Qualitative Research Methods - Summary - Includes everything (presentations, articles, literature, & notes from lecture)
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Course
Qualitative Research (E_PM_QUALRM)
Institution
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU)
The title says it all. This summary is everything you need for the Qualitative Research Methods exam. When I shared it last year I received many compliments about it.
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Summary: Qualitative Research Methods – Kasper van der Hoofd
Contents:
Contents: ...................................................................................................................................................... 1
W1 ................................................................................................................................................................ 5
What is qualitative research? .................................................................................................................... 5
Myers: Triangulation .............................................................................................................................. 7
Myers: (tradeoff between) rigour and relevance ..................................................................................... 7
Myers: H3 – Research design ................................................................................................................... 8
Myers: choosing a topic ......................................................................................................................... 8
Myers: theoretical framework ................................................................................................................. 9
Myers: positivist, interpretive, critical (perspective) ................................................................................ 9
Myers: Model of Qualitative Research Design ....................................................................................... 9
Myers: Writing a research proposal ..................................................................................................... 11
Case study .............................................................................................................................................. 12
Case study: Design ............................................................................................................................. 13
Myers: practical suggestions ............................................................................................................... 14
Case study: Types of cases ................................................................................................................. 15
Case study: Orientation of case study: ................................................................................................ 15
Case study: Single vs Multiple cases ................................................................................................... 16
Case study: Challenges ....................................................................................................................... 16
Myers: Evaluating a case study ........................................................................................................... 16
Myers: advantages & disadvantages ................................................................................................... 17
Summary: Case study ......................................................................................................................... 18
Online qualitative research: ..................................................................................................................... 18
W2 .............................................................................................................................................................. 20
Ethnography ........................................................................................................................................... 20
Ethnography: Perspectives of ethnography ......................................................................................... 20
Ethnography: process.......................................................................................................................... 20
Ethnography: advantages & disadvantages ......................................................................................... 22
Nethography ........................................................................................................................................... 22
Focus group ............................................................................................................................................ 23
Focus group: Steps of focus group ...................................................................................................... 24
Focus group: Characteristics and tasks of facilitator ............................................................................ 24
Focus group: Advantages & disadvantages ......................................................................................... 24
Action research (Myers included) ............................................................................................................ 25
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, Summary: Qualitative Research Methods – Kasper van der Hoofd
Myers: action research process ........................................................................................................... 26
Myers: Critical elements of action research ......................................................................................... 27
Myers + lecture: Advantages & disadvantages .................................................................................... 27
Myers: evaluating action research ....................................................................................................... 27
Interviews................................................................................................................................................ 28
Interview: Steps of interview: ............................................................................................................... 28
Interview: Selecting informants ............................................................................................................ 29
Interview: interview guide .................................................................................................................... 29
Interview: before the interview ............................................................................................................. 30
While performing the interview............................................................................................................. 30
Interview: questions ............................................................................................................................. 30
Interview: after the interview ................................................................................................................ 31
Interview: limitations ............................................................................................................................ 31
Observations ........................................................................................................................................... 32
Fieldwork ............................................................................................................................................. 32
Observations: you need ....................................................................................................................... 33
Object, Act, Event, Time, Goal, Feeling ............................................................................................... 35
Observations: How to: ......................................................................................................................... 35
Observation: Criteria of a good observation: ........................................................................................ 36
Myers: Fieldwork & observations ............................................................................................................ 36
Myers: Gaining access and becoming accepted .................................................................................. 36
Myers: Length of fieldwork ................................................................................................................... 37
Myers: Equipment................................................................................................................................ 37
Myers: Field notes ............................................................................................................................... 38
Myers: 2 approaches to fieldwork ........................................................................................................ 38
Myers: how to conduct fieldwork .......................................................................................................... 39
Myers: advantages & disadvantages fieldwork .................................................................................... 39
Nethography ........................................................................................................................................... 39
