Business research methods
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
Two types of research;
Quantitative research - deductive
= Logical positivism / modernism (till 1960’s)
- Social scientists borrowed methods from physical & life scientists
- Concerned with counting and measuring subjects
- Researcher-centric
Qualitative research (WHY and HOW) - inductive
= post positivism / modernism (from 1960’s)
- Social scientists began to reexamine assumptions about positivism, adopted concepts
and methods from anthropology
- Concerned with watching, listening and talking with subjects
- Participant-centric
a. Types of qualitative research
- Descriptive studies
- Theory building
When:
- No existing/ only partial theories
- Complex phenomena
- Lived experiences of people
- Temporal or how things evolved over organizational life
- Hypothesis testing
b. Methods/approaches of qualitative research
- Case study
- Exploration of a single entity or phenomenon bounded by time and
activity (e.g. program, event, institution, group)
- Using variety of data collection procedures: quantitative and
qualitative data
- Grounded theory
- Inductive development of a theory
- Which is ‘grounded’ directly in the empirical data
- Ethnography
- Long term investigation of a group (often a culture)
- Based on immersion and, optimally, participation in the group
- Phenomenology
- Descriptive study of how individuals experience a phenomenon
- Often searching for commonalities across individuals
1
, c. Requirements
- Extensive time in the field
- Complex, time-consuming data-analysis
- Writing up the study in long passages where claims are supported by evidence and in
which multiple perspectives are reflected
- No firm guidelines or specific procedures, qualitative research constantly evolving and
changing.
d. Design of qualitative research
Does qualitative research need to be designed?
The conventional image (=stereotype) might say that qualitative research keeps
pre-structuring and tight designs to a minimum.
BUT qualitative research designs do exist.
- Purpose (why are you doing the study?)
- Understanding the meaning
- Understanding the context
- Identifying unanticipated issues and generating grounded theories
- Understanding the processes by which events and actions take place
- Developing causal explanations
- Conceptual context (what do you think is going on?)
= System of concepts, assumptions, expectations, beliefs, theories that
informs your research
- Experiential knowledge
- Existing theory and research
- Pilot and exploratory studies
- Thought experiments
- Research questions (what do you want to understand?)
- Evolving because embedded in purpose and conceptual framework
- Help to focus your study
- Give guidance for how to conduct the study
- Sources of confusion: research issues versus practical issues (e.g:
research questions vs. interview questions)
- Methods (what will you actually do?)
- Decisions about data collection
- Field research: (participant) observation, ethnography
- Interviewing: one-on-one, focus groups
- Textual analysis: content analysis
- Decisions about data ordering & analysis
- Categorizing, contextualizing, memos and displays
2
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
Two types of research;
Quantitative research - deductive
= Logical positivism / modernism (till 1960’s)
- Social scientists borrowed methods from physical & life scientists
- Concerned with counting and measuring subjects
- Researcher-centric
Qualitative research (WHY and HOW) - inductive
= post positivism / modernism (from 1960’s)
- Social scientists began to reexamine assumptions about positivism, adopted concepts
and methods from anthropology
- Concerned with watching, listening and talking with subjects
- Participant-centric
a. Types of qualitative research
- Descriptive studies
- Theory building
When:
- No existing/ only partial theories
- Complex phenomena
- Lived experiences of people
- Temporal or how things evolved over organizational life
- Hypothesis testing
b. Methods/approaches of qualitative research
- Case study
- Exploration of a single entity or phenomenon bounded by time and
activity (e.g. program, event, institution, group)
- Using variety of data collection procedures: quantitative and
qualitative data
- Grounded theory
- Inductive development of a theory
- Which is ‘grounded’ directly in the empirical data
- Ethnography
- Long term investigation of a group (often a culture)
- Based on immersion and, optimally, participation in the group
- Phenomenology
- Descriptive study of how individuals experience a phenomenon
- Often searching for commonalities across individuals
1
, c. Requirements
- Extensive time in the field
- Complex, time-consuming data-analysis
- Writing up the study in long passages where claims are supported by evidence and in
which multiple perspectives are reflected
- No firm guidelines or specific procedures, qualitative research constantly evolving and
changing.
d. Design of qualitative research
Does qualitative research need to be designed?
The conventional image (=stereotype) might say that qualitative research keeps
pre-structuring and tight designs to a minimum.
BUT qualitative research designs do exist.
- Purpose (why are you doing the study?)
- Understanding the meaning
- Understanding the context
- Identifying unanticipated issues and generating grounded theories
- Understanding the processes by which events and actions take place
- Developing causal explanations
- Conceptual context (what do you think is going on?)
= System of concepts, assumptions, expectations, beliefs, theories that
informs your research
- Experiential knowledge
- Existing theory and research
- Pilot and exploratory studies
- Thought experiments
- Research questions (what do you want to understand?)
- Evolving because embedded in purpose and conceptual framework
- Help to focus your study
- Give guidance for how to conduct the study
- Sources of confusion: research issues versus practical issues (e.g:
research questions vs. interview questions)
- Methods (what will you actually do?)
- Decisions about data collection
- Field research: (participant) observation, ethnography
- Interviewing: one-on-one, focus groups
- Textual analysis: content analysis
- Decisions about data ordering & analysis
- Categorizing, contextualizing, memos and displays
2
