Transcript Chapter 4

Chapter 4
In the chapter, it reveals of three main
philosophical positions in relations to research:
1. Positivism
2. Interpretivism
3. Realism
Comparison
–
•
•
Figure 4.1
(p2)
(p3)
(p4)
(p16)
(p5)
They are different, if not mutually exclusive views about the way in
which knowledge is developed and judged as being acceptable.
(p6)
All three have an important part to play in business and
management research
1
Positivism
– Refers to natural science disciplines
• Results of findings in this classification is highly
structured and that they can be replicated
• Eg:
– Pure Science disciplines, maths, chemistry, physics, etc.
– Applied Sciences, such as Engineering fields
(p1)
2
Interpretivism
– Research works done here are mainly not based on
the development of theories or rule of laws but to
study and generalize the complexity of social aspect
in business and management discipline
– Remenyi et al. (1998:35)
• “the details of the situation to understand the reality or perhaps a
reality working behind them”
• Social constructionism
– Seek to understand the subjective reality of those that they study in
order to be able to make sense of and understanding their motives,
actions and intentions in a way that is meaningful for those research
participants
(p1)
– Such as cultural differences in management styles
3
Realism
– “Based on the belief that a reality exists that
is independent and human thoughts and
beliefs”
– It shares the features of positivism and
interpretavism
• Understanding people’s socially
– Such as by social forces, structures or process that
influence to their behavior
– Eg. Ethical study toward people using computers, say in
accounting firms
(p1)
4
(p8)
(p13)
(p12)
(next lecture)
(p1)
5
5
Chapter 4
(cont)
• Question:
Do we need to really know which area of these
three is your research project?
(p7)
6
Chapter 4
(cont)
•
In reality, we are more interested to gain
understanding to those elements of the
inner layer shown in Figure 4.1
That is,
1. Research approaches
2. Research strategies
(p8)
(p12)
Other relevant issues: creditability of findings
(p14)
7
Research Approaches
• Two main approaches to research:
– Inductive, building theory
– Deductive, testing theory
(p9)
(p10)
• These two approaches should not be thought of mutually
exclusive
• Both can be used in combination on the same research
project
• The main influence on the choice of research approach
should be the research questions and objectives
(p11)
(p7)
• Difference between them
8
Inductive
•
As mentioned, this approach of research is
based on the observations to the behavior or
pattern of our study subjects
•
They are two possible forms of output:
1. Descriptive or qualitative results
2. Building up to a theoretical framework or theory
(refer to a social capital literature review paper as an exmaple)
(p8)
9
Deductive
•
Five sequential stages of a deductive research (p 117):
1.
deducing a hypothesis
•
2.
3.
4.
5.
a statement to which a set of relationship between, say a and b is
tested
expressing how the variables are measured
testing point 1 using a statistical method
examining the result
modify the outcome, if needed
Generally, the above steps could be activated only
when we identified and borrowed a model from
literature as a basis for our research
(p8)
10
Differences
(Box 4.1, p89)
Deduction
Induction
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
• Gaining understanding of
subjects by observation
• Close understanding of the
research contest
• Collection of qualitative data
• Flexible structure
• Less concern of the
generalization
Scientific principle
Move from theory to data
Study the causal relationships
Collection of data
A highly structured approach
Theory based on literature
Control of data validity
Sample size is important
TAM
(Or applications)
TRA (or model built based on
literate review)
(p8)
11
Research strategy
The main research strategies are:
1. Experiment
–
Eg. The use of computer lab for conducing e-Banking
2. Survey
–
Eg. Sent questionnaire for data collection
3. Case study
–
Eg to study an operations of a firm or culture of a society
4. Grounded theory
–
Building a model/theory from observation on how an event operates/works
5. Ethnography
–
Study the human races/characteristics
6. Action research
–
•
•
Study of a subject with refinement, such as dephi study for top key elements in
IT development
Again, these should not be thought of as discrete entities
There may be a combination of some of these in the same
research project
(p13)
12
Research Projects/strategies
It could be:
1. Cross-sectional
–
Referring to the time
horizons, or point of time,
at which the subjects we
study
2. Longitudinal
–
–
Studying the subject for a
period of time, so that the
change can be observed
(Org Beh & Human Dec
Process)
In addition, they may
also be classed into:
1. Exploratory studies
•
Refer to what is happening, in
primarily format
2. Descriptive studies
•
Refer to portray an accurate of
subjects, or its population
behavior
3. Explanatory studies
•
•
•
Refer to the study of causal
relationships between variables
Explaining how things work
13
(p7)
Creditability of research findings
•
Care should be taken to ensure that
research results are:
1. Valid
–
In term of models, measurement items for variables
2. Reliable
–
Selected samples, biasness-free between dependent and independent variables
3. Ethical issues
–
Which might be included/implied by the choice of research strategy
Later, we will examine methods to
secure the creditability of items 1 and 2.
14
15
Positivism
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsM5juPUhU&list=PLF72D5222CD89DFF1
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=js_gg0E6dLI
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8caOrfCt3M
Research approach: http://www.wider-mind.com/research/wdn-positivismv2.pdf
Interpretivism
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtfKRUfKE54
Research approach:
http://www.ipia.utah.edu/imps/html/research.html
Realism
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZIRNnxO6w8
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbwgr3TEVUE
Research approach: http://srmo.sagepub.com/view/the-sagedictionary-of-social-research-methods/n172.xml
(p1)
16