Qualitative Research iv Busivess aava耤emevt
Michael Myers
Content
Chapter 2 Overview of Qualitatve esearch......................................................................................................2
Chapter 3 esearch Design.................................................................................................................................4
Chapter 4 Philosophical Perspectves.................................................................................................................6
Chapter 5 Ethics..................................................................................................................................................8
Chapter 6 Acton esearch...............................................................................................................................10
Chapter 7 Case Study esearch........................................................................................................................13
Chapter 8 Ethnographic esearch....................................................................................................................16
Chapter 9 Grounded Theory.............................................................................................................................19
Chapter 10 Interviews......................................................................................................................................21
Chapter 11 Partcipant Observaton and Fieldwork..........................................................................................24
Chapter 12 Using Documents...........................................................................................................................27
Chapter 13 Analyzing Qualitatve Data: an Overview.......................................................................................29
Chapter 17 Writng Up......................................................................................................................................33
Chapter 18 Getng Published...........................................................................................................................35
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,Chapter 2 Overview of Qualitative Research
Qualitatve research methods help researchers to see, understand and explain social and cultural contexts in
terms of decisions and actons. The best way to learn about the context is to talk with people. Then
qualitatve research is best.
Kaplan and Maxwell: the goal of understanding a phenomenon from the point of view of the partcipants
and its partcular social and insttutonal context is largely lost when textual data are quantied.
Research: an original investgaton undertaken in order to contribute to knowledge and understanding in a
partcular ield, leading to new knowledge. // enquiry of an empirical or conceptual nature.
esearch indings are both sound and original (i.e. new) if those indings are open to scrutny and formal
evaluaton by experts in the same ield.
Peer review system: the indings of a research study are evaluated by people who are qualiied in the same
ield (i.e. experts). If these experts ind that the results are sound and that they are new to them, the
research project represents and original contributon to knowledge. A system of quality assurance.
Since the peer review system is a social system, it has drawbacks. But, it does ensure a certain standard for
publishing.
What is not research in a university setng: preparaton of teaching materials, provision of advice/opinion,
feasibility studies, routne data collecton, routne IT development.
Quanttatve vs. Qualitatve (most common distncton in research):
Quanttatve methods originally study natural phenomena, but are now accepted in social sciences as well.
The emphasis is on numbers (numerical methods); numbers represent values and levels of theoretcal
constructs and concepts and the interpretaton of the numbers is viewed as strong scientic evidence of how
a phenomenon works. Statstcal tools and sofware packages.
-Advantages: 1. Large sample size, 2. Generalize indings to populaton, 3. Statstcal techniques
-Disadvantages: 1. Many of social/cultural aspects are lost, 2. Context is usually treated as ‘noise’ (in order to
generalize)
Qualitatve methods study social and cultural phenomena to understand people, their motvatons and
actons, and the broader context. (e.g. acton research, grounded theory). Data is commonly a record of
what people have said.
-Advantages: 1. To study a subject in-depth (e.g. exploratory research; when topic is new), 2. To study social,
cultural and politcal aspects, 3. Generalize to theory (one case study, one ethnography)
-Disadvantages: 1. Difcult to generalize to populaton (you can generalize but not using ‘sampling logic’ but
in terms of repeated studies)
Page 8 table 2.1 Examples of qualitatve and quanttatve research
80s: interest in quanttatve research only
90s: increased interest in qualitatve research in all business disciplines
Other possible distnctons in research:
- Nomothetc vs. idiographic
o Nomothetic: concerned with discovery of new laws
o Idio耤raphic: concerned with uniqueness of each situaton
- Predicaton and control vs. explanaton and understanding
- Outside (etic) vs. insider (emic) perspectve
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,Triav耤ulatiov: the use of more than one research method or techniques (method triangulaton), multple
sources (data triangulaton) or researchers (people triangulaton) to gather data about the same topic from
different perspectves in order to, eventually, be able to generalize indings.
Trying to combine different methods is ofen difcult, because of the substantally different underlying
philosophies or approaches (e.g. combinaton of qualitatve and quanttatve).
