MGT7091: Research Methods and Techniques Module Overview

Professor Mark Palmer Queens University Belfast

Lecture aim

to provide students with an appreciation of the Research Methods and Techniques module

Learning outcomes
To introduce the challenges and issues associated with conducting an academic piece of research To provide insights into successful academic research within a variety of settings To help you to identify a topic for your final year dissertation To develop a provisional Research Proposal for your final year Dissertation To introduce the 2 main philosophical approaches to research To introduce the nature of the research methods associated with the main philosophical approaches

Core Reading Saunders et al. Any edition

Your Host Dr Mark Palmer

BA MA PhD DipM AIM PGCTL MCIM Chartered Marketer Professor of Marketing Previously Head of the Marketing Department, Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham, January 2011 December 2012 Aston Business School, Aston University, Birmingham, July 2003 December 2010 Member of the Advanced Institute of Management Research expertise lies in market driving behaviours, institutions and innovation within the value chain Business consultancy programmes for Goldman Sachs, Sainsburys, Tesco, DHL, ABCAM Over 80 articles in refereed journals, books and conference proceedings

Contact Details
Queen's University Management School Queen's University Belfast Room 02.039 Riddel Hall 185 Stranmillis Road Belfast Northern Ireland | UK | BT9 5EE T: +44 (0) 28 9097 5612 F: +44 (0) 28 9097 4201 E:[email protected] www.qub.ac.uk/mgt

Lecture and Tutorial Structure

Lectures Week 1: Overview of the course, academic research and the philosophy of research Week 2: What is a dissertation? Week 3: Selection of topic and problem Week 4: Conducting an analytical literature review and developing a conceptualization Week 5 Methodology (Part 1) Week 6 Methodology (Part 2)

Tutorials Week 1: Thinking deeply Week 2: Idea generation, problem solving and objective setting Week 3: Assessment Writing your dissertation proposal Week 4: Searching for secondary data and building a literature review Week 5: Hypotheses Development, Protocols, Discussion and conclusions Week 6: Managing your supervisor

Assessment
Assignment One-100%

Assignment Title: MSc Dissertation Research Proposal.

An individual Assignment An Research Proposal for your dissertation Defining your topic Initial background reading and research Designing a research strategy

Number of Words: 3,500 (+ or 10% rule applies)

Assignment Deadline & Instructions for Submission

Assignments must be submitted by 4.00pm Tuesday 8th May 2012. All assignments will be retained for consideration by the external examiner. Students should therefore submit two copies of their assignment to the QUMS Student Office, Riddel Hall, 185 Stranmillis Road and signed for under the supervision of QUMS Student Office staff on or before the date above. A copy should also be emailed to your MSc Coordinator. Penalties for late submission will be applied. Thus assignments submitted after the deadline will be penalised at the rate of 5% (5 marks) off the assessed mark awarded for each working day late up to a maximum of five working days (i.e. Monday to Friday excluding days of official University closure) after which a mark of zero will be awarded.

Instructions for Submission:

Formatting: Assignments should be submitted in size 12 font, with double line spacing. All readings should be clearly referenced using the Harvard Style.

Why should I produce a research proposal?

An opportunity to organise your research ideas and get a focus Identify the scope and boundaries of the investigation Kick starting the research process Evaluating the feasibility of your proposed research A means of establishing a focus for when you communicate with your dissertation supervisor

Recommended Proposal Outline Introduction: context, topic to be addressed, outline of research question(s), aims and objectives, potential contribution of the research to literature and management practice, potential research problems and/or constraints (500 words). Review of relevant literature: justification of topic chosen, bodies of literature being addressed, what is already known, gaps in what is already known, how the literature reviewed informs the design of the research (1,500 words). Methodology: how you intend going about answering the research question(s) and addressing the research objectives (1,500 words): Summary of ontological and epistemological assumptions underpinning proposed research Summary of research approach and purpose Detailed research design methodology including proposed data collection method(s) and data analysis, strengths and potential weaknesses of proposed approach Potential ethical issues Timeline (Gantt Chart) Possible resource requirements.

