Begrippen onderzoeksmethodologie
Research methodology … provides us with a set of rules and procedures to design and
evaluate research on its reliability and validity.
Business research … refers to “academic research on topics related to questions that are
relevant to the field of business and management and have a social
science orientation.”
Bias (in research) … is anything that produces systematic or random variation in a
research finding.
Ontology … refers to the nature of reality. Understanding how we look at the
social reality.
Objectivism Social phenomena exist objectively, external to the social actor or
observer. Researcher is an ‘objective outsider’ when studying
phenomena.
Constructionism Social phenomena are continuously constructed by humans and by
the meanings which social actors attach to them. A constructionist
researcher will always present only one specific version of social
reality, constructed by all actors (including the researcher).
Epistemology … refers to the nature of knowledge.
Positivism … advocates which knowledge is created by following the scientific
model and adopting the methods of the natural sciences in order to
objectively measure social facts and to explain human behaviour.
Interpretivism … requires the scientist to grasp the subjective meaning
of social action. The main concern here is to understand human
behaviour. The focus is on the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of social action, to
look for meanings behind the obvious action or behaviour.
Deductive reasoning Theorists start with generalizations and determine if these
(top-down deduction) generalizations apply to specific instances. In a deductive approach
(theory-testing approach) the theorists go from generals to particulars, hence they start with a
problem in the literature or existing knowledge and then
set up research to solve it.
Inductive reasoning Theorists start with observations of specific instances and seek to
(bottom-up induction) establish generalizations about the phenomenon under investigation.
(theory-developing An inductive approach begins with ‘general wonderment’ and raw
approach) data. As such, it moves from particulars to generals, allowing the
theory to emerge from the data. In inductive reasoning, theory is the
outcome of research.
Abductive logic Researchers try to find the simplest and most likely explanation of the
observations. An abductive inference to the best explanation also
includes inferring A as an explanation of B, whereas there can be
multiple possible explanations for B.
Quantitative strategy … emphasizes quantification in the collection and analysis of data.
Qualitative strategy … emphasizes words and images.
Research problem The topic you would like to address, investigate, or study, whether
(= onderzoeksprobleem), descriptively or experimentally. It is the focus or reason for engaging
Problem statement in your research. … functions as the starting point of your research
(= probleemstelling) project and will always describe the (managerial) issue at stake (=
beheerskwestie waar het om gaat).
Research proposal It helps you to think out the research project you are about to
, (= onderzoeksvoorstel) undertake, and predict any difficulties which might arise. (full turtle
template)
Research question What you want/have to research. It is an academic translation of the
(= onderzoeksvraag) problem statement. Identifying a … will provide greater focus to your
research or clarify the direction of your investigation. A good is
focused, specific and researchable (= onderzoekbaar). It brings
direction and focus to all choices which will come in throughout the
rest of the research process.
The literature review … is an essential building block of every research project; it provides
(= literatuuronderzoek) the basis for what you will research and how you will research it. It
(= literatuurstudie) shows you participate in ‘the academic debate’ and is an expression
of how you develop scholarship (= is een uiting van hoe je
wetenschap ontwikkeld). (3 types: narrative review, systematic
review, meta-analysis)
Theory A set of systematically interrelated concepts, definitions, and
propositions which are advanced to explain and predict phenomena.
5C framework The framework provides a clear overview of the five building blocks a
researcher and author has to address.
Conceptual model A representation, a visualization of the core concepts in your
research.
A variable … is any characteristic, number, or quantity which can be measured
(= data item) or counted. (Examples: Age, sex, business income and expenses,
country of birth, capital expenditure, class grades, and eye colour and
vehicle type)
It is called a variable because the value may vary between data units
in a population and may change in value over time.
Independent variable … is the one condition you change in an experiment.
Dependent variable The dependent variable is the variable you measure or observe. The
dependent variable gets its name because it is the factor which is
dependent on the state of the independent variable.
Moderating variable … is a variable which alters the impact (= die het effect verandert) of
an independent variable X on the dependent variable Y. As such, the
moderating variable has no direct impact on either X or Y (hence, no
direct arrows from M to X or Y) but has an impact on the relationship
between X and Y (hence, an arrow from M to the arrow between X
and Y).
Mediating variable … is a variable which lies intermediate, or in between an independent
variable (X) and a dependent variable (Y). As such, the mediating
variable itself is influenced by X and it influences Y. There will, most
probably, remain a direct effect of X on Y, but the main interest of the
researcher will be to analyse the effect of X, through the mediating
variable, on Y.
Confounding variable … is a variable which actually explains the (found) association
between X and Y, so without this confounding variable, there actually
is no association between X and Y.
Spurious relationship There appears to be a relationship between two variables, but it is
between X and Y not real. It is spurious, because it is produced by a third variable
(= schijnsamenhang) which is related to each of the two variables.
Control variable An actual … is a variable in which the researcher is not interested, but
the variable is expected to have an effect (on X or Y) and therefore
needs to be included in the model. The researcher needs to control
