Research Methods: The Essential Knowledge Base 1
Chapter 1: Foundations of Research Methods
The Research Enterprise
• Almost no aspect of our world that is not the subject of considerable research.
• In the space of less than 400 years, humanity has created the idea of research and has seen it permeate into
almost every aspect of our lives.
• Research is everywhere but not always true.
Research is a type of systematic investigation that is empirical in nature and is designed to contribute to public
knowledge.
• Social research – particular subclass of research; the social aspects of phenomena.
o We can never really prove anything; we cannot know anything for sure.
o Research is purposeful; a systematic investigation; empirical; a public effort
A lot of research disappears from public view because it is purchased by publishers.
• Publishers receive free labour by academics only to then sell the research and
journal subscriptions back to universities and those academics.
o Research is about collecting information and confronting reality.
The Nature of Business and Management Research
• Transdisciplinary
• Double hurdle (theoretical and practical impact; academic and applicable)
• Science-practice divide / translational research (academics are conducting research but the knowledge
generated hardly ever is shared with managers of corporations)
Generating Knowledge: (ex. Ariely’s ‘knowledge’ versus nurse’s ‘knowledge’) Dan Ariely conducts basic research
• Systematic vs. intuitively based
• Based on many observations vs. based on few observations
• Falsifiable vs. not to be questioned
• Operationalisation of constructs vs. no operationalisation of constructs
o (Operationalization defines a fuzzy concept so as to make it clearly distinguishable, measurable, and
understandable by empirical observation).
• Derived from controlled experiments vs. derived from practice/training
• Based on student samples vs. based on real patients
The research enterprise is the macro-level effort to accumulate knowledge across multiple empirical systematic public
research projects.
• We do research studies in order to contribute to our knowledge.
o We accumulate knowledge with the idea that it may contribute someday to something we can use.
• Translational research is the systematic effort to move research from initial discovery to practice and
ultimately to impacts on our lives.
o From “bench to bedside”; from “bench to behaviour”; from “the mind to the marketplace”; from
“brain to vein”; from “bench-to-practice-to-community”
o Meta-analysis is translated into practical guidelines for managers
• Research-practice continuum is the process of moving from an initial research idea or discovery to practice,
and the potential for the idea to influence our lives or world.
o It is assumed that different discoveries take different pathways through this continuum.
Some take longer to go through one stage or another.
o The translational process works in both directions.
Sometimes insights from practitioners and policy makers can inform basic and applied
researchers and improve their ability to transform their discoveries to better anticipate the
real-world contexts that they will eventually need to be implemented in.
o Basic research is research that is designed to generate discoveries and to understand how the
discoveries work.
Purpose:
• Expand knowledge of processes of business and management
,Research Methods: The Essential Knowledge Base 2
• Results in universal principles relating to the process of its relationship to
outcomes
• Findings of significance and value to society in general
Context:
• Undertaken by people in universities
• Choice of topic and objectives determined by the researcher
• Flexible timescales
o Applied research is research where a discovery is tested under increasingly controlled conditions in
real-world contexts (with humans).
Purpose:
• Improve understanding of particular business or management problem
• Results in solution to problem
• New knowledge limited to problem
• Findings of practical relevance and value to manager(s) in organisation(s)
Context:
• Undertaken by people in a variety of settings, including organisations and
universities
• Objectives negotiated with originator
• Tight timescales
o Implementation and dissemination research is research that assesses how well an innovation or
discovery can be distributed in and carried out in a broad range of contexts that extend beyond the
original controlled studies.
o Policy research is research that is designed to investigate existing policies or develop and test new
ones.
o Impact research is research that assesses the broader effects of a discovery or innovation on
society.
In the past it was assumed that
implementers and practitioners of new
discoveries would read the research journals
to find new things that they could do to
address their problem or issue of interest.
But the research literature has become
voluminous and is often very technical,
making it a barrier for practitioners that
reduces the rate of adoption of new
discoveries.
• A research synthesis is a systematic
study of multiple prior research
projects that address the same
research question or topic and
summarize the results in a manner
that can be used by practitioners.
o A meta-analysis uses statistical methods to combine the results of similar studies quantitatively in
order to allow general conclusions to be made.
A meta-analysis is always a quantitative synthesis.
Once we have many studies, we can aggregate across all studies
(each study is limited and therefore support is generated with multiple studies) with
meta-analysis an average between all relationships can be drawn
‘averaging of correlations’
o A systematic review is a research synthesis approach that focuses on a specific question or issue and
uses specific pre-planned methods to identify, select, assess, and summarize the findings of multiple
research studies.
It may or may not include a meta-analysis (a quantitative synthesis of results).
A systematic review may be a judgmental expert-driven synthesis, a meta-analysis, or both.
Reviewing literature to date; one type is a meta-analysis, the other is a systematic review
,Research Methods: The Essential Knowledge Base 3
o After conducting a research synthesis, the unit of what practitioners will look at is the multi-study
synthesis result, rather than the results of individual research projects.
• A guideline is the result of a systematic process that leads to a specific set of research-based
recommendations for practice that usually includes some estimates of how strong the evidence is for each
recommendation.
