1

GROUNDED THEORY
CASE STUDY

Theory?
• A theory is
a contemplative and rational type
of abstract or generalizing thinking, or
the results of such thinking.
Depending on the context, the results
might, for example, include
generalized explanations of
how nature works.
• Theories guide the enterprise of
finding facts rather than of reaching
goals, and are neutral concerning
alternatives among values.[1]:131 A
theory can be a body of knowledge,
which may or may not be associated
with particular explanatory models. To
theorize is to develop this body of
knowledge
inf5220 - 27 October 2005 2
A set of assumptions, propositions, or
accepted facts that attempts to provide a
plausible or rational explanation of cause-
and-effect (causal) relationships among a
group of observed phenomenon. The
word's origin (from the Greek thorós, a
spectator), stresses the fact that all
theories are mental models of the
perceived reality.
One theory for the recent decline of our stock
price is that the price of steel is expected to
decline significantly next month, but if you ask
me, it is more likely due to an overall reduction in
consumer optimism.
I heard a theory that beauty marks on your skin
are actually wounds from your past lives, that
each mark stands for the part of your body where
you were injured, ill, or killed in a previous life.
There is a quantum theory by Schrodinger that
demonstrates how things can operate differently
when we observe it and when they are not visible.
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A hypothesis is an attempt to explain phenomena. It is
Hypothesis vs a proposal, a guess used to understand and/or predict
Theory something.

• a supposition or A theory is the result of testing a hypothesis and

proposed explanation developing an explanation that is assumed to be true
about something.
of a phenomenon made
on the basis of limited A theory replaces the hypothesis after testing confirms
evidence as a starting the hypothesis or the hypothesis is modified and tested
point for further again until predictable results occur.
investigation
So, a person might make an observation and
immediately form a hypothesis about why something
• A hypothesis is tested
happens the way it does.
by drawing conclusions
from it; if observation He or she then tests the hypothesis, modifies it if
and experimentation necessary, and eventually develops a theory.
show a conclusion to
be false, the The hypothesis might change significantly as testing
hypothesis must be occurs. A hypothesis can be right or wrong, but a theory
false. is supposed to be true based upon the scientific
method. So, when a hypothesis has been verified to be
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Grounded Theory
• A systematic methodology in the social sciences involving
the discovery of theory through the analysis of data.

• It operates almost in a reverse fashion from traditional

social science research.

• Rather than beginning with a hypothesis, the first step is

data collection, through a variety of methods.

• From the data collected, the key points are marked with a
series of codes, which are extracted from the text.

• The codes are grouped into similar concepts in order to

make the data more workable. A concept is only an
elementary theoretical unit
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Grounded Theory

• From these concepts, categories are formed, which are

the basis for the creation of a theory, or a reverse
engineered hypothesis. The difference between category
and concept here is that a category is an upper class
concept that may comprise a few lower class concepts

• The process of theoretical coding focuses on

understanding relationships between categories and their
properties and organizing them into propositions.

• This contradicts the traditional model of research, where

the researcher chooses a theoretical framework, and only
then applies this model to the phenomenon to be studied
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Approach
The process of Grounded Theory
Data
research can be divided into 4
stages:
1. creating categories and their
Key Points
properties, (coded)
2. integrating categories and
their properties,
Concepts
3. delimiting theory, and
4. writing theory by continuous n categories,
comparison and analysis of x dimensions,
Categories
data y contexts,
z relationships

Theory
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Case:
Understanding Low utilization of government websites

1) developing a holistic understanding on the mechanism

of government website utilization,
2) identifying a few new theoretical concepts that were not
explored in previous studies,
3) revealing that value acquisition is the essence of
government website utilization, and
4) formulating a derivative conceptual model for
delineating the process of information source selection
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Concepts related with government website

utilization in literature
User perspective Website perspective Evaluation indicators

• Trust • Language • Quality of information,

• Culture • Usability technological
• Perceived ease of use • Evaluation infrastructure,
• Perceived usefulness • Benchmarking organizational
• Perceived risks • Information architecture characteristics, existing
(content, information legal framework,
organization, navigation electronic services,
system)
• Technical performance • Quality of public
services, efficiency &
productivity,
transparency &
accountability, citizen
participation
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Interviews for data collection

