Table of Contents
The Role of Research Projects in Business and Management Studies
Introduction 1
Knowledge is power 2
Old wine in new bottles 3
The need for business decisions 5
Structure and content 8
Philosophical Issues and the Conduct of Research
Introduction 13
A brief history of research philosophy 14
The evolution of professional social science 19
Ethical considerations 21
Qualitative and quantitative methods 22
Choice of qualitative method 28
Summary 29
Recommended reading 31
Writing a Research Proposal
Introduction 33
What is a ‘research project’? 34
Formative thinking 36
Forms of dissertation 39
Screening ideas 39
Research approach 41
Drafting the proposal 46
Finding a supervisor 49
Supervisor/student understandings 50
Summary 52
Recommended reading 52
Writing a Literature Review
Introduction 55
The purposes of a literature review 56
Planning 58
Citation 61
Getting started 66
Selecting sources 66
Taking notes 70
Organising your material 72
Writing up 75
Summary 77
Recommended reading 78
Using the Internet to Find Information
Introduction 79
A brief history of the Internet 79
A little background knowledge 81
The initial stages of the research 84
Library catalogues 85
Online book resources 86
Journal article databases 87
Search engines 88
Other searchable databases 89
Libraries and document retrieval 89
UK academic resources 89
Open access materials 90
Finding dissertations 92
Case studies 93
Networking 93
Selective searching 94
Search engines 95
Saving what you have found 97
Social bookmarking 97
Keeping records 97
Keeping up to date with new information 99
Online access to raw data 99
Psychology of the Internet 101
Netiquette 102
Using email lists and forums 103
Reliability of information 105
Copyright and the Internet 107
Summary 108
Recommended reading 108
Selecting a Research Methodology
Introduction 109
Research strategy 110
The scientific approach to problem solving 111
The analysis of secondary data 114
The uses of secondary research 115
The advantages and disadvantages of secondary research 117
Rules for secondary research 118
Internal and external sources 119
Content analysis 120
Data collection 121
Observation 123
Experimentation 125
Survey research 129
What then is a survey? 129
The purposes of survey research 131
Advantages and disadvantages of survey research 132
Issues and topics suited to surveys 133
Qualitative research techniques 136
Cross-sectional and longitudinal studies 138
What is it? 138
Summary 140
Recommended reading 143
Qualitative Research Methods
Introduction 145
Observation 145
Applications in business and management research 147
Unstructured observation 149
Structured observation 152
Ethnography 152
Grounded theory 156
Case studies 160
Case research: history and evolution 162
Summary 166
Recommended reading 166
Sampling
Introduction 169
The basis of sampling 170
Sampling techniques 172
Random samples 172
Stratified samples 174
Cluster sampling 175
Systematic sampling 176
Non-probability based or purposive samples 177
Quota sampling 178
Method of finding quota 179
Planning a sample survey 182
Summary 185
Recommended reading 186
Questionnaire Design
Introduction 187
Questionnaire planning 188
A structured procedure 190
Question design 191
Question phraseology 192
Question structure 194
Loaded questions 198
Structured or unstructured? 200
Attitude measurement and scaling 202
Thurstone scales 203
Likert scales 204
Verbal frequency scales 206
The semantic differential 209
Questionnaire design 211
Piloting the questionnaire 212
Summary 214
Recommended reading 214
Data Collection - Interviewing
Introduction 215
Interviewing 215
Type of respondent 217
Type of interview 219
Unstructured interviews 219
Group discussions 221
Advantages and disadvantages 223
Types of group discussion 225
Interviewer guide 227
Semi-structured interviews 229
Structured interviews 229
Surveys 229
Telephone surveys 229
Mail surveys 232
Drop and collect surveys 233
Summary 235
Recommended reading 235
Appendix 236
Semi-structured interview guide 236
Questionnaire Completion
Introduction 245
General points to observe when asking questions 245
Routing 247
Coding of answers 248
Probing 250
Basic probes 251
Probes for open-ended questions 253
Specific probes 255
Summary of probes 256
How to indicate probes 257
Show cards 257
Scales 258
Rotate and tick start 260
Summary of points on the interview 260
Interviewer selection and control 262
Research planning and design 262
Summary 264
Recommended reading 264
Conducting Primary Research Online
Introduction 265
Computer mediated communications 265
Focus groups 266
Conferencing 266
MU* Environments 266
Multi-media environments 266
Ethics of online research 267
Online interviewing 271
Finding participants 272
Survey methodology 274
Email survey 274
Web surveys 277
Technical architecture 277
Data handling of responses 278
Design components 280
Questionnaire structure 282
Cross-platform usability 283
Log file analysis 283
Potential criticisms and disadvantages 284
Potential disadvantages of electronic data collection methods 285
Advantages of online surveys 285
Summary 286
Recommended reading 286
Data Interpretation
Introduction 289
Data interpretation 290
Classification and coding 293
Classification 294
Coding 296
Computer analysis of qualitative data 297
Confidence limits and statistical significance 298
Descriptive statistics 300
Inferential statistics 308
Cross-tabulation 310
Analysis of variance (ANOVA) 313
Correlation 314
Regression analysis 315
Discriminant analysis 316
Multivariate analysis 317
Multiple regression 318
Principal components analysis (PCA) 318
Multiple discriminant analysis (MDA) 318
Conjoint measurement (CM) 319
The automatic interaction detector (AID) 321
Factor analysis 321
Cluster analysis 322
Multidimensional scaling (MDS) 324
Summary 325
Recommended reading 326
Writing Up and Getting Published
Introduction 327
Outline structure and content 330
Abstract 330
Introduction 330
The literature review 330
Research methodology 331
Data analysis and findings 332
Conclusions and recommendations 333
Appendices 333
Bibliography 333
A checklist for evaluating dissertations 333
Fleshing out the outline 335
Writing for a purpose 338
Getting published 340
Peer reviewing 343
Summary 346
Recommended reading 346
Writing up 346
Appendices 347
1 Dissertation notes for guidance 347
2 Conference organiser guidelines for submission 347
3 Paper submission guidelines 348
4 Reviewers guidelines 350
Making a Presentation
Introduction 353
In the beginning … 353
The topic 356
The audience 357
The objective 358
What constraints apply? 358
Content 359
Outlines 361
Scripts 362
Conversion and delivery 363
Interactive or not? 366
Summary 367
Recommended reading 369
References 371
Index 383