Easiest opton is to include multple researchers with their own knowledge and experience. Here, mutual
respect is necessary for an open dialogue. esults can be outstanding.
The business and management discipline is very large, and ofen builds on other disciplines (e.g. psychology,
statstcs or sociology). It relies on empirical data (the real world). The empirical investgaton seeks to
contribute to the body of knowledge in a partcular ield.
Page 11 igure 2.1 A model of research in business and management; select topic/problem relevant
to body of knowledge > use research method to ind answers to questons resultng from
topic/problem > indings add to body of knowledge.
Trade-off between rigor and relevance:
Ri耤orous research: the research has been conducted to the scientic model of research (‘scientic
research’), subject to peer review. Ofen too theoretcal and of litle relevance. Gain tenure and promoton
through publishing.
Relevavt research: research that is of immediate relevance to business professionals of which results can be
immediately used. More akin to consultng. Ofen difcult to get it published in journals (lack of theoretcal
contributon).
igor vs. relevance debate. More rigor makes the research less relevant, but higher chance to get
published. More relevant research is less rigor, but more useful in practce.
Page 13; read for discussion on arguments scientic vs. practcal research etc.
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, Chapter 3 Research Design
Research desi耤v: the plan for an entre qualitatve research introduced in the research proposal involving
decision on various components of the research (e.g. assumptons, research method, data collecton
technique, approach to data analysis, etc.). // a road map for the whole research.
Never regard research design as inal as qualitatve research is an iteratie process. It can be adapted on the
way but it is relevant to construct and write it beforehand as it guides you.
Besides the proposal being a guide for the researcher, it is also to convince the reader (e.g. supervisor,
advisory board, etc.) that you are capable of doing research and that this research is signiicant, relevant,
interestng, and sound.
Step 1: choose a research topic
A literature reviews that critcally evaluates relevant previous researchers will help to formulate a good topic
related to your ield of expertse. Three important requirements in deciding upon a topic:
1. You are interested in the topic
2. A faculty member is prepared to supervise you
3. You can obtain relevant qualitatve data on the topic
Step 2: generate list of potental research questons
Afer the topic is decided upon, research questons should be formulated that can be answered empirically
and are designed to solve a research problem. These questons are usually derived from research literature
(knowledge ‘gaps’, suggestons for further research) and occasionally from business practce.
The highest ranked journals publish the best artcles/researches (i.e. new ideas). ankings of these journals
can be found online (e.g. inancial tmes, journal-ranking.com). These journals should be consulted and cited
in your own research but not limited to (e.g. specialist journals in the partcular ield are also relevant).
Page 22 igure 3.1 How to identfy a research problem
Step 3: choose a theoretcal framework
There are many theoretcal frameworks (i.e. theories) that can form the basis of your research. Highlight the
iteratve nature of qualitatve research and thus the moment for the choice of theoretcal framework (before
you begin empirical research, during the project or afer (grounded theory). Eventually there has to be
theoretcal framework applied in your study, which can also be deducted from research literature.
Although it is said that qualitatve research is only used for theory building (most common, exploratory
phase), it can also be used for theory testng.
Deductive (theory testng; ‘top-down, hypotheses) vs. ivductive (theory building; ‘botom-up’, sensitzing
concepts (i.e. tentatve hypotheses)) reasoning can both be used in qualitatve research, although inductve
reasoning is most common, as it is open-ended and exploratory (deductve narrower, more constrained).
Page 23 table 3.1 Deductve and inductve reasoning in qualitatve research
Afer step 3: theoretcal framework, the following steps of the qualitatve research project are:
Step 4: set philosophical assumptons about the social world (empirie)
- The nature of the world and how knowledge about the world can be obtained
- Paradigms (positvist, interpretatve, critcal perspectves; chapter 4)
Step 5: select research method(s)
- How to investgate/ind empirical data of the social world
- Research method: a strategy of inquiry
- E.g. acton research, case study, ethnography, grounded theory (chapter 5-9)
- Method affects the way you collect data
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