Documents.............................................................................................................................................. 41
Documents: different types .................................................................................................................. 41
Myers: Personal, Private, and Public ................................................................................................... 41
Documents: What aspects are important? ........................................................................................... 41
Documents: evaluation (valididy) of documents ................................................................................... 42
Documents: Limitations ....................................................................................................................... 42
Documents: advantages & disadvantages ........................................................................................... 42
Method effect .......................................................................................................................................... 43
Summary methods ..................................................................................................................................... 44
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, Summary: Qualitative Research Methods – Kasper van der Hoofd
W4 – Making sense of data ........................................................................................................................ 47
Qualitative data analysis ...................................................................................................................... 47
The data: ............................................................................................................................................. 47
Data collection – random points of attention ........................................................................................ 47
Data analysis .......................................................................................................................................... 48
Iterative data analysis .......................................................................................................................... 49
Miles: Codes & Coding............................................................................................................................ 50
Methods of coding ............................................................................................................................... 51
Creating codes .................................................................................................................................... 52
While coding: analytic memoing .......................................................................................................... 54
From codes to Patterns ....................................................................................................................... 55
Within-case & cross-case analysis .......................................................................................................... 55
Purpose of cross-case analysis ........................................................................................................... 56
Cross-case approach: Variable vs case-oriented ................................................................................. 56
W5 – Visualizing data: Displays .................................................................................................................. 57
Types of displays: ................................................................................................................................... 58
Displays for exploring and describing ...................................................................................................... 59
Partially ordered displays ........................................................................................................................ 59
Type 1: Context chart .......................................................................................................................... 59
Type 2: Checklist matrix ...................................................................................................................... 60
Time-ordered displays............................................................................................................................. 62
Type 3: Event listing ............................................................................................................................ 62
Type 4: Critical incident chart .............................................................................................................. 63
Type 5: Event-state network ................................................................................................................ 63
Type 6: Activity record ......................................................................................................................... 64
Type 7: Decision modeling .................................................................................................................. 65
Type 8: Growth gradient ...................................................................................................................... 65
Type 9: Time-ordered matrix ............................................................................................................... 66
Role-ordered displays ............................................................................................................................. 67
Type 10: Role-ordered matrix .............................................................................................................. 67
Type 11: Role-by-time matrix ............................................................................................................... 68
Conceptually ordered displays ................................................................................................................ 69
Type 12: Conceptually clustered matrix ............................................................................................... 69
Type 13: Thematic conceptual matrix .................................................................................................. 71
Type 14: Folk taxonomy ...................................................................................................................... 71
Type 15: Cognitive maps ..................................................................................................................... 72
Type 16: Effects matrix ........................................................................................................................ 73
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, Summary: Qualitative Research Methods – Kasper van der Hoofd
Points of attention while creating displays ........................................................................................... 75
Generating meaning ............................................................................................................................... 76
Explaining & predicting (an phenomenon) ............................................................................................... 76
E&P Type 1: Explanatory effects Matrix............................................................................................... 77
E&P Type 2: Case dynamics matrix..................................................................................................... 78
E&P Type 3: Causal network ............................................................................................................... 80
E&P Type 4: Making and testing predictions........................................................................................ 83
W6 – The case study approach .................................................................................................................. 86
The ‘‘What’’ and ‘‘How’’ of Case Study Rigor: Three Strategies Based on Published Work ..................... 90
Construct validity ................................................................................................................................. 91
Internal validity .................................................................................................................................... 91
External validity ................................................................................................................................... 92
Construct validity ................................................................................................................................. 92
Reliability ............................................................................................................................................. 93
Validity in Qualitative Research ............................................................................................................... 94
Primary validity criteria ........................................................................................................................ 96
Secondary validity criteria .................................................................................................................... 96
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, Summary: Qualitative Research Methods – Kasper van der Hoofd
W1
What is qualitative research?
