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summary: Qualitative research in Business and management (Micheal D. Myers)
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- Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen (RU)
A full summary of the chapters 2-13 and 17-18
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Summary Myers: Qualitative research inbusiness & management
Chapter 2 overview of qualitative research
2.1 Why do qualitative research
Qualitative research methods are designed to help researchers understand people and what they say
and do. It helps to understand the social and cultural context within which people live. Benefit of
qualitative research is; to see and understand the context. It is the context that helps to explain
‘why’ someone acted as they did. This context is best understood by talking to people.
One of the primary motivations for doing qualitative, as opposite to quantitative, research comes
from the observation; if there is one thing which distinguishes humans from the natural world, it is
their ability to talk.
2.2 What is research
Research is defined as an original investigation undertaken in order to contribute to knowledge and
understanding in a particular field. Research typically involves enquiry of an empirical or conceptual
nature and is conducted by people with specialist knowledge about the subject matter, theories and
methods in a specific field. Theories and methods used in a particular field may change over time. For
this reason, scholars in many disciplines will write a literature review of previous relevant research
to show that they understand and are up-to date with the latest thinking.
Peer review: the only way to tell if the research findings are both sound and original. Letting the
findings been evaluated by those who are experienced and ‘qualified’ to do so. The findings need to
be sound and new to them, then we can say that the research project represents an original
contribution to knowledge. Peer review distinguished science from other human endeavours.
Some activities do not count as research in a university setting:
• The preparation of teaching materials; they are not formally evaluated by experts in the field.
• The provision of advice or opinion; eg. Consulting work.
• Feasibility studies; output is a recommendation to a client.
• Routine data collection; no attempt to contribute to new knowledge in the field.
• Routine information system development; the output is a new/improved product for a client.
• Any other routine professional practise.
2.3 Quantitative and qualitative research compared
Examples of qualitative and quantitative research and the difference
,Quantitative research methods were originally developed in the natural science to study natural
phenomena, all quantitative researchers emphasize numbers more than anything else. Qualitative
research methods were developed in the social science to enable researchers to study social and
cultural phenomena, qualitative data are mostly a record of what people have said it includes;
observation/participant observation (fieldwork), interviews/questionnaires, documents/texts and
reactions.
Field notes: your own record of and commentary on your experiences in the field.
Generally is quantitative research as best if you want to have a large sample size and you want to
generalize to a large population, you want to find out trends and different pattern that apply in many
different situations. Mayor disadvantage of quantitative research is that, as general rule, many of
the social and cultural aspects of organizations are lost or are treated in a superficial manner.
Generally is qualitative research as best if you want to study a particular subject in depth. It is good
for explanatory research when the particular topic is new and there is not much previously published
research on that topic. It is an ideal study for social, cultural and political aspects of people and
organisations. Mayor disadvantage of qualitative research is that it is often difficult to generalize to a
larger population. However it is possible to generalize to theory and from just one case/ethnography
study to study.
Ethnography: a qualitative research method that relies on participant observation and fieldwork in
order to provide a deep understanding of people within their social and cultural subject.
2.4 Triangulation
Triangulation: the idea that you should do more than just one thing in a study. You should use more
research methods, two or more techniques to gather data or combine quantitative and qualitative
research methods in the one study. Looking at the same topic from different angels (interviews, field
work and/or documents etc.)
Much more difficult is it when researchers try to combine two or more research methods in one
study. It is specially challenging if the research methods are substantially different in their underlying
philosophy or approach. Eg. When trying to combine qualitative and quantitative research methods.
A slightly easier way to achieve triangulation of research methods is for a single study to include
multiple researchers. Each researcher brings his or hers own method of expertise and experience.
2.5 Research in business and management
A key feature of a qualitative or quantitative study, as
opposed to a purely conceptual study, is that it is an empirical
investigation. As you can see in de figure, a researcher finds a
topic or a research problem that is relevant to the body of
knowledge in a particular discipline. They could come from
current business practise or your own intuitive hunches.