Lecture Attendance Formal lecture Tutorials (Q&A) Six formal lectures, Thursdays, 1- 3pm 3 Tutorial Groups (3-5 Thursday & Fridays 9-11am and 11am to 1pm Lectures provide the bones of the subject Preparatory reading required to get the most from lectures

Queens Online

Module outline Lecture notes Assessment Readings (3-4 Journal articles in PDF format for each lecture) Notices
N.B. Access to the files is either through Microsoft PowerPoint or through the file manager / windows explorer

Surgery Office Hours Attendance

Fridays 1-5pm Your chance to bring issues of concern.

What you dont understand from lectures and readings Ask Mark

Low risk environment.

I cant help if you dont ask
"A smooth sea never made a skilled mariner."
English Proverb

Lecture Room Etiquette

Talking
Eating, Drinking and Smoking Mobile Phones, iPods, MP3 players and similar interactive electronic communication devices

Good Manners is Good Business!

Concentration, taking notes and asking questions

Creating the The Red Queen Effect in the Classroom!

Any company, in trying to keep ahead of the competition, constantly seeks ways to improve its efficiency and performance. Often, this search results in organizational learning that increases the companys competitive strength. Similar to a chain reaction, this turns rivals into stronger competitors and thus again triggers learning responses (search for improvements) in the first company. In this way, organizations learn over time as a response to competition, which in turn intensifies competition in a self-reinforcing process (Barnett et al., 1994; Barnett and Hansen,1996).

The ant on a balloon flat or round??

Mindful of Mindwandering A state of decoupled attention

Harvard study said left them happy and sharply focused.
It was, they said, "making love."

A Wandering mind is an unhappy mind?

During waking hours, peoples minds seem to wander about 30 percent of the time Those seated in the front third of the lecture experienced significantly fewer (Lindquist & McLean, 2011) The everyday cognition tradition focuses on the investigation of thinking in contexts more akin to those that individuals encounter in the course of their day-to-day lives (Cohen & Conway, 2008). This tradition provides a welcome complement to mainstream cognitive psychology that focuses largely on tasks that bear little to no resemblance to tasks one might encounter beyond the confines of the laboratory (Neisser, 1978).

Implications for your researching?

Our working memory -- the part of our memory system that guides us through our daily chores, from remembering where you left the car keys to telling the difference between a red light and a green light -- lets us simultaneously juggle multiple thoughts This study shows that our mental lives are pervaded, to a remarkable degree, by the non present (Killingsworth and Daniel Gilbert, 2011)

On Becoming an Academic Researcher

Everything is possible in academic research until it is proven otherwise Ideas are your currency dont throw your currency around Only share ideas once your work is published

Researchers always leave a trace!

Maliciously record your tracks every step of the way

Academic research
It is sometimes possible to explore basic questions in the university that are tough to raise in other settings. John Gardner (1968, p. 90) put it well when he said that the university stands for: things that are forgotten in the heat of battle values that get pushed aside in the rough and tumble of everyday living the goals we ought to be thinking about and never do the facts we dont like to face the questions we lack the courage to ask

Were all entrepreneurs now!

We identify market opportunities for our ideas

We find sources of funding for them, if needed

We allocate resources to these ideas We produce and market these ideas to various audiences

And marketing managers too!

We manage a portfolio of ideas
We promote these products Distribute them

And price them too from time to time

The Nature of the Academic

Entrepreneur of knowledge an emancipation of work
Plough the lonely furrow independence. Master of your own destiny. Your Business. Becoming the Rocky of the Academy: pain, rejection, written off. Bounce Back! The Lazarus effect Resilient stubborn, tenacious, hope, positive They are human!

Imprisoned by ourselves?

Stanford studies August 1420, 1971

The Stanford prison experiment was a study of the psychological effects of becoming a prisoner or prison guard. Twelve students were selected out of 75 to play the prisoners and live in a mock prison in the basement of the Stanford psychology building. Another twelve of the same 75 were selected to play the Guards. Roles were assigned randomly to the 24 men. The participants adapted to their roles well beyond what was expected, leading the officers to display authoritarian measures and ultimately to subject some of the prisoners to torture. Implications for you?

Academic Research Why does it Matter?

