An Introduction to Social Research Methods for Business – Syllabus
Taught by Professor Patricia Fosh [PF] and Dr Christopher T Husbands,
Emeritus Reader, London School of Economics [CTH]
This course lasts two intensive weeks from 6 to 22 April 2011. The classes meet in
the evening, divided into three sessions on each occasion: 18.30–19.15; 19.25–20.10;
20.20–21.05. The final meetings will be Workshops meeting in a computing
laboratory.
The course is intended to offer a thorough introduction to the basic methods of social
research that may be used in business. Almost all these techniques may be used in all
social research – indeed, some such as the experiment could be used in any empirical
research – but the course concentrates on research for business purposes.
Because teaching of the course is concentrated into a short period, topics are
introduced briefly in the lectures, but the workshops provide the opportunity for
practical experience in some of the techniques that are discussed. We are conscious
that students will not be working in their native language and have tried to ensure that
the syllabus and the manner of introducing the material acknowledge that fact. We
also recognise that the course contains a large amount of material to be absorbed in
two weeks and we have sought to devise the syllabus also to accommodate that fact.
There will be extensive handouts (in English) to accompany most topics.
Two computer packages are used to introduce students to practical data analyses.
These are SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences), originally an American
computing package that has been available in various versions from the late 1960s,
that will be used for quantitative-data analysis; and NVivo, originally an Australian
computing package that is widely used for the analysis of qualitative data (such as text
from unstructured interviews or for interview data organisation).
The textbook for the course
Only one textbook will be used for the teaching of the course; this is:
Alan Bryman and Emma Bell, Business Research Methods (2nd ed.; Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2007). All the principal assigned readings for particular aspects of
the course will be from this book. However, some topics are well illuminated by
examples of research articles that have been recently published in the Journal of
Management Studies, although this journal has been chosen for convenience and
many other examples could have been chosen.
However, there are a large number of books that are also very widely used in many
universities for the teaching of research methods, some of which have in various
editions have been around for decades and have become classics. For example, if you
have access to any of the following, you may also find them useful on particular
topics.
Mats Alvesson and Kaj Sköldberg, Reflexive Methodology: New Vistas for
Qualitative Research (London: Sage, 2000) – this book considers the need to put field
research and interpretation into perspective and to confront favoured lines of
interpretation
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Alan Bryman, Social Research Methods (3rd ed.; Oxford: Oxford University Press,
2008) – this is Alan Bryman’s generalist book on social research methods for social
research students and covers in a similar manner many of the topics in the textbook
that has been assigned. For an account of the author’s integration of qualitative and
qualitative data, see Alan Bryman, ‘Integrating quantitative and qualitative research:
how is it done?’, Qualitative Research, vol.6 (2006), 97-113.
Alan Bryman and Robert G Burgess (eds.), Analysing Qualitative Data (London:
Routledge, 1994) – this remains a classic compilation of chapters on ways of
analysing different types qualitative data
Robert B Burns and Richard A Burns, Business Research Methods and Statistics
Using SPSS (London: Sage, 2008) – you may also find this useful as an additional
methods book
John W Creswell, Designing and Conducting Mixed Methods Research (London:
Sage, 2008) – an up-to-date consideration of how to combine quantitative and
qualitative research methods
Robert M Groves et al., Survey Methodology (2nd ed.; Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley &
Sons, 2009) – a hugely useful guide to its subject
Melissa A Hardy and Alan Bryman (eds.), Handbook of Data Analysis (London: Sage
Publications, 2004) – this book has chapters giving summary introductions to many
different types of data analysis and is particularly useful if you seek a summary
introduction to a type of data analysis that you may have encountered in your reading.
Rick H Hoyle, Monica J. Harris, and Charles M Judd, Research Methods in Social
Relations (7th ed.; Fort Worth, TX; Wadsworth/Thomson Learning, 2002) – this is the
most recent edition of a classic text on social-research methods that appeared first in
1959
Sharlene Nagy Hesse-Biber and Patricia Levy (eds.), Handbook of Emergent Methods
(New York: The Guildford Press, 2008) – this book sets out grounded theory and
ethnography
Robert K Yin, Case Study Research: Design and Methods (Thousand Oaks, CA:
Sage, 1994) – this is the classic exposition of the case study method of research
There are numerous publications that give ‘hands-on’ advice for using SPSS and
interpreting the data output. However, students may find the following one
especially useful:
Julie Pallant, SPSS Survival Manual: A Step by Step Guide to Data Analysis Using
SPSS for Windows (3rd ed.; Maidenhead: Open University Press, 2007)
Students will find it useful to refresh in advance (if they need to do so) their
knowledge of basic statistics. There are many books that might be used for this. Just
two useful ones are:
James T McClave and Terry Sincich, Statistics (11th ed.; Upper Saddle River, NJ;
Pearson Prentice Hall, 2009)
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Richard C Sprinthall, Basic Statistical Analysis (8th ed.; London: Allyn and Bacon,
2007)
Schedule of the course
Many commentators criticise the rigid distinction between quantitative and qualitative
techniques but it remains the most useful one for organising the material for a course
such as this, and we broadly follow the practice. Indeed, the textbook makes this
distinction, before introducing the concept of ‘mixed methods’. Thus, within this
course are two separate strands, one concentrating on quantitative techniques [CTH]
and the other on certain qualitative techniques particularly useful for business
research [PF]. However, the session on case study research attempts to bridge the
divide.
