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Summary Qualitative Research in Business & Management
- Instelling
- Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen (RU)
This summary contains chapters: 2-14, 17 & 18.
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2. Overview of Qualitative Research2.1 Why do qualitative research?
According to Kaplan and Maxwell (1994), the goal of understanding a phenomenon from
the point of view of the participants and its particular social and institutional context is
largely lost when textual data are quantified. One of the primary motivations for doing
qualitative, as opposed to quantitative, research comes from the observation that, if
there is one thing which distinguishes humans from the natural world, it is their ability to
talk. It is only by talking to people, or reading what they have written, that we can find
out what they are thinking, and understanding their thoughts goes a long way towards
explaining their actions.
- Typical research questions consist of what, why, how and when.
2.2 What is research?
Research: an original investigation undertaken in order to contribute to knowledge and
understanding in a particular field. It is a creative activity leading to the production of
new knowledge (new in the sense that the facts, the interpretation of those facts, or the
theories used to explain them might not have been used in a particular way before in that
specific discipline).
- Involves enquiry of an empirical or conceptual nature.
- May involve contributing to the intellectual infrastructure of a subject or discipline.
Peer review system: findings must be evaluated by those who are experienced and
‘qualified’ to do so. If these experts, in evaluating the research, find that the results are
sound, and that the findings are new to them, then we can say that the research project
represents an original contribution to knowledge. It is a system of quality assurance.
Activities that don’t count as research are as follows:
- The preparation of teaching materials.
- The provision of advice or opinion (e.g. consulting work).
- Feasibility studies (where the output is a recommendation to a client).
- Routine data collection (where there is no attempt to contribute to new knowledge
in the field as a whole).
- Routine information systems development (where the output is a new or improved
product for a client, not the experimental design of a new product or service).
- Any other routine professional practice.
2.3 Quantitative and qualitative research compared
Quantitative research emphasizes numbers more than anything else. That is, the
numbers ‘come to represent values and levels of theoretical constructs and concepts and
the interpretation of the numbers is viewed as strong scientific evidence of how a
phenomenon works’.
- Most researchers use statistical tools for data analysis.
- Best if you want to have a large sample size and want to generalize to a large
population.
- Context (social and cultural aspects) is being traded for the ability to generalize
across a population.
Qualitative research methods were developed to enable researchers to study social and
cultural phenomena. Qualitative data is mostly a record of what people have said.
- Data sources include observation and participant observation (fieldwork),
interviews and questionnaires, documents and texts, and the researcher’s
impressions and reactions.
, - Best if you want to study a particular subject in depth (e.g. in one or a few
organizations).
- Good for exploratory research; when the particular topic is new and there is not
much previously published research on that topic.
- Ideal for studying the social, cultural, and political aspects of people and
organizations.
- However, it is difficult to generalize to a larger population (it is normally
impossible to generalize from a sample to a population).
- Generalization is possible from qualitative research to theory.
Table: Examples of qualitative and quantitative research
Qualitative research: A focus on text Quantitative research: A focus on numbers
Action research Surveys
Case study research Laboratory experiments
Ethnography Simulation
Grounded theory Mathematical modelling
Semiotics Structured equation modelling
Discourse analysis Statistical analysis
Hermeneutics Econometrics
Narrative and metaphor
2.4 Triangulation
Triagulation: 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.
- Excellent for looking to one topic from different angles.
- Many qualitative research methods require the triangulation of data.
- Triangulation is difficult when the research methods are substantially different.
- An easier way to achieve triangulation is to include the findings of multiple
researchers.
2.5 Research in business and management
Business and management disciplines: accounting and finance, commercial law,
economics, HRM, logistics and supply chain management, organizational behaviour and
organizational development, information systems, management strategy and
international business, marketing and operations management.
A key feature of a qualitative or quantitative study, as opposed to a purely conceptual
study, is that it is an empirical investigation, i.e. it relies on empirical data from the
natural or social world.
Figure: A model of research in business and management
2.6 Rigour and relevance in research
A perennial (eeuwigdurend) issue for researchers in business and management is the
apparent trade-off between rigour (uiterst nauwkeurig) and relevance.
,Table: Rigour and relevance
Rigour Relevance
‘Scientific research’ Relevant to business practitioners
Emphasis on meeting scientific standards Emphasis on being immediately relevant
such as validity and reliability to practice
Subject to academic peer review Published in consulting reports or industry
magazines
Published in academic journals
Theoretical contribution Practical contribution
Rigorous research: research that meets the standards of ‘scientific’ research; it is
research that has been conducted according to the scientific model of research.
Relevant research: research that is of immediate relevance to business professionals; the
results can be used right away.
3. Research Design
3.1 Introduction
Research design: the plan for an entire qualitative research project; 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. Since most qualitative research is iterative,
you should never regard your research design as final. Research design involves:
- Philosophical assumptions, research method, data collection techniques, approach
to qualitative data analysis, approach to writing up, and, if applicable, how you
plan to publish your findings.
An important aspect of your research design is to convince your potential supervisor(s),
advisory committee, department, school, and/or research funding committee that you are
capable of doing the research and that your research project is viable.
- A proposal is an argument ‘intended to convince the reader that the proposed
research is significant, relevant, and interesting, that the design of the study is
sound, and that the researcher is capable of successfully conducting the study’.
3.2 Choosing a topic
There are three requirements for deciding upon a topic:
- Interest in the topic.
- A faculty member is prepared to supervise you.
- You can obtain relevant qualitative data on the topic.
The next step is designing 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 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.
- A way of developing research questions is from research literature (by identifying
gaps which might be interesting for further research or looking at the suggestions
for further in an article).
- Citing the top journals in your discipline will increase the quality of your research.
Information about journal rankings can be found here:
o Journal-Ranking.com
o The Financial Times (ft.com)
o The UT Dallas list (http://jindal.utdallas.edu/)
, Figure: Suggested procedure for starting the process of research design (Collis & Hussey,
2003)
3.3 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, of after
(as in grounded theory). The best place to find a suitable theoretical framework is from
the research literature. The key is to 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 research, open ended).
o Inductive reasoning: a researcher starts ‘bottom-up’ and begins by
collecting data about the topic. After analysing these, hopefully some
patterns will begin to emerge leading to one or more tentative (voorlopig)
hypotheses. These hypotheses are then developed into a more general
theory.
- Theory-testing (when researchers have a better idea of what to test, narrower and
more constrained, confirmatory).
o Deductive reasoning: a researcher starts ‘top-down’ so to speak and begins
with a general theory about the topic. This theory might be operationalized
into one or more hypotheses, which are then tested by collecting empirical
data. Once the data are analysed, the hypotheses and the theory are
confirmed or not, as the case may be.
3.4 A model of qualitative research design
Every completed qualitative research project consists of the following essential building
blocks or steps:
- A set of philosophical assumptions about the social world.
o The three philosophical perspectives which are discussed are positivist,
interpretive, and critical (chapter 4).
o Philosophical assumptions should be made explicit.
- A research method (strategy of enquiry).
o The four research methods which are discussed are action research, case
study research, ethnography and grounded theory (chapters 5-9).
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