Rigour or Relevance - the tyranny of the Or Evidence management Who reads it? Academics, practitioners, policy makers? Traditional impact channels primacy of the peer ranked journal being questioned by the social influence agenda Scientific activity in the modern world is more important selfappointed-online-pundits Boundaries between science and non-science have become eroded by disruptive technologies such as Google, Wikipedia etc An insatiable demand for new scientific knowledge More spent in bailing out the banks than on the entirety of science

The Dissertation Journey

Prejudices you carry a prejudices into your research. Things are not always what they appear to be. Inertia you stop acting when you stumble upon a problem Procrastination you dont want to Joy and elation when you find out stuff

Prejudices
We often have closed ears and then prejudice and our own ignorance of the communities we serve tempts us to parodies of what we think people might want (Marland and Rodgers, 1991). We bank, therefore we think we understand banking! We are exposed to marketing, therefore we think we understand marketing! We use a smartphone, therefore we think we understand technology!

My Style & Course

Interaction and a number of small exercises
Challenging but rewarding!! (deep learning rather than strategic learning) Using rhetorical questioning
can lead to better decisions (i.e. playing devils advocate) can be informative. (i.e. questions are used to introduce course content, topics and to request clarification) can help to identify and challenge assumptions, but also to explore and imagine alternatives

Benefits include:
enhances your ability to recognise the virtues of strong and weak arguments makes them sceptical of single answers to questions (2 sided arguments) most effective means through which ingrained assumptions can be challenged

Lecture Style & Course

Textbook is the core reading Saunders et al. Research Methods for Business Students

Using Journal articles as supplementary reading for the course random questions about articles
Expectations that you read TWO articles per week (How?) The Benefits: More informative and situational specific. Knowledge is best conveyed in specific situations/contexts More timely and up-to-date than dated text books Illustrative of MBA-centric learning Research-driven teaching and knowledge dissemination Avail of the vast electronic databases available for students in the library (e.g. emerald, Sciencedirect etc.). More cost effective Environmentally friendly

Philosophy of Research
The Chambers twentieth century dictionary defines philosophy as:..pursuit of wisdom and knowledge. ..knowledge of the causes of things. Research is defined as:..systematic investigation towards increasing the sum of knowledge.

Science
Science is defined as:..knowledge ascertained by observation and experiment, critically tested, systemised and brought under general principles.. Science is also cumulative with each generation building on the ideas of the preceding ones either through rejection and change or conformity and development.

Science, Philosophy & Research

So Philosophy uses Research to test established ideas and identify their limitations which in turn provides the basis for the formulation of new explanations and continues the process of philosophical evolution. Science provides the mechanisms through which Research is conducted. New scientific knowledge defined as new theory that articulates or has the potential to articulate new phenomena (Lakatos, 1970). The term "theory" a variety of forms including abductive theory (i.e., theory prompted by surprising observations -- Hanson, 1958) and theoretical models that posit causal relationships among terms (cf. Suppe, 2000).

Differing approaches to research

Research philosophy Research approaches

Research strategies

Data collection methods

Time horizons

Philosophical Issues and Debates

Scientific knowledge producers see the world through TWO distinctive ontological and epistemological lenses. The lens you adopt will have real consequences in terms of the organization of knowledge production.

There are two fundamental philosophical issues which have influenced the development of science: The nature of reality The ontological questions are:Do scientific theories represent reality? What can be known for certain?; Ontology concerns the analysis of the types of things or relations that can exist. In science, a major ontological issue concerns whether scientific theories represent reality -- objects, events, and processes outside the human mind; or whether scientific theories comprise explanatory fictions whose terms (such as "electron") are conveniences invented to guide research.

Philosophical Issues and Debates

The epistemological questions are: Is there such a thing as absolute truth? Does science gets closer and closer to the truth? Epistemology concerns how one gains access to knowledge and the relationship between knowledge and truth. In science, a major epistemological issue concerns whether or not scientific theories over time move closer and closer to the truth.

Philosophical Issues or Epistemology Debates

Therefore need to consider the basic questions of meaning (i.e., ontology) and knowledge (i.e., epistemology) in order to either study/research. There have been two paradigm shifts in Western thinking. But there are a variety of positions across the two spectrums, but broadly speaking the are two positions. These are Positivism (scientific method) and Interpretivism. Note: They are often in warring camps. Some see these oppositions as false and detrimental to research.