Each day’s session has been given an ID number (either just a number or a number
plus ‘a’ or ‘b’) so that the assigned readings for the various sessions can be designated
in the listing after the Schedule.
Date
Wednesday 6
April 2011
Topic
1a: Introduction: business research strategies; research designs
[CTH];
1b: Nature and types of qualitative research [PF]
Thursday 7 April
2011
2a. Approaches to causality; use of correlation; threats to
inference; literature reviews; the ethics of research [CTH];
2b. Ethnography and participant observation [PF]
Friday 8 April
2011
3a. Features of quantitative research; operationalization;
measurement, reliability and validity [CTH];
3b. Types of interviewing in qualitative research [PF]
Saturday
9/Sunday 10
April 2011
Students to use these days each to devise their own short
quantitative questionnaire, with facesheet variables and variables
on a topic of interest to them
Monday 11 April
2011
4. Sampling theory [I]; types of sampling; probability and nonprobability sampling [CTH]
Tuesday 12 April 5. Sampling theory [II]; simple random sampling and elementary
2011
sampling theory; stratified and cluster sampling [CTH]
Wednesday 13
April 2011
6. Workshop on interviewing in qualitative research and use of
focus groups [PF/CTH and others]
Thursday 14
April 2011
7. Structured interviewing; use of questionnaires; self-completion
questionnaires; the art of asking questions; coding procedures for
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quantitative data [CTH]
Friday 15 April
2011
8. Analysing qualitative data [PF]; Workshop on practical
qualitative data analysis using NVivo [PF and others]
Saturday
16/Sunday 17
April 2011
Monday 18 April
2011
Students to construct a codebook for their own personal
questionnaire devised the previous weekend
9. Telephone surveys; internet surveys; sundry other methods and
technologies of data capture [CTH]
Tuesday 19 April 10. Combining qualitative and quantitative research: triangulation
2011
and case studies [PF]
Wednesday 20
April 2011
[Meeting in
computing
laboratory]
Thursday 21
April 2011
11a. Data reduction and simplification; univariate attitude scales;
types of attitude scale; use of factor analysis for data reduction
[CTH];
11b. Analysing quantitative data; criteria to test models of
causality; inferences from crosstabulations, from regression
analysis and from ANOVA [analysis of variance]; introduction to
measures of association [CTH]
12. Workshop on practical quantitative data analysis using SPSS –
I; data-entry, coding, univariate statistics, data reduction with
SPSS [CTH]
[Meeting in
computing
laboratory]
Friday 22 April
2011
13. Workshop on practical quantitative data analysis using SPSS –
II; bivariate and multivariate statistics in SPSS [CTH];
[Meeting in
computing
laboratory]
Distribution of the assessment – discussion of what is expected
and how to go about it1
Readings from the textbook and other relevant references
1a. Bryman and Bell, Business Research Methods, pp. 4-73
1b. Bryman and Bell, Business Research Methods, pp. 402-438
2a. Bryman and Bell, Business Research Methods, pp. 75-150
2b. Bryman and Bell, Business Research Methods, pp. 440-470
1
The method of assessment will be a short project essay of about 1,000 words (in English!) describing
EITHER what methods you will use to carry out your own Master’s/Doctoral research project OR
what methods you would use to carry out a research project on one topic chosen from a list that will be
given to you. Fuller instructions on what we expect will be distributed in this session.
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3a. Bryman and Bell, Business Research Methods, pp. 154-178
3b. Bryman and Bell, Business Research Methods, pp. 472-508
4/5. Bryman and Bell, Business Research Methods, pp. 180-207
6. Bryman and Bell, Business Research Methods, pp. 530-577
7. Bryman and Bell, Business Research Methods, pp. 209-279
8. Bryman and Bell, Business Research Methods, pp. 579-621
9. Bryman and Bell, Business Research Methods, pp. 213-216, 661-689
10. Bryman and Bell, Business Research Methods, pp. 603-621
11a and 11b. The topics in these slots have been covered in various of the above
readings from Bryman and Bell, Business Research Methods.
The following articles contain examples of the techniques discussed in the course,
including factor analysis, one-way analysis of variance [ANOVA], and regression
analysis.
Marc H Anderson and Mary L Nichols, ‘Information gathering and changes in threat
and opportunity perceptions,’ Journal of Management Studies, 44:3 (May 2007), 367387
Said Elbanna and John Child, ‘The influence of decision, environmental and firm
characteristics on the rationality of strategic decision-making,’ Journal of
Management Studies, 44:4 (June 2007), 561-591
James M Pappas and Bill Wooldridge, ‘Middle managers’ divergent strategic activity:
an investigation of multiple measures of network centrality,’ Journal of Management
Studies, 44:3 (May 2007), 323-341