QUALITATIVE RESEARCH IN BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT

RESEARCH DESIGN

Chapter 3

Sage Publications Limited © 2008 Michael D. Myers

All Rights Reserved
 Introduction


QUALITATIVE RESEARCH IN BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT

A research design is a plan for an entire

qualitative research 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
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH IN BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT

method, which data collection 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,
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH IN BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT

reflect, discuss and

identify gaps
2. Generate list of
Yes No interesting potential
6. Does a suitable questions
problem exist?

5. Eliminate impractical 3. Check literature. Have

questions questions been answered
Yes
already?
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:

QUALITATIVE RESEARCH IN BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT

1. Choose a topic
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

QUALITATIVE RESEARCH IN BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT

you testing one or more

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
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH IN BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT

strategy of enquiry
 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

QUALITATIVE RESEARCH IN BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT

technique(s) will you

use?
 Interviews
 Participant observation
and fieldwork
 Documents

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 Data Analysis approach

 Many ways to analyse

QUALITATIVE RESEARCH IN BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT

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

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 Written record

 Are you writing a thesis,

QUALITATIVE RESEARCH IN BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT

a book, 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
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH IN BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT

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

Research design 14