A complete summary of the book "Research methods for business students' MR1 for the course Introduction to Academic Research. Useful for the midterm and final exam.
mr1 management research 1 research methods for business students sixth edition mark saunders
philip lewis adrian thornhill 2012 universiteit van amsterdam uva bedrijfskunde en economie pearson
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Research Methods
Chapter 1 Business and management research, reflective diaries and the purpose of this book
1.1 Introduction
There is no one best way for undertaking your research project. Methods refers to techniques and
procedures used to obtain and analyse data, it includes questionnaires, observations and interviews
as well as both quantitative (statistical) and qualitative (non-statistical) analysis. The term
methodology refers to the theory of how research should be undertaken.
1.2 The nature of research
The term ‘research’ is often used in a wrong sentence, for example:
Just collecting facts or information with no clear purpose.
Reassembling and reordering facts or information without interpretation.
As an esoteric activity with no or little relevance to everyday life.
As a term to get your product or idea noticed and respected.
Research has a number of characteristics:
Data are collected systematically.
Data are interpreted systematically.
There is a clear purpose: to find things out.
Research is something that people undertake in order to find out things in a systematic way, thereby
increasing their knowledge. Systematic suggests that research is based on logical relationships and
not just beliefs. To find out things suggests there are a multiplicity of possible purposes for your
research.
1.3 Business and management research
Four things are combined to make business and management a distinctive focus for research:
1. The way in which managers draw on knowledge developed by other disciplines.
2. The fact that managers tend to be powerful and busy people.
3. The fact that managers are educated.
4. The requirement for the research to have some practical consequence.
Using knowledge from a range of disciplines enables management research to gain new insights that
cannot be obtained through all of the disciplines separately. Business and management research
needs to engage with both the world of theory and the world of practice. Consequently, the
problems addressed should grow out of interaction between these two worlds rather than either on
their own.
1.4 The research process
The research process includes usually clarifying a topic, reviewing the literature, designing the
research, collecting data, analysing data and writing up. The process isn´t rational and
straightforward.
1.5 Keeping a reflective diary or research notebook
A reflective diary is something in which you note down what has happened and the lessons you have
learnt both from things that have gone well and things that have not gone so well during the
research process. A research notebook is a diary in which they record chronologically other aspects
of their research project such as useful articles, notes of discussions and other interesting
conservations. The learning process is going through four stages:
1. Concrete experience
2. Observation and reflection in relation to the experience.
3. Forming abstract concepts and generalisations from these observations and reflections
,4. Testing these concepts and generalisations in new situations.
Without reflection there will be no learning from experience. Without a reflective diary, it’s difficult
to write a good essay.
Chapter 2 Formulating and clarifying the research topic
2.1 Introduction
Formulating and clarifying the research topic is the starting point of your research project. After
you’ve chosen a topic, you will be able to choose the most appropriate research strategy and data
collection and analysis technique.
2.2 Attributes of a good research topic
Your research topic must be something you are capable of undertaking and one that excites your
imagination. Capability means you’re comfortable with the subject, but it also means you must be
reasonably certain of gaining access to any data you might need to collect. And it’s important that
the issues within your research are capable of being linked to academic theory. It’s also important
that your topic will have symmetry of potential outcomes: your result will be of similar value
whatever you find out.
2.3 Generating and refining research ideas
If you haven’t a research idea, there are two common techniques: rational thinking and creative
thinking.
Rational thinking Creative thinking
Examining your own strengths and interests Keeping a notebook of your ideas
Examining staff research interests Exploring personal preferences using past projects
Looking at past project titles Exploring relevance to business using the literature
Discussion Relevance trees
Searching the literature Brainstorming
Scanning the media
See box 2.6 for the Delphi technique.
2.4 Turning research ideas into research projects
Defining clear research questions at the beginning of the process is very important. It’s easier to
defining a question with a descriptive answer. Clough and Nutbrown (2002) use the ‘Goldilocks test’
to decide if research questions are either ‘too big’, ‘too small’, ‘too hot’ or ‘just right’. The pitfall you
must avoid at all costs is asking research questions that will not generate new insights. It is often a
useful starting point in the writing of research questions to begin with one research question that
flows from your research idea.
Theory is composed of four elements related to what, how, why and a fourth group of who, where
and when. A key aspect of how is causality. Theory is concerned with cause and effect. The why
element is a critical element because it explains the nature of the relationship between the variables
or concepts. Good theory must also use logical reasoning to explain why the relationship exists. Good
theory has the power to explain and predict, it may also be subject to limitations.
2.5 Writing your research proposal
The research proposal is a structured plan your proposed research project.
Chapter 4 Understanding research philosophies and approaches
4.1 Introduction
, A researcher need to explain why he made the choice to depict the issues underlying the choice of
data collection techniques and analysis procedures.
4.2 Understanding your research philosophy
Research philosophy relates to the development of knowledge and the nature of that knowledge.
The assumptions you make in your research shape how you understand your research questions, the
methods you use and how you interpret your findings. The research philosophy you adopt can be
thought of as your assumptions about the way in which you view the world. The philosophy you
adopt will be influenced by practical considerations, but the main influence is your particular view.
One research philosophy isn´t better than another. Ontology and epistemology both highlights
important differences which will influence the way in which you think about the research process.
It´s more appropriate for the researcher to adopt a multidimensional set of continua rather than
separate positions.
Pragmatism asserts that concepts are only relevant where they support action, this means that the
most important determinant of your position on each of the continua is the research question. The
importance of the meaning of an idea are its practical consequences.
Ontology:
Ontology is concerned with nature of reality. There are two aspects of ontology:
Objectivism. Objectivism represents the position that social entities exist in reality external to
and independent of social actors. This view emphasises the structural aspects of ‘management’
and assumes that management is similar in all organisations. The essence of the functions is
very much the same in all organisations
Subjectivism. Subjectivism asserts that social phenomena are created from the perceptions and
consequent actions of social actors. It’s necessary to study the details of a situation in order to
understand what is happening or even the reality occurring behind what is happening. Social
constructionism which views reality as being socially constructed.
Epistemology:
Epistemology concerns what constitutes acceptable knowledge in a field of study.
Positivism. A positivist prefer collecting data about an observable reality and search for
regularities and causal relationships in your data to create law-like generalisations like those
produced by scientists. To generate a research strategy to collect data you may use existing
theory to develop hypotheses, but you don’t have to start with existing theory. Another
important component of the positivist approach to research is that the research is undertaken,
as far as possible, in a value-free way. It is frequently advocated that the positivist researcher
will be likely to use a highly structured methodology in order to facilitate replication.
Realism. The essence of realism is that what we sense is reality: that objects have an existence
independent of the human mind. The philosophy of realism is that there is a reality quite
independent of the mind. Realism is a branch of epistemology which is similar to positivism in
that it assumes a scientific approach to the development of knowledge. There are two types of
realism:
1. Direct realism: what you see is what you get, what we experience through our senses
portrays the world accurately.
2. Critical realism: what we experience are sensations, the images of the things in the real
world, not the things directly
The direct realist would respond by arguing that what we call illusions are actually due to the
fact that we have insufficient information. Critical realism claims that there are two steps of
experiencing the world. First, there is the thing itself and the sensations it convey. Second, there
is the mental processing that goes on sometime after that sensation meets our senses. Direct
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