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Summary Qualitative research - Premaster Business administrations
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Samenvatting QuantitativeWhat is quantitative research
- There are many definitions
- Broadly speaking, we can summarize them as:
Quantitative research methods resolve around answering a particular research question by
collecting numerical data that are analyzed by the use of mathematical methods (in
particular statistics.
Types of quantitative research
- Descriptive - What?
- Interested in a quantitative answer: how many student are enrolled in the
premaster? Which AirBnB properties have the highest booking rate?
- Interested in a numerical change: are the numbers of premaster students in
our University rising compared to last year?
- Inferential - Why?
- Test relationships: what is the relation between students self-esteem and their
average grade in the premaster?
- Explain something: what factors cause changes in student performance over
time?
Why do we need quantitative research
- In essence, quantitative research methods provide us with a toolbox to study the
(social) world around us by the use of the scientific method.
- Helps in minimizing cognitive assumptions that may distort our interpretation.
- Depending on the state of prior theory and research on the topic you have to use
quantitative methods to make a useful contribution to our understanding of
the world.
- Only way to establish causal relationships
When do we need quantitative research?
,Good research questions:
- Can be answered and need answering (“so what?”)
- Improve our understanding of how the world works
- Inform theory
Example - Talhem et al 2014
- Phenomenon (topic) of interest: Psychological differences between cultures
- What is the impact of different forms of substance (e.g., farming, herding) on
collectivism?
- Proposition: More interdependent means of subsistence (i.e., farming versus herding)
increase collectivistic mindsets
- Hypothesis: More farmland dedicated to interdependent rice farming increases
measures of cultural thought and nepotism and decreases measures of implicit
individualism and divorce rates
What is a theory?
- A theory is an explanation of relationships among concepts or events within a set of
boundary conditions.
- A good theory simplifies and explains complex real world phenomena
Elements of a good theory - Whetten 1989
- What: Constructs and variables that logically should be considered part of the
explanation of the phenomenon of interest
- How: Propositions and hypotheses that indicate the “links” between constructs and
variables. Indicate causality
- Why: The “glue” that justifies the selection of constructs/variables and their proposed
relationships
- Who, where, when: The conditions under which the theory should hold. Set the
limitations of the generalizability of the theory wrt context, time and space
What is theory - H. Poincaré
- Science is facts; just as houses are made of stones, so is science made of facts; but
a pile of stones is not a house and a collection of facts is not necessarily science.
What is a theory - Model
, Summary
- Good theory simplifies and explains complex real world phenomena
- Good research questions can and need be answered by means of statistics
The Data Generating Process (DGP)
- Our theoretical model is only a (small) part of the broader, more complex data
generating process
- We need to make credible claims about the complete DPG so that we can identify
the variation in the data that answers our research question.
Example
We hypothesized that founders gender positively/negatively affects funding because more
men founder are asked promotion-focused questions (which allow them to boast).
- However it could be that:
- Investors (predominantly men) prefer other men (something called similarity
attraction in psychology)
- Women founders start different kind of businesses
Alternative explanations
We call that alternative explanations
- They are likely part of the DGP
- They can also explain our proposed relation but for different reasons
We will need to find clever ways to rule out these alternative explanations to identify
(credible test) our proposed theoretical relation with the data at hand. This a large part of the
scientific review process.
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