QUB Teaching Plan

7/28/2019 QUB Teaching Plan

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MGT7091 BUSINESS RESEARCH METHODS 2012‐13

Administrative and Contact Details LECTURE TIMES: Thursdays 1‐3pm

Tutorial Times: Thursdays 3‐5pm, Fridays 9‐11pm and 11‐1pm

MODULE COORDINATOR AND LECTURER:

Professor Mark Palmer

Room 02.039

Riddel Hall 185 Stranmillis Road

Email: [email protected]

Tel: 028 909765612

READING LIST

Core Reading Text

Saunders, M., Lewis, P and Thornhill, A. (2009), Research Methods for Business Students. 5th ed.

Upper Saddle River, NJ: FT Prentice Hall.

Supplementary Texts

There are a number of useful general texts on Research Methods, including:

Bryman, A. (2012) Social Research Methods. 4th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Bryman, A. and Bell, E. (2007), Business Research Method. 2nded. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Cassell, C. and Symon, G. (2004) Essential Guide to Qualitative Methods in Organisational Research. Thousand Oaks, C.A: Sage Publications Ltd.

Collis, J. and Hussey, R. (2009) Business Research: A Practical Guide for Undergraduate and Postgraduate Students. 3rd ed. Basingstoke, UK: Macmillan Publishers Limited.

deVaus, D. (2002) Analyzing Social Science Data: 50 Key Problems in Data Analysis, London: Sage Publications. Easterby‐Smith, M., Thorpe, R. and Jackson, P. (2012) Management Research (4th ed). Thousand Oaks, C.A: Sage Publications Ltd. Easterby

‐Smith,

M.,

Thorpe,

R.,

Jackson,

P.

and

Lowe,

A.

(2008)

Management Research: An Introduction. 3rd ed. Thousand Oaks, C.A: Sage Publications Ltd.



Fisher, C. (2004) Researching and Writing a Dissertation for Business Students. Upper Saddle River, NJ: FT Prentice Hall Gill, J. and Johnson, P. (2002), Research Methods for Managers. 3rd ed. Thousand Oaks, C.A: Sage Publications.

Hair Jnr., J.F., Money, A. H., Samuel, P. and Page, M. (2007) Research Methods for Business. Chichester, England: John Wiley and Sons Ltd.

Matthews, B. and Ross, L. (2010) Research Methods: A Practical Guide for the Social Sciences. Harlow, England: Pearson Education Limited. Pallant, J. (2010) SPSS Survival Manual: A step by step guide to data analysis using SPSS. 4th ed. Open University Press Saunders, M., Lewis, P. and

Thornhill, A. (2012) Research Methods for Business Students. 6th ed. England, Pearson.

In addition, the library holds a good selection of books on the various topics covered in this

module and you are advised to look at these also. Although readings associated with each lecture session have been provided additional readings will be provided on a week‐by‐week

basis as necessary.

COURSE OUTLINE AND READING LIST

The module provides a blend of 6 weekly lectures and 6 tutorials. The lectures intend to cover

the theory on research and the tutorials will be practice based on doing management research.

The structure is outlined below.

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 – role play scenarios

Week 1: Introduction – An overview of the course, academic research and the philosophy of

research. This first lecture will set the whole module in context and will provide a basis for the

issues, themes and content that will be presented and discussed throughout the semester. This

session will consider questions around the nature of academic research, rigour versus relevance,

the stakeholders as well as the key debates surrounding the role of management research. This

will serve as the context of the philosophy of research design. Both the ontological (what is

being studied?) and epistemological (how can we access warranted knowledge about what is

being studied?) positions underpinning research will be discussed.

Recommended Reading

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

Bryman, A. (2012) Social Research Methods. 4th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press – Chapter 1. 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. 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. Davis, M. 1971. That’s interesting! Philosophy of the Social Sciences, 1: 309‐344.