• 51 respondents in total, including

• 24 government employees,
• 26 citizens
• 1 Technical worker
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Government employees
Interviews four (4) areas of questioning
1) The intended users. Who are the intended users of your website?
(Who visits the site and from where? What are their main purposes
in using your website? What functions of this site do they use the
most or the least?)
2) Utilization. How do you evaluate the utilization rate of your site?
What factors do you think influence the utilization of your site? Do
you think that it is necessary to improve the utilization of
government websites? Why? What measures have you taken to
improve the utilization of your site? What will you do to promote
your site in the future if you think it is necessary?
3) Potential users. What do you think are the main reasons why
some targeted users have not used government websites? Will you
try to encourage them to use your site?
4) The website. What do you think are the main difficulties faced by
your website? What factors influence the effectiveness of your
website?
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Interviews Citizens users included three

aspects
1) Users' experience with government websites [Have you
visited government websites before? For what reasons did
you visit those government websites? How did you learn
about a government website when you visited it for the first
time? What government websites do you visit most often?]
2) Attitude toward government website utilization [Do you
think it is necessary to improve the utilization of government
websites? Why? What measures do you think are helpful for
improving government website utilization?]
3) Problems of government websites. [If you haven't visited
or wouldn't like to visit a government website, please explain
why. What do you think are the main reasons for the low
utilization of government websites?]
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Interviews Technical worker

Questions for the website design company employee
included:

1) Do you have any technical solutions for the low

utilization of government websites?
2) How did your previous government customers solve the
problem of low utilization of their websites? Are there
any experiences from business websites that
government websites can refer to?
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Data analysis
creating categories and their
properties,

integrating categories and their

properties,

delimiting theory, and

writing theory by continuous

comparison and analysis of data
GT is process of breaking down, examining, comparing,
conceptualizing and categorizing data
Category ‘Values’
• This reveals the essence of the utilization of a government website.
• Pertinence, convenience, cost saving and irreplaceability are its four sub-categories.
• Pertinence and irreplaceability are two new categories that haven't been explored.
• Each sub-category has two or three dimensions and takes effect in a context which
comprises several conditions or contextual factors, as shown
Category ‘effectiveness of government
websites’
• Effectiveness of a government website means that it can successfully deliver government
information and services to targeted citizens.
• To obtain this goal, a government website requires the three properties of utility, usability and
familiarity, and these properties are related to a specific context composed of a set of factors,
as shown
Category ‘user needs’
 Category “alternative information sources”
It refers to channels other than government websites that can satisfy people's needs for government
information and services. Respondent 46 commented, “the newspaper is enough for me if I want to know
what the government is doing.” Respondent 1 said, “in our county, the town government sends a printed
government bulletin to each household every week…. People who are not connected to the internet can go
to the Administrative Licensing Hall, or phone the relevant government department directly.” Respondent 37
said, “if I have to transact with the government, I will ask a member of the village committee in person at first.
Then the committee will submit my problem to a higher authority if necessary.” From these comments, we
found that the utilization of alternative information sources is helpful in explaining why a great number of
people know so little about government websites. For those people who do not visit government websites,
alternative information sources have three
 The theory of government
website utilization
4 categories,
• Value is at the center of the
relationship network of four
x dimensions,
core categories. y contexts,
3 relationships
• their properties or dimensions
are located in the second
layer,

• and their contexts are located

in the third layer.

• 3 Relationships between core

categories are indicated by
arrows.

• These are “public

administration system”,
“maturity of information
society” and “culture”
 A general model of information source selection
• By iteratively analyzing the data, a general conceptual model for information source selection was created as
a derivative. As shown, in Fig. 2, when a user needs to select a specific information source, he/she has to
experience five decision steps according to time sequence before making final decision. These 5 steps are:
comparing the pertinence of all possible information sources based on their utilities; judging the irreplaceability
of pertinent sources; comparing the availability, affordability and accessibility of pertinent but replaceable
sources; comparing the familiarity of the sources selected in last step; and comparing the usability of the
sources selected in last step. Step by step, some information sources are discarded and the others remain, till
the one which owns best pertinence, availability, affordability, accessibility, familiarity,
• and usability is selected. This model can also explain the low utilization of government websites. It provides
service quality criteria for information resource keepers, such as governments, libraries, and so on
inf5220 - 27 October 2005 22
Policy recommendations
According to the theory generated in the present study, following
measures are suggested to improve the utilization of a
government website:
1) improving its familiarity among intended users via website
promotion;
2) understanding the conscious needs and arousing the
objective needs of the potential users;
3) providing better functions and higher-quality services than
alternative information sources;
4) improving usability and other properties of the website; and
5) making changes to contextual factors. For example, the
webmaster should try to help the leaders to understand that
the purpose of a government website is to facilitate the
delivery of public value to citizens, rather than to be part of
an image-related project, and a responsive government
should, of course, concern itself with the needs of the public.
 Grounded theory 24