Scientific Research: “A systematic, theory-dependent, empirical (objective, generalizable) journey
from unknown to (a bit more) known”
Academic
Academic Skillsskills
course Research
Research methods
Method Course
course course
Discussion
Unknown Literature Research Data Data
and
(topic) Review Design Collection Analysis
Reporting
Ideas of initial Finetune The hardest part
research research → distill all data
questions questions By that you have
looking at You should engage with the collected in an
academic data as you collect it convincing,
The blueprint
literature to → you may find something that engaging and
of the study
identify is actually more important than structured story
(process
research-gap the original research question
should be
→ you narrow You may need to
rather
down the topic omit data that
iterative)
you are
It should contain:
emotionally
• Description of RQ
attached to, to
• Main constructs and/or theories
create a good
• Info about type of data that is needed to
report
answer RQ
• Info about how you collection of data
• Info about analysis of data
• Info about ensurance of reliability and
viability of sudy
Levels of understanding (scientific knowledge pyramid)
Know What: description of facts and opinions
Know Why: explanations of causal mechanisms
Know How: devising interventions to result in expected outcomes
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, Summary: Qualitative Research Methods – Kasper van der Hoofd
Differences Qualitative vs Quantitive research
Qualitative Quantative
Aim Trying to deeply understand a (few) Trying to get a general understanding
particular cases (the specific across a sample that is generalizable to a
characteristics of cases matter) larger population
theory building (inductive) Theory testing (deductive)
• Uncertain, iterative, creative process • Systematic process, from hypothesis
of discovery to testing it
• Aiming at discovering novel insights • Structured and objective type of data
(forming hypotheses) • The intention to quantify
• Open to any data • Looking for universal causal relations
• Creative process of discovery and that are applicable to other cases
analysis
Examples: • Case study • Survey research
• Ethnography/Netnography • Experimental research
• Action research • Formal methods
• Focus group • Social network analysis
• Grounded theory • Analytics and predictive modeling
• Discourse analysis • simulation
All quantitative researchers emphasize numbers more than anything else. That is, the numbers represent
values or levels of various theoretical constructs and these numbers are viewed as strong scientific
evidence of how a phenomenon works.
quantitative research is best if you want to have a large sample size and you want to generalize to a large
population.
disadvantage of quantitative research is that, as a general rule, many of the social and cultural aspects of
organizations are lost or are treated in a superficial manner. The ‘context’ is usually treated as ‘noise’ or as
something that gets in the way. The quantitative researcher trades context for the ability to generalize
across a population.
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, Summary: Qualitative Research Methods – Kasper van der Hoofd
We need qualitative research because we otherwise:
• can lose insights of heterogeneity and specificity
• we can easily fall into the trap of over-generalization
Qualitative research methods were developed in the social sciences to enable researchers to study social
and cultural phenomena. Qualitative data can help us to understand people, their motivations and actions,
and the broader context within which they work and live.
Qualitative research is best if you want to study a particular subject in depth. It is good for exploratory
research when the particular topic is new and there is not much previously published research on that topic.
It is also ideal for studying the social, cultural and political aspects of people and organizations
disadvantage of qualitative research, however, is that it is often difficult to generalize to a larger
population.
Myers: Triangulation
Triangulation is the idea that you should do more than just one thing in a study. That is, you should use
more than one research method, use two or more techniques to gather data, or combine qualitative
and quantitative research methods in the one study. Triangulation is an excellent idea if you want to
look at the same topic from different angles.
Options:
• Use more than just one research method
• Combine multiple research methods (you need to know all these research methods and be
experienced with them) – this is the most difficult option
• include multiple researchers. In this case, each researcher brings to the table his or her own
method of expertise and experience
Myers: (tradeoff between) rigour and relevance
• Rigorous research is usually defined as research that meets the standards of ‘scientific’
research
o Criticism: too theoretical and of little practical relevance to business professionals.
• Relevant research is usually defined as research that is of immediate relevance to business
o Criticism: seen as more akin to consultin. The lack of a theoretical contribution
(Myers, 2020)
qualitative research is perhaps the best way for research in business and management to become
both rigorous and relevant at the same time. It allows scholarship and practice to come together.
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, Summary: Qualitative Research Methods – Kasper van der Hoofd
Myers: H3 – Research design
A research design is the plan for an entire qualitative research project. What you are going to do?
Research design involves deciding upon all the various components of a research project:
- your philosophical assumptions,
- your research method,
- which data collection techniques you will use,
- your approach to qualitative data analysis,
- your approach to writing up
- if applicable, how you plan to publish your findings.
The main purpose of research design is to provide a road map of the whole research project. It should
include clear guidelines and procedures with regard to what you intend to do and when.
However, as most qualitative research is iterative, you should never regard your research design
as final. You should be flexible and willing to change your plan as the research project
progresses.
