Qualitative, Quantitative and Mixed Methods Research

QUALITATIVE, QUANTITATIVE & MIXED
METHODS RESEARCH
WEEK 6

Competitive Intelligence

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Week 1 - The Role of Research in the Organisation

Week 2 - Conducting Literature Reviews and Referencing
Week 3 - An Introduction to Inductive and Deductive Research
Week 4 - Research Design

Week 5 - Research Questions and Hypotheses
Week 6 - Qualitative, Quantitative and Mixed Methods Research
Week 7 - Individual and Group Interviewing

Week 8 - Principles of Survey Design
Week 9 - Selecting your Sample
Week 10 - Ethical and Access Issues

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COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE

The Proposal Process
Identify Research Problem/Area

Determine Purpose

Identify Main Research Question(s)

Choose Research Strategy and Methods

Determine Outcomes and Timetable

Write Proposal

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Research Onion (Saunders et al., 2006)

4

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COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE FOR HR

Where do qualitative, quantitative & mixed methods fit?
Paradigm
— ‘world view’ or philosophical view

Type of research
— Exploratory or conclusive research (descriptive or causal)

Approach to research
— Deductive or inductive

Research design or research strategy
— ‘True’ or ‘Quasi’ experiment
— Ethnography, case study, action research, survey
— Creswell (2009) also includes qualitative, quantitative, mixed methods

Time frame of research
— cross-sectional or longitudinal
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Qualitative vs Quantitative

Definition of Quantitative
— adjective of, concerned with, or measured by quantity.

Definition of qualitative
— adjective

1 of, concerned with, or measured by quality
2 Grammar (of an adjective) describing the quality of something in size, appearance, etc.

(Oxford English Dictionary, 2009 online)

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Characteristics of Quantitative Research
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