Critique of grounded theory

• Advantages: • Disadvantages:
• It has intuitive appeal for novice researchers, • First time users can get
since it allows them to become immersed in overwhelmed at the coding
the data at a detailed level level
• It gets researchers analysing the data early • Open coding takes a long
• It encourages systematic, detailed analysis of time
the data and provides a method for doing so • It can be difficult to ‘scale
• It gives researchers ample evidence to back up’ to larger concepts or
up their claims themes
• It encourages a constant interplay between • Because it is a detailed
data collection and analysis method, it can be difficult
• It is especially useful for describing repeated to see the bigger picture
processes e.g. the communications • Tends to produce lower
processes between doctors and patients, or level theories only
the communications processes between
information systems analysts and users
Grounded theory 25

Evaluating grounded theory studies

• Is there a clear chain of evidence linking the findings to
the data?
• Are there multiple instances in the data which support the
concepts produced?
• Has the researcher demonstrated that they are very
familiar with the subject area or, as Glaser puts it, are
steeped in the field of investigation (Glaser, 1978)?
• Has the researcher created inferential and/or predictive
statements about the phenomena?
• Has the researcher suggested theoretical generalizations
that are applicable to a range of situations?
 inf5220 - 27 October 2005 27

Interpretive research
• Assumption: access to reality (given or socially
constructed) is only through social constructions such as
language, consciousness and shared meanings
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Interpretive research
• Interpretive studies generally attempt to understand
phenomena through the meanings that people assign to
them

• Interpretive research does not predefine dependent and

independent variables, but focuses on the full complexity
of human sense making as the situation emerges
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Interpretive research in IS
• aims at producing an understanding of the context of the
information system, and the process whereby the
information system influences and is influenced by the
context" (Walsham)
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Interpetive research: use of theory

• Initial guide to design and data collection
• Initial theoretical framework
• Sensibility to data
• Danger of not-seeing
• Part of an iterative process of data collection and
analysis
• Being open to field data
• Modify initial assumptions and theories
• A final product of the research
• Concepts
• Conceptual framework
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Interpretive research: empirical work

• Access to other people’s interpretations
• Own role as researcher
• Outside observer – not direct involvement
• Involved researcher (action r, participant obs.)
• Evidence: interview as primary data source
• Styles of interview
• Reporting media
• Reporting fieldwork
• Credibility: document your process of data collection
• Importance of details (research site, motivation for
choices, num of people, data sources, ... and theory-data
iterations)
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Types of generalizations from interpretive case

study (Walsham)
• Development of concepts
• Generation of theory
• Drawing of specific implications
• Contribution of reach insight
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Principles for conducting and evaluating

interpretive research
Klein and Myers 1999, MISQ

• The fundamental principle of the hermeneutic circle.

• The principle of contextualization.
• The principle of interaction between the researchers
and the subjects.
• The principle of abstraction and generalization.
• The principle of dialogical reasoning.
• The principle of multiple interpretations.
• The principle of suspicion.
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Grounded Theory
• Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss (1967)
• They criticized the "overemphasis in current sociology on
the verification of theory, and a resultant de-emphasis on
the prior step of discovering what concepts and
hypotheses are relevant for the area that one wishes to
research“

• "(...) we are also trying, through this book, to strengthen

the mandate for generating theory, to help provide a
defense against doctrinaire approaches to verification (...).
It should also help students to defend themselves against
verifiers who would teach them to deny the validity of their
own scientific intelligence"
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Grounded Theory as Theory

• It is inductively derived from the study of the phenomenon
it represents.

• It is discovered, developed, and provisionally verified

through systematic data collection and anlysis of data
pertaining to that phenomenon.

• Data collection, analysis and theory stand in reciprocal

relationship with each other.

