QUALITATIVE RESEARCH IN BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT

RESEARCH DESIGN

Chapter 3

Sage Publications Limited © 2008 Michael D. Myers

All Rights Reserved
 Introduction

 A research design is a plan for an entire qualitative research

QUALITATIVE RESEARCH IN BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT

project
 This plan should be written in a research proposal
 One purpose is to convince your potential supervisor(s), advisory
committee, school, etc. that you are capable of doing the research
and that your project is viable
 Of course, you need to be flexible and possibly change the plan as
your research progresses

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 Research design

 Research design involves specifying your philosophical

assumptions, your research method, which data collection
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH IN BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT

techniques you will use, your approach to qualitative data

analysis, your approach to writing up, and, if applicable, how you
plan to publish your findings
 A research design provides a road map for the entire project
 The first step is deciding upon a topic
 How do you decide upon a research topic?

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 Choosing a topic
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH IN BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT

 There are three important requirements in choosing a topic:

1. You are interested in the topic
2. A faculty member is prepared to supervise you
3. You can obtain relevant data on the topic

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 Choosing a research topic: you need a research problem
Move on to next stage of
research design

1. Read literature, reflect, discuss

and identify gaps
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH IN BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT

2. Generate list of interesting

Yes No 6. potential questions
Does a suitable problem exist?

5. Eliminate impractical questions 3. Check literature. Have questions

been answered already?
Yes
No

4. Test
feasibility

Figure 3.1. How to identify a research problem (adapted from Collis & Hussey, 2003)

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 Theoretical framework

 Three steps in most qualitative research projects:

1. Choose a topic
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH IN BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT

2. Choose some potential research questions

3. Choose a theoretical framework
 Given the iterative nature of qualitative research, these might
change later

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 A model of qualitative research design
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH IN BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT

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 Philosophical Assumptions

 Positivist research – are you

testing one or more
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH IN BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT

hypotheses?
 Interpretive research – are you
exploring a research topic or
theory?
 Critical research – are to
seeking to critique the status
quo or help to emancipate
people in some way?

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 Research Method

 A research method is a strategy

of enquiry
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH IN BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT

 How are you going to find out

about the social world?
 Research methods – action
research, case study research,
ethnography, grounded theory
 Each can use any set of
philosophical assumptions

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 Data Collection techniques

 Which data collection

technique(s) will you use?
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 Interviews
 Participant observation and
fieldwork
 Documents

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 Data Analysis approach

 Many ways to analyse

qualitative data
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 Coding
 Content analysis
 Discourse analysis
 Hermeneutics
 Semiotics
 Narrative analysis, etc.

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 Written record

 Are you writing a thesis, a book,

QUALITATIVE RESEARCH IN BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT

a book chapter, a conference

paper, or a journal article?
 The process of writing up is just
as important as doing the
research itself

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 QUALITATIVE RESEARCH IN BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT

Research design
The model in perspective

13
 Writing a research proposal

Item
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1. A title
2. An abstract
3. An introduction
4. A literature review
5. A topic
6. A theoretical framework
7. A research method
8. A qualitative data analysis approach
9. A timeline to completion
10. A list of references

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