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Summary Research Skills Spring 2021 MSc Supply Chain Management
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Summary of all the lectures of Research Skills MSc Supply Chain Management Spring 2021 including the CVA-examples
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ContentsLecture 1:................................................................................................................................................3
Lecture 2: Requirements for good theory supported inductive research...............................................7
Problem identification Step 1.............................................................................................................7
Problem identification Step 2, making a conceptual model...............................................................9
Problem identification What if no company.....................................................................................10
Problem statement (or research question)......................................................................................10
Research questions...........................................................................................................................11
Structure of the thesis......................................................................................................................11
Lecture 3: Research design...................................................................................................................12
Theoretical framework.....................................................................................................................14
Data collection..................................................................................................................................15
Secondary data collection.................................................................................................................16
Primary data collection: Observations..............................................................................................16
Primary data collection: Interviews..................................................................................................17
Before the interview.........................................................................................................................18
During the interview.........................................................................................................................20
After the interview...........................................................................................................................21
Primary data collection: Quantitative data.......................................................................................22
Sampling...........................................................................................................................................22
Reliability..........................................................................................................................................25
Lecture 4: Data collection: introduction...............................................................................................26
Data collection: Introduction 2.........................................................................................................27
Data analysis Step 1 Categorization..................................................................................................28
Data analysis Step 2 Coding..............................................................................................................30
Data analysis Step 3 Causal relations................................................................................................31
Data analysis Step 4 Explanations.....................................................................................................32
Data displays.....................................................................................................................................33
Quantitative methods.......................................................................................................................34
Internal validity.................................................................................................................................34
Lecture 5: Step 6 & 7: Solutions (recommendations and external validity)..........................................35
The most effective explanation........................................................................................................35
Effective solutions.............................................................................................................................36
Testing solutions...............................................................................................................................36
Selection of the best solution...........................................................................................................38
,Implementation of a solution...........................................................................................................39
External validity................................................................................................................................40
,Lecture 1:
Learning goals Research Skills MSC SCM
Define an adequate and relevant research problem and devise the accompanying problem
identification, problem statement and research questions.
Devise a conceptual model that indicates the relevant concepts to study and serves as a
guideline for literature study and data analysis.
Develop a research design taking into account scientific criteria such as validity and reliability.
Choose a suitable sampling method to perform data collection.
Analyze the data so that an in-depth understanding of the company problem is achieved.
Discuss findings and use these findings to develop an adequate solution for the business
problem.
Deductive vs. inductive research
Deductive: testing of a theory
Inductive: developing a theory
Theory supported inductive research
For your Master thesis: no “pure” inductive research but theory supported inductive
research
In general it will not be possible to develop a new theory. You are expected to
contribute to existing theory. A reasonable
ambition level is e.g. to study a known
problem in a new context.
You will not only use empirical data to look
for patterns, but you will also study
literature about equivalent/similar problems
already studied by other SCM researchers.
Deductive research
Most commonly associated with quantitative research of the following type:
Start: use academic literature to define a problem (relation between variables) and to define
hypotheses.
Collect data to test the hypotheses:
o Quantitative data about the variables to be examined
o Methods: survey, existing datasets, secondary (numerical) data, …
Test the hypotheses:
o Method: statistical tests and regression analysis (Stata).
You study the average behavior of a large population, e.g.
companies in a certain industry
employees in a large company
Theory supported inductive research
Most commonly associated with case study research:
, Start: define a practical problem (e.g. company problem)
Study literature about similar problems already investigated.
Use the literature to collect relevant data:
o Qualitative + quantitative data
o Methods: observations + interviews are important, but also secondary data (e.g.
company databases), measurements, (small) questionnaires,…
Data collection + analysis: no fixed recipe.
Data + literature is used to understand the problem and draw conclusions and give
recommendations.
You study a specific situation (no average behavior).
Your knowledge/experience in research
Most (all?) of you have already have (some) experience with:
o Literature study
o Deductive research (testing hypothesis by statistically analyzing datasets).
Students that come from Universities of Applied Science:
o Have experience in solving company problems
o BRT: survey research, experimental research, archival research
Most of you have no or little experience in:
o Qualitative research
o Solving company problems in an academically sound way… (but this is what most of
you are going to do for your MSc Thesis..)
Content of the course
Goal: teach you how to solve a company problem in an academically sound way.
Case study
o Qualitative methods
o Quantitative methods (see also other courses)
Theory supported inductive research
o (A case study to test a theory in a deductive study is not really different, the
difference is just the origin of the problem).
Challenge
You have to learn how to bridge the gap between the academic world and the business world:
Preparation for your MSc thesis.
Preparation for your future job.
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