Research methods

1. Research methods Second meeting research method2 Dr Majed El-Farra

2. Deciding on the research approach and choosing a research strategy. • Research philosophy. It depends on the way that you think about the development of knowledge. This affect how we do research. There are three views: • Positivism • Interpretivisim • Realism research method2 Dr Majed El-Farra

3. Positivism • This philosophy adopts the stance of natural scientists. • You work with an observable social reality. • The research end: law-like generalization. • You collect and interpret data in a value-free manner, with relying on quantifiable/measured statistics. research method2 Dr Majed El-Farra

4. Interpretivisim • They argue against positivism that: the social sciences are too complex to be reduced to a series of law-like generalization. • They tend to discover the details of the situation to understand the reality working behind it. • Interpret. Is persuasive in the case of management and business since they are complex. • We interpret situations and meaning through its interaction with environment. • Generalizability is not of crucial importance. research method2 Dr Majed El-Farra

5. Realism There are large-scale of social forces that affect people behavior and their perception to the world even without their necessarily being aware of. Realism believes that people are not objects to be studied in the style of natural science. research method2 Dr Majed El-Farra

6. Which philosophy is better? • It depends on the research question and objectives. • Also most research use more that one philosophical domain. research method2 Dr Majed El-Farra

7. Choosing research approach • There are may approaches: 1- Deductive: bases on developing theory and hypothesis and design a strategic research to test hypothesis. Here you use existed theory. • Deductive: owes more to positivism. Linked to scientific research. 2- Inductive: you collect data and develop theory as a result of your data analysis. • Inductive: owes more to interpretivism. research method2 Dr Majed El-Farra

8. Difference between deductive inductive • Deductive emphasizes: • Scientific principles. • Moving from theory to data • The need to explain causal relationships between variables. • The collection of quantitative data. • The operationalisation of concepts to ensure clarity of definition. • A highly structured approach • Researcher independent of what is being researched. • The necessity to select samples of sufficient size in order to generalize conclusions. • Example: the evaluate the competitive advantages of the IUG by using value chain model. research method2 Dr Majed El-Farra

9. Difference between deductive inductive • Inductive emphasizes: • Gaining an understanding of the meanings humans attach to events. • A close understanding of the research context. • The collection of qualitative data. • A more flexible structure to permit changes of research emphasis as the research progresses. • A realization that the researcher is part of research process. • Less concern with the need of generalize. • Ex. Understand the cause of company employee absenteeism by going to shopfloor and interview a sample of employees in order to get feel what was going on. research method2 Dr Majed El-Farra

10. Induction emphasizes • Gaining understanding of the meanings humans attached to events. • A close understanding of the research context. • The collection of qualitative data. • A more flexible structure to permit changes of research emphasis as the research progresses. • A realization that the researcher is part of the research process. • Less concern with the need to generalize. research method2 Dr Majed El-Farra

11. Example • You are conducting research on the business failure among small businesses in the Gaza Strip. Which approach you should apply? Deductive or inductive. How and why? research method2 Dr Majed El-Farra

12. Research strategy • Concept: A general plan of how you will go about answering the research question. Research strategy include: define source of data, time span, location, provide justification for using different techniques, why you research particular org., population, sample. • All justifications should always be based on your research question. research method2 Dr Majed El-Farra

13. Different research strategies • Experiment. It involves: • Define of theoretical hypothesis • Selection of samples of individuals from known population. Usually small number. • Allocation of samples to different experimental conditions • Introduction of planned change on one or more of the variables • Control of other variables research method2 Dr Majed El-Farra

14. Study groups in experiment • There are three types: • One group approach • Two groups: experimental and standard groups. • Rotated experiment. • Which one is better? research method2 Dr Majed El-Farra

15. Experiment example • Study the influence of advertising on company sales. research method2 Dr Majed El-Farra

16. Different research strategies • Survey: usually associated with deductive approach. • Survey allows collection of sizable data from a large population in a highly economical way. Often obtained by using questionnaire. These data are standardized and allow easy comparison. • Data collection techniques: questionnaire, structures observations and interviews. • Example: collecting data on the unemployed people in the Gaza Strip. research method2 Dr Majed El-Farra

17. Different research strategies • Case study: It involve an empirical investigation of a particular contemporary phenomenon within its real life context using multiple sources of evidence. The is strategy is of particular interest to you if you wish to gain a rich understanding of the context of the research. • Data collection methods: Questionnaires, interviews, observation and documentary analysis. • Example: analyzing the reasons of high absenteeism rate in Gaza’s private sector: case study of Mortaja com. research method2 Dr Majed El-Farra

18. Different research strategies • Ground theory: It is a theory building by combining of inductive and deductive approaches. In data collection you start without the formulation of an initial theoretical framework. Theory is developed from data generated by a series of observations. research method2 Dr Majed El-Farra

19. Different research strategies • Action research: it has explicit focus on action particularly promoting change within the org. It has different interpretations. But there are three: • Focuses on the management of change. • Relates to the involvement of practitioners in the research with close collaboration with researchers. Ex. Collaboration with member of org. and researcher to study some issue at org. • It suggest that action research should have implications beyond the immediate project. May be developing new theory. Or reuse the new idea in a new context. research method2 Dr Majed El-Farra

20. Different research strategies • Time horizons: includes, cross-sectional studies and longitudinal studies. • cross-sectional studies: A study of a particular phenomena at a particular time. Here you often employ survey strategy. Ex. The level of job satisfaction among managers at the company at a given point in time. • longitudinal studies. Here you study change and development. You observe people or events over time. You answer the question: has there been any change over a period of time? • Ex. You can introduce a longitudinal element to your research by reviewing the literature over long period of time to follow the development of the phenomena. Ex. Study the industrial development in Gaza, 1967-2003. research method2 Dr Majed El-Farra

21. Different research strategies • Exploratory: Useful to clarify your understanding of a problem. It will give the answer whether it worth pursuing the research or not. • How to conduct exploratory res. • Search the literature. • Talking to experts in the field. • Conducting focus group interviews. • Questionnaire. research method2 Dr Majed El-Farra

22. Different research strategies • Descriptive study. Its object is to portray/show an accurate profile of events in real life. • In order to call descriptive research is scientific it should get to the level of analyzing and interpreting of the phenomena. • Can we combine more than method in one research? research method2 Dr Majed El-Farra