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. Pfeffer’s barriers to the advancement of organizational science: A

rejoinder. Academy of Management Review, 19: 331‐341

Week 2: What is a dissertation? This week considers preliminary matters that are essential to

making a start in any research study. In particular it aims to provide students with an

appreciation of the general explanation of the research journey of a dissertation. In particular,

this lecture will demonstrate how the dissertation development module can act as a ‘road map’

by which

to

navigate

the

dissertation

process.

Furthermore,

it will

set

the

scene

and

overall

context of how the dissertation fits within the context of the degree programme and how

theory and theoretical contributions underpin academic research activity.

Recommended Reading:

Saunders, M., Lewis, P and Thornhill, A. (2009) Research Methods for Business Students. 5th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: FT Prentice Hall – Chapter 2

Quinton, S and Smallbone, T (2006) Postgraduate Research in Business, A Critical Guide,

London,Sage

Sekaran, V. (2000) Research Methods for Business: a Skills Building Approach, Aldershot: Gower

Zigmund, W.G (1997) Business Research Methods, Forth Worth: Dreyden Press

Bartunek, J. M., Rynes, S. L., & Ireland, R. D. 2006. What makes management research

interesting and why does it matter? Academy of Management Journal, 49(1): 9‐15.

Bergh, D. 2003. From the Editors: Thinking strategically about contribution. Academy of

Management Journal, 46(2): 135‐136

Corley, K. & Gioia, D. Building theory about theory building: What constitutes a theoretical

contribution? Academy of Management Review, 36 (1): 12‐32

Huff, A. S. 1999. Writing for Scholarly Publication. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Rindova, V. P. 2008. Publishing theory when you are new to the game. Academy of

Management Review, 33(2): 300‐303.

Suddaby, R. 2010. Editor’s Comments: Construct clarity in theories of management and

organization.

Academy

of

Management

Review,

35

(3)

346‐

358.



Van de Ven, A. H. 1989. Nothing is quite so practical as a good theory. Academy of Management

Review, 14(4): 486‐489.

Whetten, D. A. 1989. What constitutes a theoretical contribution? Academy of Management

Review, 14: 490‐495.

Weick, Karl. 1995. What theory is Not, Theorizing is, Administrative Science Quarterly, 40: 385‐

390

Week 3: Selection of topic and problem. This lecture session will provide students with an

appreciation of the broad context for the research, where it is located and the field boundaries.

This, in turn, will form the basis for the rationale in the selection and justification of the topic,

planning the project and reviewing the literature will be discussed. Thinking through the

„what?‟, „how?‟, „who?‟, „where?‟ and „when?‟ questions should help in undertaking

research and assist in avoiding embarking on over ambitious or problematic projects.


Saunders, M., Lewis, P and Thornhill, A. (2009) Research Methods for Business Students. 5th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: FT Prentice Hall – Chapter 4.

Buschman, J., Warner, D. A. 2005. ‘Researching and Shaping Information Literacy Initiatives in

Relation to the Web: Some Framework Problems and Needs', The Journal of Academic

Librarianship Volume 31, Issue 1 , Pages 12‐18.

Bryman A and Bell E (2003) Business Research Methods New York:Oxford Univ Press

Easterby‐Smith M et al(2002) Management Research: An Introduction London:Sage

Publications

Gray D E(2009)Doing Research in the Real World London:Sage Publications

Sekaran V (2000) Research Methods for Business: A skills building approach (3rd Edn) New

York:Wiley

Walliman N S R (2009) Your Undergraduate Dissertation. The Essential Guide for Success (2009)

London:Sage Publications

Summers, J.D. (2001) Guidelines for Conducting Research and Publishing in Marketing: From

Conceptualization through the review process,” Journal of Academy of Marketing Science, 29, 4,

405‐415.

Carpenter, M.A., Sanders, W.G. Geletkanycz, M.A. (2004) The upper echelons revisited: The

antecedents, elements and consequences of TMT composition. Journal of Management, 30 (6):

749‐778.



Week 4: Conducting an analytical literature review and developing a conceptualization.

