Content Analysis Method and Examples

Content analysis is a research tool used to determine the presence of certain words, themes, or concepts within some given qualitative data (i.e. text). Using content analysis, researchers can quantify and analyze the presence, meanings and relationships of such certain words, themes, or concepts. As an example, researchers can evaluate language used within a

How phenomenology can help us learn from the experiences of others

What is phenomenology? In simple terms, phenomenology can be defined as an approach to research that seeks to describe the essence of a phenomenon by exploring it from the perspective of those who have experienced it [6]. The goal of phenomenology is to describe the meaning of this experience—both in terms of what was experienced and how it was

Introduction to Statistical Data Analysis

Statistics is basically a science that involves data collection, data interpretation and finally, data validation. Statistical data analysis is a procedure of performing various statistical operations. It is a kind of quantitative research, which seeks to quantify the data, and typically, applies some form of statistical analysis. Quantitative data basically involves descriptive data, such as survey

Meta-analysis in management research

"Meta-analysis is the statistical combination of results from two or more separate studies" (Deeks et al, 2019, chapter 10). When the treatment effect (or effect size) is consistent from one study to the next, meta-analysis can be used to identify this common effect. When the effect varies from one study to the next, meta-analysis may be used to identify the reason for the

Methods for Literature Reviews

What is a literature review? Literature reviews are foundational to research proposals, theses and dissertations, as well as scholarly books and articles. In addition to their place within larger pieces of writing, literature reviews are also published as a type of free-standing article. Let’s use a simple definition for a literature review: “a systematic syntheses

Different types of literature review and brief illustrations

Our classification scheme is largely inspired from Paré and colleagues’ (2015) typology. Below we present and illustrate those review types that we feel are central to the growth and development in management. 1. Narrative Reviews The narrative review is the “traditional” way of reviewing the extant literature and is skewed towards a qualitative interpretation

Introduction to Eviews

EViews is a statistical package for Windows, used mainly for time-series oriented econometric analysis. It is developed by Quantitative Micro Software (QMS), now a part of IHS. Version 1.0 was released in March 1994, and replaced MicroTSP. The TSP software and programming language had been originally developed by Robert Hall in 1965. The current version of EViews is 12, released in November 2020. EViews is

Understanding research philosophy

Research philosophy is an important part of research methodology. Research philosophy is classified as ontology, epistemology and axiology. These philosophical approaches enable to decide which approach should be adopted by the researcher and why, which is derived from research questions (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2009). The important assumptions are present in research philosophy which explains

1 Comments

Four elements as foundation of the research process

As a starting point, it can be suggested that, in developing a research proposal, we need to put considerable effort into answering two questions in particular. First, what methodologies and methods will we be employing in the research we propose to do? Second, how do we justify this choice and use of methodologies and

1 Comments

What about ontology?

In the research literature there is frequent mention of ontology and you might be wondering why ontology does not figure in the schema developed to this point. Ontology is the study of being. It is concerned with ‘what is’, with the nature of existence, with the structure of reality as such. Were we to

1 Comments

In all directions of the research process

Back we go to our arrows. We have been drawing arrows from left to right—from one item in one column to another item in the next column to the right. We should feel very free to do this. First of all, there are few restrictions on where these left-to-right arrows may go. Any limitations

2 Comments

The great divide between the qualitative research and quantitative research

In the model we are following here, you will notice that the distinction between qualitative research and quantitative research occurs at the level of methods. It does not occur at the level of epistemology or theoretical perspective. What does occur back there at those exalted levels is a distinction between objectivist/positivist research, on the

4 Comments

Positivism: the march of science

Inherent in the methodologies guiding research efforts are a number of theoretical perspectives, as the previous chapter has suggested and Table 1 has exemplified. Furthermore, there is a range of epistemological positions informing the theoretical perspectives. Each epistemological stance is an attempt to explain how we know what we know and to determine the

Positivism

The coining of the word ‘positivism’ is often attributed to Auguste Comte. Unjustifiably, it seems. While he did make up the word ‘sociology’ (and its predecessor, ‘social physics’), he cannot be credited with ‘positivism’. We are on safer ground in seeing Comte as a populariser of the word, especially through the Societe Positiviste, which

Post-positivism

Early inroads into the absoluteness and dogmatism of positivist science were made by a pair of eminent physicists, Werner Heisenberg (1901- 76) and Niels Bohr (1885-1962). Heisenberg, a German scientist, is one of the founders of ‘quantum theory’. He articulates an ‘uncertainty principle’ which well and truly calls into question positivist science’s claims to

Constructionism: the making of meaning

Constructionism is well removed from the objectivism found in the positivist stance. In some areas it seems to have replaced objectivism as the dominant paradigm. If this is indeed the case, and to the extent to which it is the case, we are witnessing the end of a very long tradition. Objectivism—the notion that

1 Comments

The construction of meaningful reality

In the constructionist view, as the word suggests, meaning is not discovered but constructed. Meaning does not inhere in the object, merely waiting for someone to come upon it. As writers like Merleau- Ponty have pointed out very tellingly, the world and objects in the world are indeterminate. They may be pregnant with potential

‘Social’ constructionism

If seeing interpretation as a making of meaning does not condemn us to subjectivism, it does not condemn us to individualism either. We have to reckon with the social origin of meaning and the social character with which it is inevitably stamped. Fish emphasises that ‘all objects are made and not found’ but adds

1 Comments

Conformism or critique?

It would seem important to distinguish accounts of constmctionism where this social dimension of meaning is at centre stage from those where it is not. Using ‘constmctionism’ for the former and ‘constructivism’ for the latter has echoes in the literature, even if the terminology is far from consistent. For example, after referring to the

Realism and relativism

Social constructionism is at once realist and relativist. To say that meaningful reality is socially constructed is not to say that it is not real. As we have noted earlier, constructionism in epistemology is perfecdy compatible with a realism in ontology—and in more ways than one. Stanley Fish underlines the reality of our social

1 Comments