Myers: choosing a topic
the topic will depend upon your previous experience and training in a particular subject. It will also
depend upon your familiarity with the literature in that subject. A literature review that critically evaluates
relevant previous research will help you to formulate a good topic.
Important requirements for deciding:
• You are interested in the topic.
• A faculty member is prepared to supervise you
• You can obtain relevant qualitative data on the topic
the next task is to develop one or more
research questions. These questions
should be framed in such a way that they are
answerable empirically, i.e. by obtaining
qualitative data. The questions should also
be relevant to a particular issue that is (or
potentially is) of concern in your chosen field
of study. The questions should be designed
to solve a research problem
From the literature you might be able to
identify ‘gaps’ and these gaps might be a
fruitful avenue for further research.
(Myers, 2020)
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, Summary: Qualitative Research Methods – Kasper van der Hoofd
Myers: theoretical framework
all qualitative research projects need to have some kind of theoretical framework, which may be
developed before you begin the empirical research, during the project or after (as in grounded theory).
Like your research questions and research topic, usually the best place to find a suitable theoretical
framework is from the research literature.
find or create a theoretical framework that matches or fits the research problem that you have
decided to investigate. This theoretical framework, as a product of your literature review, then
drives how the research project is carried out.
Qualitative research can be used for theory building (exploratory) and theory testing
Theory building qualitative research is much more common. Qualitative research can be used in theory-
testing studies when researchers have a better idea of what to test.
Theory building Theory testing
Inductive deductive
‘bottom-up’ (patterns emerge from data) ‘top-down’ (confirm theory with data)
Myers: positivist, interpretive, critical (perspective)
• Positivist
only “factual” knowledge gained through observation (the senses), including measurement, is
trustworthy. In positivism studies the role of the researcher is limited to data collection and
interpretation in an objective way
• Interpretive
tends to rely on an underlying interpretive and constructivist epistemology, i.e. social reality is
socially constructed.
the assumption that social reality is not singular or objective, but is rather shaped by human
experiences and social contexts (ontology), and is therefore best studied within its socio-historic
context by reconciling the subjective
• Critical
critical researchers are distinctive in adopting a more activist view of their role; unlike
interpretive researchers who aim to understand the significance of the past to the present, action
researchers aim to change the present situation to produce a different future. They suggest that
action research must aim towards social justice, involve critical reflection on current
practices, question the taken-for-granted assumptions which underlie those practices
Myers: Model of Qualitative Research Design
qualitative research project consists of the following essential building blocks or steps:
• Philosophical assumptions
Every research project is based on some philosophical assumptions about the nature of the
world and how knowledge about the world can be obtained
These assumptions provide the foundation for everything that follows.
Three philosophical perspectives or ‘paradigms’ – these are:
o Positivist
o Interpretive
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, Summary: Qualitative Research Methods – Kasper van der Hoofd
o Critical perspectives
• Research method
All qualitative researchers need to decide how they are going to investigate the social world. How
are you going to answer your research questions?
A research method is a way of finding empirical data about the world. Each research method
builds on a set of underlying philosophical assumptions and the choice of research method
influences the way in which the researcher collects data. Specific research methods also imply
different skills and research practices.
Guidelines for choosing a research method:
o Is the method appropriate to my research question?
o Will the method enable me to arrive at the desired type of result?
o What are the conditions for use of this method?
o What are the limitations or the weaknesses of the method?
o What other methods could be appropriate to my research question?
o Is the method better than other methods? If so, why?
o What skills does this method require?
o Do I possess these skills or can I acquire them?
o Would the use of an additional method improve the analysis?
▪ If yes, is this second method compatible with the first?
• Data collection technique
the next step is to decide upon which qualitative data collection technique (or collection of
techniques) you are going to use.
The choice of one or more data collection techniques will depend upon your choice of a
research topic, your research method and the availability of data. The availability of data is
crucial to the successful outcome of any research project
• Data analysis approach
As most qualitative research projects generate lots of data, you will need to have a plan with
regard to how you are going to deal with them.
Although data collection and data analysis are logically different steps, in an actual
qualitative research project they often go hand in hand. The data collection and analysis often
proceed in an iterative manner
• Written record
the process of writing up your research is just
as important as doing the research itself. When
you write up your findings, you are deciding
what story you are going to tell.
(Myers, 2020)
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