• One does not begin with a theory, then prove it.

• One begins with an area of study and what is relevant to

that area is allowed to emerge.
Strauss and Corbin (1990) Basic of Qualitative Research, Sage.
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Grounded Theory as a methodology

• Emphasis on empirical material as basis for
conceptualization.
• Gathering reach empirical material from a variety of
sources.
• Open data collection

• Recording data systematically

• the emphasis is on exploring the nuances of the data by

constantly asking, 'of what is this an example?'
• Develop dense and grouded concepts and categories
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Defining Grounded Theory

”grounded theory methods are a set of flexible analytic
guidelines that enable researchers to focus their data
collection and to build inductive middle-range theories
through successive levels of data anlysis and conceptual
development”

Charmaz, K. (2005) ”Grounded Theory in the 21st Century”

in The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research
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Grounded Theory: data analysis

• Open coding
• concepts, categories, properties, code notes
• Memo writing
• Axial coding
• Focus on relations
• Connections between categories
• Causal conditions, intervening conditions...
• Selective coding
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Grounded Theory
• Conflicting principles:
• Emergence
• Of categories from data
• Theoretical sensitivity
• Researchers’ ability to see relevant data
• To identify theoretical relevant phenomena
• Strauss/Glaser discussion
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Case Study
Yin, R. (1994) Case Study Research, Sage
• A method of research/a research strategy (not
linked to part. method of data collection)
• Advantages/disadvantages depending on:
• Type of research question
• Control over behavioural events
• Focus on contemporary as opposed to historical
phenomena
• Preferred when:
• ”How” and ”why” questions
• Little control over events
• Focus on contemporary phenomena within real-life
context
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Defining Case study

Distinguishing characteristics:
• It attempts to examine a contemporary phenomenon in its
real-life context;
• Expecially when the boundaries between phenomenon
and context are not clearly evident;

Different from: experiment and historical analysis.

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• Exploratory case study

• To develop pertinent hypothesis and propositions for
futher inquiry
• ”what are the ways of making schools effective?”
• Descriptive case study
• To describe the incidence or prevalence of a phenomenon
• Es. Political attitudes
• Explanatory case study
• To trace operational links over time
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Case study design

• five components of research design:
1. A study's questions
2. Its propositions, if any
3. Its unit(s) of analysis
4. The logic linking the data to the propositions
5. The criteria for interpreting the findings
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Case study: required skills for data collection

• Ask good question
• Be a good listner
• Be adaptive and flexible (new = opportunity; not always as
planned)
• Have a firm grasp on the issue (relevant events and information)
• Not mechanical recording
• Recognize deviations, contradictions
• Be unbiased by preconceived notions
• Be open to contrary findings
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Sources of evidence
• Documentation
• Archivial records
• Interviews
• Direct observations
• Participant-observation
• Physical artefacts (technological devices, tools or
instruments, a work of art)
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Three Principles of data collection

Principle 1:Use multiple sources of evidence

• Single source: problems of accuracy and trustworthiness

• Triangulation: rationale for using multiple sources of

evidence

• Construct validity

• More expensive/time consuming/need different skills

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Three Principles of data collection

Principle 2: Create a case study database

• Need to separate between collected evidence and final

report

• Increases reliability

• Contents: notes, documents, quantitative data, narratives

• Other people should be able to access data

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Three Principles of data collection

Principle 3: Maintain a chain of evidence

• To allow an external observer to follow the

derivation to any evidence
• Trace steps
• From conclusions to research questions
• From research questions to conclusions

• Final report ↔ database ↔ evidence and

circumstances ↔ procedures and questions in
protocol ↔ initial research questions
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Key characteristics of case studies (Benbasat et al.(1987)

The Case Research Strategy in Studies of Information Systems, MIS Quarterly)

1. Phenomenon is examined in a natural setting

2. Data are collected by multiple means
3. One or few entities (person, group or organization) are examined
4. The complexity of the unit is studied intensively
5. The investigator should have a receptive attitude towards
exploration
6. No experimental controls or manipulation are involved
7. The investigator may not specify the set of dependent and
independent variables in advance
8. The results derived depend heavily on the integrative powers of
the investigator
9. Changes in site selection and data collection methods could take
place as the investigator develops new hypotheses
10. Useful to study ”how” and ”why” questions
11. The focus is on contemporary events