Evidence-based practice (EBP) is a movement designed to encourage or require practitioners to employ practices that
are based on research evidence as reflected in research syntheses or practice guidelines.
• The EBP movement represents a major attempt of the research enterprise to achieve a better integration of
research and practice.
• There are significant debates about what kinds of research projects should be allowed in research syntheses
and guidelines, with different researchers and practitioners lining up in favour of or opposed to research
studies that use certain types of methods.
o There are some who would only allow studies based on randomized experimental or strong quasi-
experimental designs into the evidence base, while others would allow a broader range of studies to
qualify as evidence.
o Some practitioners have questioned the primacy of the term “evidence” in EBP.
They argue that it should not only be evidence that drives practice; it should also be that
practice helps drive the development of evidence
Evolutionary epistemology is the branch of philosophy that holds that ideas evolve through the process of natural
selection.
• Ultimately, any discovery has survival value; it either survives or it doesn’t.
Conceptualising Research
Probably one of the most common sources of research ideas is the experience of practical problems in the field.
• Many researchers are directly engaged in social, health, or human service program implementation (or know
practitioners who are) and come up with their ideas based on what they see happening around them.
• Others aren’t directly involved in service contexts, but work with (or survey) people to learn what needs to
be better understood.
• Even though it might seem trivial at first, many of the practical problems that arise in practice can lead to
extensive research efforts.
Another source for research ideas is the literature in your specific field.
• Many researchers get ideas for research by reading the literature and thinking of ways to extend or refine
previous research. Most journal articles include suggestions for further study in their conclusion or discussion
sections.
• Requests for proposals (RFPs) are documents issued by a government agency or other organization that,
typically, describes the problem that needs addressing, the contexts in which it operates, the approach the
agency would like you to take to investigate the problem, and the amount the agency would be willing to pay
for such research.
Many researchers simply think up their research topic on their own.
• Even those ideas are influenced by the researcher’s background, culture, education, and experiences.
The literature review is a systematic compilation and written summary of all of the literature published in scientific
journals that is related to a research topic of interest. A literature review is typically included in the introduction
section of a research write-up.
• A literature review is designed to identify related research, to set the current research project within a
conceptual and theoretical context.
• When looked at that way, almost no topic is so new or unique that you can’t locate relevant and informative
related research done previously.
• A peer review is a system for reviewing potential research publications where authors submit potential
articles to a journal editor who solicits several reviewers who agree to give a critical review of the paper.
o The paper is sent to these reviewers with no identification of the author so that there will be no
personal bias (either for or against the author).
o Based on the reviewers’ recommendations, the editor can accept the article, reject it, or
recommend that the author revise and resubmit it.
o Articles in journals with peer review processes are likely to have a fairly high level of credibility
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o Every research study is limited regarding different validities peer review is necessary
Feasibility issues
• Some major considerations involve making trade-offs between rigor and practicality.
• Practical considerations include
o How long the research will take to accomplish?
o Do any important ethical constraints require consideration?
o Can you acquire the cooperation needed to take the project to its successful conclusion?
o To what degrees will the costs be manageable?
The Language of Research
Research Vocabulary: Four Key Terms
• Theoretical: Pertaining to theory.
o Social research is theoretical, meaning that much of it is concerned with developing, exploring, or
testing the theories or ideas that social researchers have about how the world operates.
o Good theory includes a plausible, coherent explanation for why a certain cause and effect
relationship should be expected
• Empirical: Based on direct observations and measurements of reality.
• Probabilistic: Based on probabilities.
o Statistics enable the estimation of the probabilities for the situations being studied.
• Causal: Pertaining to a cause-effect relationship, hypothesis, or relationship.
o Something is causal if it leads to an outcome or makes an outcome happen.
o Causal relationship is a cause-effect relationship.
For example, when you evaluate whether your treatment or program causes an outcome to
occur, you are examining a causal relationship.
Types of Studies (can be viewed as cumulative)
1. Descriptive studies
a. A study that documents what is going on or what exists.
2. Rational studies
a. A study that investigates the connection between two or more variables.
3. Causal studies
a. A study that investigates a causal relationship between two variables.
Time in Research
• Cross-sectional studies take place at a single point in time.
• Longitudinal studies take place over multiple points in time.
o ‘Multiple waves of measurement’ refers to taking measurements on a variable several times.
Repeated measures design is if you have two or a few waves of measurement
Time series is if you have many waves of measurement over time
• (At least twenty waves of measurement)
A relationship refers to the correspondence between two variables – can only exist with variability on both variables.
• An association between two variables such that, in general, the level on one variable is related to the level on
the other.
• The Nature of a Relationship
o A correlational relationship simply says that two things perform in a synchronized manner.
Technically, the term “correlational relationship” is redundant: a correlation by definition
always refers to a relationship. However, the term correlational relationship is used to
distinguish it from the specific type of association called a causal relationship.
Knowing that two variables are correlated does not tell whether one causes the other.
o A causal relationship is a synchronized relationship between two variables where one variable
causes the other to occur.
o The third variable or missing variable problem
An unobserved variable that accounts for a correlation between two variables.
If you observe a correlation, you cannot assume that the relationship is causal.
o Not all relationships are causal relationships
