Elective qualitative research
1. Qualitative research in general
1.1. What is it?
Description of qualitatiie research
Reason for knowledge creatonn to understand how people/organizatons act and
how they attach meaning to events
Nature of (social) realityn complex, constructed and subjectve
Evidence comes from interacton with people
Knowledge accumulaton by conductng research in or close to natural setng
Two paradigms:
Quantitatiie research Qualitatiie research
(logical positiiismmmodernism) (post positiiismmpost modernism)
Logical positiiss Post positiiss :
Based on testng a theory and or Conducted in or close to the natural
hypothesis setng
Analyzed using statstcal techniques Building a ‘complete’ picture of the
Goaln determine whether predictve phenomenon of interests
generalizatons hold true Goaln in-depth understanding of a
problem from multple perspectves
Social scientsts borrowed methods Social scientsts began to reexamine
from physical and life scientsts assumptons about positvism,
Concerned about countng and adopted concepts and methods
measuring subjects from anthropology
Methods prevailed untl 190s Concerned with watching, listening,
Researcher-centered approach talking with subjects
Partcipant-centered approach
If they gather inforsaton and just want to giie an oieriiew with no statstcal analystc its ualitatiee
Quanttatie start fros hypothesis and going to test thes ualitatie
Quanttatie research: based on testng a theory and/or hypothesiso analyeed using statstcal techni ues
Quanttaf oldest way of doing research
You go to the people/organieaton that you want to study -> ualitatf
Quanttaf oldest way of doing research
You go to the people/organieaton that you want to study ualitatf
Types of qualitatiie studies
. Descriptve studies
eeg what transfer price sethods are used in sultnatonal cospanies?
2. Theory-building studies
see what people do in terss of transfer pricing and cose with nice inforsaton about it
3. Hypothesis-testng studies
test it in other context
1.2. Different appraaches
Different approaches to qualitatiie research
1
, Qualitatie research can sean sany diferent thingso including a wide range of sethods
and
inforsed by contrastng sodels’ (Silverman 2005)
. Case studyn
Exploraton of a single entty or phenomenon bounded by tme and actvity
(e.g. program, event, insttuton, group) using variety of data collecton
proceduresn quanttatve and qualitatve data
2. Grounded theoryn
Inductve development of a theory, which is ‘grounded’ directly in the
empirical data
* Go to a cospanyo and tells us about transfer pricing and then they try to select what
the sajor issue of transfer price iso and then they build a theory around it
3. Ethnographyn
Long term investgaton of a group (ofen a culture) that is based on
immersion and, optmally, partcipaton in the group
* going to Thailand and see how they liie oier there = ethnography eg how do they
grow iegetables
4. Phenomenologyn
Descriptve study of how individuals experience a phenomenon, ofen
searching for commonalites across individuals
* People who cose to Belgiano how incorporate thes in our society
1.3. Designing a qualitative study
The conventonal image of feld research is one that keeps prestructuring and tght designs
to a minimum’
HOWEVER
‘Contrary to what you might have heard, qualitatve research designs do exist’
Purposen
Why are you doing the study?
Understanding the seaning
Understanding the context
Identfying unantcipated issues and generatng grounded theories
Understanding the processes by which events and actons take place
* Qualitatie resources allows to see how things changed in organieatons ->
understanding the processes
Developing causal explanatons
Conceptual context
What do you think is going on?
System of concepts, assumptons, expectatons, beliefs, theories that
informs your research
How to build a conceptual framework?
• Experiental knowledge (experienced with the feld eg: iets
ondereoeken in een bepaald dosein waar je al eriaring/ kennis oier hebt)
• Existng theory and research (thus, build on previous studies)
• Pilot and exploratory studies
• Thought experiments
2
, Research questons
What do you want to understand?
Evolving because embedded in purpose and conceptual framework
Helps to focus your study
Gives guidance for how to conduct the study
Sources of confusionn How to order your data and
how to analyee
• Research issues versus practcal issues
How to categoriee your
Practcal questons (interview questons)n what to ask to the people
inforsaton?
research queston
Try to network ito iisual
• Research questons versus interview questons inspecton of what you haie
Methods
What will you actually do?
Decisions about data collecton
Forsule a concrete ueston to help to focus on your study
• Field researchn observaton, partcipant observaton,
ethnography
• (In-depth) interviewingn one-on-one, focus groups
• Textual analysisn content analysis
Textual analysis: content analysis analysis based on pure inforsaton
on the website
Decisions about data ordering and analysis
• Categorizing, contextualizing, memos and displays
Quality
How might you be wrong?
Sampling:
Poor case selecton impedes making valid causal inferences
Select the right cases otherwise no ialid conclusions
Select cases in such a way that they enable in-depth understanding
Purposeful/purposive sampling
Purposeful saspling try to sasple where you can learn sosething frose Thuso select
situatons where sosethings can be learned fros
Purposeful sampling ‘Theoretcal or purposive sampling is a set of procedures where the
researcher manipulates analysis, theory and sampling actvites interactiely during the
research process, to a much greater extent than in statstcal sampling’ (Mason in Silverman
2005)
So changing the size of your sample during your research may be appropriate
. As new factors emerge
2. When you focus on a small part of your sample in the early stages, using the
wider sample for later tests of emerging generalizatons
3. When unexpected generalizatons in the course of data analysis lead you to seek
out new
deviant cases
Not in case in surieyo daar ga je alle inforsate iereaselen en dan op 1 sosent het analysereno saar hier kan
je teruggaan en ander sasple doeno analyseren iindt niet persé plaats op 1 sosent dus constante
interacte (teruggkopelling)
