Research Skills
Lecture 1 (01-11) Week 1 - Introduction of the course
ECTS: 6
7 Lectures, every week a pre-recorded lecture + interactive lecture (mandatory?) + tutorial
4 team assignments; presentation uploads and provide feedback to others
Tutorials are mandatory and controlled (absence tolerated only once with notification beforehand)
Team assessment (40%) and Individual exam (60%) with MCQ and open questions, overall grade of
6.0 required, and for both a 5.0 is needed separately.
Deductive approach: start from theory; testing of a theory.
Inductive approach: start from practice; developing a theory. (lukt in master thesis niet, dus...)
Theory supported inductive research: add theory to your observations. Mostly this is done
with a case study. Case study can also be used in deductive research.
The only thing that is really different in a deductive research is that you first start with literature
and defining the conceptual model and after that you are going to see what empirical data you
need, you do not start from the empirical situation.
Lecture 2 (01-11) Week 1 - Problem Definition
Requirements for good theory supported inductive research:
Concept validity: a match between the theory and the practical problem
Internal validity: the usefulness of the results of the research, the outcome should solve the problem
External validity: can you add something to the existing literature, usefulness to other research
Not required but desirable, main goal is of course the internal validity
Reliability: the same answers when asking a person today and tomorrow
These concepts are explained more in later lectures, but you must already use them in the TA’s.
Research Proposal: (first part)
- Problem identification
- Problem statement
- Research questions
1
, Problem definition:
− Problem identification
What is the topic of your research?
Why is this topic interesting?
− Problem statement (or ‘Research Question’)
What is the central research question you want to answer?
You can read the problem statement from the relation ‘’phenomenon’’ ‘’undesired effect’’
− Research questions
What are the questions that have to be answered to solve the problem?
The answers to all research questions together imply that the PS is also answered.
Slide 53/…, good example about research questions, often can be constructed as given here!
Theory supported inductive approach:
Empirical Model: phenomenon undesired effect, then:
Conceptual model: concept 1 concept 2 (you start with empirical situation!)
When both fit together, this is concept validity. The conceptual model leads you to articles
about similar problems when concept validity is high.
Deductive approach: (other than inductive)
Literature study conceptual model (you start with literature!)
Test with empirical data
Slide 28/…: Conceptual Model
There is always a ‘’phenomenon’’ that causes an ‘’unwanted effect’’ that you want to investigate.
So, you get ‘’Concept 1’’ ‘’Concept 2’’
Be able to identify a phenomenon and unwanted effect out of a text (exam question?)
Remind that this is the case when you investigate a problem at a company. When you find no
company, you must do a deductive study: literature study conceptual model, and then test it with
empirical data. Also here, theory and practice have to be connected in the right way!
Research questions (almost always in this way)
2
Lecture 1 (01-11) Week 1 - Introduction of the course
ECTS: 6
7 Lectures, every week a pre-recorded lecture + interactive lecture (mandatory?) + tutorial
4 team assignments; presentation uploads and provide feedback to others
Tutorials are mandatory and controlled (absence tolerated only once with notification beforehand)
Team assessment (40%) and Individual exam (60%) with MCQ and open questions, overall grade of
6.0 required, and for both a 5.0 is needed separately.
Deductive approach: start from theory; testing of a theory.
Inductive approach: start from practice; developing a theory. (lukt in master thesis niet, dus...)
Theory supported inductive research: add theory to your observations. Mostly this is done
with a case study. Case study can also be used in deductive research.
The only thing that is really different in a deductive research is that you first start with literature
and defining the conceptual model and after that you are going to see what empirical data you
need, you do not start from the empirical situation.
Lecture 2 (01-11) Week 1 - Problem Definition
Requirements for good theory supported inductive research:
Concept validity: a match between the theory and the practical problem
Internal validity: the usefulness of the results of the research, the outcome should solve the problem
External validity: can you add something to the existing literature, usefulness to other research
Not required but desirable, main goal is of course the internal validity
Reliability: the same answers when asking a person today and tomorrow
These concepts are explained more in later lectures, but you must already use them in the TA’s.
Research Proposal: (first part)
- Problem identification
- Problem statement
- Research questions
1
, Problem definition:
− Problem identification
What is the topic of your research?
Why is this topic interesting?
− Problem statement (or ‘Research Question’)
What is the central research question you want to answer?
You can read the problem statement from the relation ‘’phenomenon’’ ‘’undesired effect’’
− Research questions
What are the questions that have to be answered to solve the problem?
The answers to all research questions together imply that the PS is also answered.
Slide 53/…, good example about research questions, often can be constructed as given here!
Theory supported inductive approach:
Empirical Model: phenomenon undesired effect, then:
Conceptual model: concept 1 concept 2 (you start with empirical situation!)
When both fit together, this is concept validity. The conceptual model leads you to articles
about similar problems when concept validity is high.
Deductive approach: (other than inductive)
Literature study conceptual model (you start with literature!)
Test with empirical data
Slide 28/…: Conceptual Model
There is always a ‘’phenomenon’’ that causes an ‘’unwanted effect’’ that you want to investigate.
So, you get ‘’Concept 1’’ ‘’Concept 2’’
Be able to identify a phenomenon and unwanted effect out of a text (exam question?)
Remind that this is the case when you investigate a problem at a company. When you find no
company, you must do a deductive study: literature study conceptual model, and then test it with
empirical data. Also here, theory and practice have to be connected in the right way!
Research questions (almost always in this way)
2
