning NVivo
Memos
Saving an NVivo project
Searching text
Opening an existing NVivo project
Final thoughts
Coding
Key points
Questions for review
Chapter 24 Breaking down the quantitative/qualitative divide
Introduction
The natural science model and qualitative research
Quantitative research and interpretivism
Quantitative research and constructionism
Epistemological and ontological considerations
Problems with the quantitative/qualitative contrast
Theory tested in research versus emergent from data
Numbers versus words
Behaviour versus meaning
Artificial versus natural
Reciprocal analysis
Qualitative analysis of quantitative data
Quantitative analysis of qualitative data
Quantification in qualitative research
Quasi-quantifi cation in qualitative research
Combating anecdotalism through limited quantification
Thematic analysis
Key points
Questions for review
Chapter 25 Mixed methods research: combining quantitative and
qualitative research
Introduction
The argument against mixed methods research
The embedded methods argument
The paradigm argument
Two versions of the debate about quantitative and
qualitative research
The rise of mixed methods research
Approaches to mixed methods research
Research issues and participants’ perspectives
The problem of generality
Static and processual features
Qualitative research may facilitate the interpretation
of the relationship between variables
Filling in the gaps
Studying different aspects of a phenomenon
Quantitative research facilitates qualitative research
Solving a puzzle
Qualitative research facilitates quantitative research
The logic of triangulation
Refl ections on mixed methods research
Key points
Questions for review
Chapter 26 E-research: Internet research methods
Introduction
The Internet as object of analysis
Using websites to collect data from individuals
Virtual ethnography
Qualitative research using online focus groups
Qualitative research using online personal interviews
Online social surveys
Web surveys
Mixed modes of survey administration
Email surveys
Sampling issues
Overview
Ethical considerations in e-research
The state of e-research
Key points
Questions for review
Chapter 27 Writing up business research
Introduction
Writing up your research
Get feedback
Avoid sexist, racist, and disablist language
Be persuasive
Structure your writing
Start early
Writing up quantitative, qualitative, and mixed
methods research
An example of quantitative research
Methods
Results
Theory and hypotheses
Discussion
Introduction
Lessons
An example of qualitative research
Presentation of main themes
Discussion
Methods
Implications
Review of the literature
Lessons
introduction
An example of mixed methods research
Research questions
Testing the model: a comparative study
Organizational culture and effectiveness
Taking a closer look: four case studies
The Russian context
Discussion
Introduction
Lessons
Postmodernism and refl exivity
Writing ethnography
The native’s point of view
Interpretative omnipotence
Typical forms
Ways of writing differently
Experiential authority
Checklist
Key points
Questions for review