• Theoretcaln
3
1. Qualitative research in general
1.1. What is it?
Description of qualitatiie research
Reason for knowledge creatonn to understand how people/organizatons act and
how they attach meaning to events
Nature of (social) realityn complex, constructed and subjectve
Evidence comes from interacton with people
Knowledge accumulaton by conductng research in or close to natural setng
Two paradigms:
Quantitatiie research Qualitatiie research
(logical positiiismmmodernism) (post positiiismmpost modernism)
Logical positiiss Post positiiss :
Based on testng a theory and or Conducted in or close to the natural
hypothesis setng
Analyzed using statstcal techniques Building a ‘complete’ picture of the
Goaln determine whether predictve phenomenon of interests
generalizatons hold true Goaln in-depth understanding of a
problem from multple perspectves
Social scientsts borrowed methods Social scientsts began to reexamine
from physical and life scientsts assumptons about positvism,
Concerned about countng and adopted concepts and methods
measuring subjects from anthropology
Methods prevailed untl 190s Concerned with watching, listening,
Researcher-centered approach talking with subjects
Partcipant-centered approach
If they gather inforsaton and just want to giie an oieriiew with no statstcal analystc its ualitatiee
Quanttatie start fros hypothesis and going to test thes ualitatie
Quanttatie research: based on testng a theory and/or hypothesiso analyeed using statstcal techni ues
Quanttaf oldest way of doing research
You go to the people/organieaton that you want to study -> ualitatf
Quanttaf oldest way of doing research
You go to the people/organieaton that you want to study ualitatf
Types of qualitatiie studies
. Descriptve studies
eeg what transfer price sethods are used in sultnatonal cospanies?
2. Theory-building studies
see what people do in terss of transfer pricing and cose with nice inforsaton about it
3. Hypothesis-testng studies
test it in other context
1.2. Different appraaches
Different approaches to qualitatiie research
1
, Qualitatie research can sean sany diferent thingso including a wide range of sethods
and
inforsed by contrastng sodels’ (Silverman 2005)
. Case studyn
Exploraton of a single entty or phenomenon bounded by tme and actvity
(e.g. program, event, insttuton, group) using variety of data collecton
proceduresn quanttatve and qualitatve data
2. Grounded theoryn
Inductve development of a theory, which is ‘grounded’ directly in the
empirical data
* Go to a cospanyo and tells us about transfer pricing and then they try to select what
the sajor issue of transfer price iso and then they build a theory around it
3. Ethnographyn
Long term investgaton of a group (ofen a culture) that is based on
immersion and, optmally, partcipaton in the group
* going to Thailand and see how they liie oier there = ethnography eg how do they
grow iegetables
4. Phenomenologyn
Descriptve study of how individuals experience a phenomenon, ofen
searching for commonalites across individuals
* People who cose to Belgiano how incorporate thes in our society
1.3. Designing a qualitative study
The conventonal image of feld research is one that keeps prestructuring and tght designs
to a minimum’
HOWEVER
‘Contrary to what you might have heard, qualitatve research designs do exist’
Purposen
Why are you doing the study?
Understanding the seaning
Understanding the context
Identfying unantcipated issues and generatng grounded theories
Understanding the processes by which events and actons take place
* Qualitatie resources allows to see how things changed in organieatons ->
understanding the processes
Developing causal explanatons
Conceptual context
What do you think is going on?
System of concepts, assumptons, expectatons, beliefs, theories that
informs your research
How to build a conceptual framework?
• Experiental knowledge (experienced with the feld eg: iets
ondereoeken in een bepaald dosein waar je al eriaring/ kennis oier hebt)
• Existng theory and research (thus, build on previous studies)
• Pilot and exploratory studies
• Thought experiments
2
, Research questons
What do you want to understand?
Evolving because embedded in purpose and conceptual framework
Helps to focus your study
Gives guidance for how to conduct the study
Sources of confusionn How to order your data and
how to analyee
• Research issues versus practcal issues
How to categoriee your
Practcal questons (interview questons)n what to ask to the people
inforsaton?
research queston
Try to network ito iisual
• Research questons versus interview questons inspecton of what you haie
Methods
What will you actually do?
Decisions about data collecton
Forsule a concrete ueston to help to focus on your study
• Field researchn observaton, partcipant observaton,
ethnography
• (In-depth) interviewingn one-on-one, focus groups
• Textual analysisn content analysis
Textual analysis: content analysis analysis based on pure inforsaton
on the website
Decisions about data ordering and analysis
• Categorizing, contextualizing, memos and displays
Quality
How might you be wrong?
Sampling:
Poor case selecton impedes making valid causal inferences
Select the right cases otherwise no ialid conclusions
Select cases in such a way that they enable in-depth understanding
Purposeful/purposive sampling
Purposeful saspling try to sasple where you can learn sosething frose Thuso select
situatons where sosethings can be learned fros
Purposeful sampling ‘Theoretcal or purposive sampling is a set of procedures where the
researcher manipulates analysis, theory and sampling actvites interactiely during the
research process, to a much greater extent than in statstcal sampling’ (Mason in Silverman
2005)
So changing the size of your sample during your research may be appropriate
. As new factors emerge
2. When you focus on a small part of your sample in the early stages, using the
wider sample for later tests of emerging generalizatons
3. When unexpected generalizatons in the course of data analysis lead you to seek
out new
deviant cases
Not in case in surieyo daar ga je alle inforsate iereaselen en dan op 1 sosent het analysereno saar hier kan
je teruggaan en ander sasple doeno analyseren iindt niet persé plaats op 1 sosent dus constante
interacte (teruggkopelling)
• Theoretcaln
3
