"Is there an ideal methodology to address your research question? – a critical insight into the ways of identifying, matching, and applying research methodologies in quantitative and qualitative research" - workshops for PhD students
November 25th, 2022
The course aims at illustrating the main strategies to be implemented to select a research methodology and choose methods and techniques as appropriate as possible with respect to the research objectives. The aim is to guide the search for methods as a means to achieve research objectives and not as the end of the process. Moreover, the course seeks to help students understand how to enhance the quality of an empirical research and how to choose the most suitable methods to perform research in the fields of business management.
The module, to be delivered over 8 teaching hours, will be divided in 3 thematic entities, which will address the following issues:
Entity no 1:
Objective:
Improve students’skills related to the identification of the most appropriate methodological approach to address and meet specific research objectives. To this end, the module will
• clarify the criticalities related to the choice of methodology as a complex and multi-stage process;
• illustrate the very first steps of a research design, in which researchers should make crucial decisions about the selection of research aims, methodology and technique.
Entity no 2:
Objective:
Provide an overview of quantitative (regression, structural equation modelling) and qualitative research methods (case study, grounded theory) by correlating them with different aims, kind of sampling, data collection methods, data analysis procedure that can be pursued by using the two approaches. In this way, the students will
• learn to select the methodological approach based on the specific research goals:
• learn how to, with regard to qualitative research, conduct in-depth context analysis,
• learn how to, with regard to quantitative research, generalize the results obtained from the sample to the population;
Entity no 3:
Objective:
Discuss a series of real case studies implemented in research papers published across different fields, including public policy and administration, business management, strategic innovation management, public management, services management, ecosystems research. The critical review of the cases will help students
• understand how to simplify the transition from data collection to the interpretation of results,
• understand how to identify new conceptualizations and produce findings relevant for social, political, economic and managerial contexts.