Lecture 4 aims to provide students with an appreciation of the practice of approaching the literature in relation to specific research areas and the abstraction of conceptualization. In order

to answer particular research questions researchers can either employ primary (new) or

secondary (already collected) data. In addition, a critical review of literature is an important

element in projects as it provides the foundation upon which a research study is built. The

purpose of this session is to explain what a critical review of literature is and to ensure that the

concepts, theories and arguments that you take from the literature to help inform your research

are robust. Further, it provides an overview of the various ways in which conceptualizations are

developed in the literature.


Saunders, M., Lewis, P and Thornhill, A. (2009) Research Methods for Business Students. 5th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: FT Prentice Hall – Chapter 3 and 7.

Bryman, A. (2012) Social Research Methods. 4th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press – Chapter 4 and 5.

Collis, J. and Hussey, R. (2009) Business Research: A Practical Guide for Undergraduate and Postgraduate Students. 3rd ed. Basingstoke, UK: Macmillan Publishers Limited – Chapter 6.

Fisher, C. (2004) Researching and Writing a Dissertation for Business Students. Upper Saddle River, NJ: FT Prentice Hall – Chapter 2.

Weeks 5 and 6: Research Methodologies. The final two lectures aim to provide students with

an outline of the process of data gathering from the preparation and organization stage to the

actual carrying out of the research fieldwork. Week 5 focuses on quantitative techniques and

will provide the basis for Data Analysis and Interpretation module and in particular the SPSS

package. This lecture will aim to equip students with an understanding of the various

quantitative techniques. Topics covered will include an introduction to relevant statistical

terminology, the concept of data level, approaches to sampling for quantitative research (both

probability and non‐probability), issues of reliability and validity, formatting questions (including

basic scale construction) and piloting of questionnaires.



Week 6 focuses on qualitative techniques and will provide the basis for Data Analysis and

Interpretation module and in particular the NVivo package. In these sessions issues relating to

qualitative data collection will be considered including sampling, unit of analysis, establishing

trust, rigor and quality as well as the development of interview schedules/ protocols for data

collection.

Recommended Reading

Saunders, M., Lewis, P and Thornhill, A. (2009) Research Methods for Business Students. 5th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: FT Prentice Hall – Chapter 9 and 10.

Bryman, A. (2012) Social Research Methods. 4th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press – Chapter 10.

Field, A. (2009) Discovering Statistics using SPSS. 3rd ed. London: Sage. Bryman, A. (2012) Social Research Methods. 4th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press – Chapter 6, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 and 22.

Bryman, A. and Bell, E. (2007) Business Research Methods. Oxford: Oxford University Press – Chapters 16 and 18

Press. deVaus, D. (2002) Surveys in social research. 5th ed. London: Routledge. deVaus, D. (2002) Social Surveys. London: Sage Publications. Fink,

A.

(2009)

How to conduct surveys: A step by step guide. London: Sage. Fink, A. (2003) How

to ask survey questions. London: Sage. Fisher, C. (2010) Researching and writing a dissertation – An essential guide for business students. Upper Saddle River, NJ: FT, Prentice Hall.

Basit, Tehmina N (2003) “Manual or Electronic? The Role of Coding in Qualitative Data Analysis”.

Educational Research, Vol. 45, No. 2, pp.143‐154. Cassell, C. and Symon, G. (2004) Essential Guide to Qualitative Methods in Organisational Research. Sage Publications Ltd – Chapters 17,19 and 21.

Collis, J. and Hussey, R. (2009) Business Research: A Practical Guide for Undergraduate and Postgraduate Students. 3rd ed. Basingstoke, UK: Macmillan Publishers Limited – Chapter 9.

Urquhart, C. (1999) Using vignettes to diagnose information seeking strategies: opportunities

and possible problems for information use studies of health professionals, Exporing the

Contexts of Information, pp.277‐289.

Perry, C. (1998) Processes of a case study methodology for postgraduate research in marketing,

European Journal of Marketing, 32, 9/10, p.785‐802

QUB Teaching Plan

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