2.6 Rigour (strengheid) and relevance (relevantie) in research
,Chapter 3 research design
3.1 Introduction
A research design is the plan for an entire qualitative research project. It involves deciding upon all
the various components of a research project; your philosophical assumption, your research method,
which data collection techniques you will use, your approach to qualitative data analysis, your
approach to writing up and, 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. Nevertheless, you should be
flexible and willing to change your plan as the research project progresses. A research proposal
(design) is intentionally an argument intended to convince the reader that it is well conceived and
that the researcher is capable of carrying it through.
3.2 Choosing a topic
One of the first things you need to do, before you even start designing a qualitative research project,
is to decide upon a topic. You should be able do describe your topic in just a few sentences. A
literature review that critically evaluates relevant previous research will help you to formulate a good
topic. There are three important requirements in deciding upon a topic:
• You are interested in the topic
• A faculty member is prepared to supervise you.
• You can obtain relevant qualitative data on the topic
Once you have decided upon a topic, the next task is to develop one or more research questions.
These questions should be framed in such a way that they answerable empirically, i.e. by obtaining
qualitative data. The questions should also be relevant to a particular issue that 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.
As a general rule, the top academic journals in every field publish the best research and they like to
be the first to publish a new idea. Hence, these journals should be the ones that you cite the most.
You can find information about journal rankings in business and management as follows:
• Journal-ranking.com; is a general purpose website devoted to journal rankings
• The financial times; uses a list of 50 journals to compile the business school research rank.
• The UT Dallas; list of the 24 top academic journals in business
• The Association of Business school (ABS); In the UK provides a list of top journals.
• The Australian Business School Deans Council (ABDC); provides a list of top journals.
As you can see in de figure down here. The first step is to read the research literature on a particular
topic in a business discipline. After going through the other steps, such as generating a list of
potential research questions, you are then ready to move to the next stage of research design.
, 3.3 Theoretical framework
After you have chosen a topic a generated a list of potential research questions, the next stage of
research design is to choose a theoretical framework. In practice, many researchers change their
theoretical framework or chose their theoretical framework much later on.
There are many different theoretical frameworks that can be used, from grans sociological theories,
such as structuration theory or actor network theory, through to mid-range or lower-level theories,
such as transaction cost theory of the theory of planned behaviour. Usually the best place to find a
suitable theoretical framework is from the research literature. Although it is more suited to theory
building, qualitative research methods can be used to test theory. Admittedly, theory-building is
more common in the explanatory phase of a new topic or subject area.
An important distinction here – with respect to whether you are doing theory-testing or theory-
building – is between deductive and inductive reasoning.
Deductive reasoning: a researcher starts ‘top-down’ so to speak and begins with a general theory
about the topic. Where the researcher starts with a theory or some hypothesis that he/she wants to
test.
Inductive reasoning: a researcher starts ‘bottom-up’ and begins by collecting data about the topic.
Where the construct or theory emerges from the data. Leading to one or more tentative hypothesis.
These hypothesis are then developed into a more general theory.
Abductive reasoning: the creative aspect of theory development. Piecing together all the evidence
and coming up with a probable solution. It typically begins with an incomplete set of observations
and proceeds to the likeliest possible explanation for the set.
3.4 A model of qualitative research design
Every completed qualitative research project consist of the
following essential building blocks or steps:
➢ A set of philosophical assumptions about the social world
Every research project is based on some philosophical assumptions
about the nature of the world and how knowledge about the world
can be obtained. Often these assumptions are taken for granted
and are implicit in a researcher’s mind
➢ A research method
all qualitative researchers should decide how they are going to
investigate the social world. It is a strategy of enquiry, a research
method is a way of finding empirical data about the world. It is
important to decide upon the research unit of analysis. This will depend upon the research problem
and research question, but you should be able to decide whether or not the unit of analysis is an
individual, an event, an object, a relationship or an aggregate such as a group, organisation or
industry.
➢ One or more data collection techniques
The next step is to decide upon which qualitative data collection techniques you are going to use.
The ones that are discussed in the book are; interviews, observation and using documents. The
choice of one or more data collection techniques will depend upon your choice of research topic,
your research method and the availability of data.
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