Positivism

Auguste Comte, 1798-1857

Research philosophy

Positivism (a.k.a Logical Positivism and Objectivism)

Positivists attempt to mirror the methods of the natural and physical scientists.
Through observing reality you can produce laws of the social world which can be generalised from one context to another e.g Laws of Supply and Demand in Positive Economics. Stylised facts - facts uncontestable

Positivism or Objectivism
Your role is to be an objective analyst, collecting data and interpreting it in a value free way. You are detached, neither affect nor are affected by the subject of your research. Emphasise the quantifiable, the observable, and replication (the ability to repeat research)

Interpretivism and Phenomenology

Edmund Husserl, 1859-1938

Interpretivism (e.g. Phenomenology)

emphasises -

That the world is too complex to be reduced to a series of law-like generalisations. the uniqueness of people, and circumstances and the constant nature of change. details matter - in an attempt to dig into deeper layers of reality.

subjective reality matters.

Interpretivism could be used to study -

Organisational culture layer by layer the visual symbols the mission statement, and the hidden world of taken for granted assumptions which influence thinking, feeling perceptions in the workplace. Warning! Finding the reality working behind the reality may be too challenging for some!

Logics that profoundly affect the research of professional scientists

Choosing a Research Approach

A deductive approach?

You develop a theory and design a strategy to test hypotheses. A close ally to the philosophy of positivism. A scientific approach.
An inductive approach? You collect data and develop a theory as a result of your data analysis A close ally to the philosophy of phenomenology.

Summary
The justification of scientific activity is increasingly important in the modern world in which the boundaries between science and nonscience have become eroded and in which there is an insatiable demand for new scientific knowledge Logics of action are encoded in the routines of training, monitoring, disciplining, and rewarding of professionals Drawn attention to the philosophical questions about what we know for certain and absolute truth. Through the scientific revolution philosophers tried to develop methodologies that could establish the absolute truth. The lesson that this provides to today's researcher is that the results from scientific work are never absolute. there are many different approaches to obtaining knowledge; that the knowledge gained depends upon the approaches adopted

Further Reading
Davis, M. 1971. Thats interesting! Philosophy of the Social Sciences, 1: 309-344. Grant, A. M., & Pollock, T. G. 2011. From the Editors: Publishing in AMJPart 3: Setting the hook. Academy of Management Journal, 54: 873879. Lewis, M. & Grimes, A. 1999. Metatriangulation: Building theory from multiple paradigms. Academy of Management Review, 24: 672-690. Miller, D. 2005. Paradigm prison, or in praise of atheoretic research. Strategic Organization, 5: 177-184. Pfeffer, J. 1993. Barriers to the advancement of organizational science: Paradigm development as a dependent variable. Academy of Management Review, 18: 599-620. Cannella, A. & Paetzold, R. 1994. Pfeffers barriers to the advancement of organizational science: A rejoinder. Academy of Management Review, 19: 331-341.

Further reading
Bryman, A. (2012) Social Research Methods. 4th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press Chapter 1. Bryman, A. and Bell, E. (2007) Business Research Methods. 2nded. Oxford: Oxford University Press Chapter 1. Saunders, M., Lewis, P. and Thornhill, A. (2012) Research Methods for Business Students. 6th ed. England: Pearson Chapter 1. Bryman, A. (2012) Social Research Methods. 4th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press Chapter 2. Easterby-Smith, M., Thorpe, R. and Jackson, P. (2012) Management Research. 4th ed. Thousand Oaks, C.A: Sage Publications Ltd Chapter 2. Huff, A.S. and Huff, J.O. (2001) Refocusing the Business School Agenda. British Journal of Management, Vol. 12, pp. 49-54. Starkey, K. and Madan, P. (2001) Bridging the Relevance Gap: Aligning Stakeholders in the Future of Management Research. British Journal of Management, Vol. 12, pp. 3 26. Saunders, M., Lewis, P and Thornhill, A. (2009) Research Methods for Business Students. 5th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: FT Prentice Hall Chapter 1 and 4 Tranfield, D. and Starkey, K (1998) The Nature, Social Organisation and Promotion of Management Research. British Journal of Management, Vol. 9, pp. 341-353. Weick, K. (2001) Gapping the Relevance Bridge: Fashions meet fundamentals in Management Research, British Journal of Management 12 pp 71-76.

Pettigrew, A. (2001) Management Research after Postmodernism. British Journal of Management, Vol. 12, pp. 61-70.