Data analysis methods for quantitative research: e-learning resources:
1. Descriptive and inferential statistics
2. Statistical tests for data analysis in research (also study "choosing a statistical test").
3. Multidimensional data analysis [MDA] with Excel pivot table. (articles) [MDA is mainly descriptive in nature]
Reference
A note on housing issues and housing research questions, with video example on sub-divided flats (HK)
Study the video on sub-divided flats (HK) to justify the choice of housing issue and housing questions to study:
The video link.
The housing issue and associated research questions are:
{based on the research philosophy lens of interpretivism}
Suggested research methods to use {should be mainly grounded on interpretivism}
e-resource on data analysis methods for qualitative research
1. qualitative content analysis
2. Thematic analysis (also study thematic analysis with Excel and the six steps on thematic analysis).
3. Qualitative coding (also study the video on codes, categories and themes; also study the deductive and inductive approaches on coding).
4. Narrative analysis (another briefing).
7. Analysing your interviews/ also on a how-to briefing.
9. Analyzing ethnographic data.
Reference
In my lecture, when I said that different research philosophies favor different research methods, very often, students asked me for specific examples. The specific examples are provided in the following two online articles:
1. A reading about interpretivism and its favored research methods.
2. A reading with examples of research methods related to positivism and interpretivism.
A basic summary on research methods ideas for MBA and housing studies students
1. research methodology = (i.e. covers) research philosophy + research methods
2. Research method = (i.e. covers) data gathering method + data analysis method
3. Interview research design can be grounded on positivism (e.g. structured interview) or interpretivism (e.g. unstructured interview)
4. Data gathering method can be primary (first-hand) or secondary (second-hand).
Additional reference
A master note of e-resource on research methods (videos).
The focused (basically highly simplified) way on research conceptualization for busy research students: a note of the method as proposed by me:
{note that research conceptualization done in this way may be considered by some dissertation supervisors to be too simple; it is then up to the dissertation project student to enhance the dissertation proposal so as to be considered appropriate by both the dissertation supervisor and the research student, e.g. MBA students doing final year dissertation projects.}
A focused way on research conceptualization is done with the following title template:
An investigation on the causes, impacts and useful solutions on _(the core topic)__ of __(the organizational unit of analysis)___: a case study research
An example of a project title, making use of the title template, could be:
An investigation on the causes, impacts and useful solutions on _high staff turnover__ of __the sales team of ABC Insurance Company___: a case study research
In this case, the research objectives, as derived from the project title, are:
Research objective 1: to evaluate the causes on high staff turnover of the sales team of ABC Insurance Company
Research objective 2: to evaluate the impacts on high staff turnover of the sales team of ABC Insurance Company
Research objective 3: to formulate useful solutions to address high staff turnover of the sales team of ABC Insurance Company
In addition, the focused way method ,as I propose, offers two diagram tools to further develop the research proposal work; they are as follows:
Diagram tool 1: The literature review tree on the focused dissertation project title statement:
Diagram tool 2: The research methods tree on the focused dissertation project title statement:
Research methods to use for research students who are socially excluded: a note:
In one of my research methods lectures, I said that it is expected that students doing dissertation projects preferably should employ two primary research methods in their dissertation projects. At that point, a student raised her objection; she said that she could not do so because she has no friends, not on friendly terms with her company colleagues and university classmates, and she did not communicate with her family members.
This is a quite interesting and rare case to me; essentially, the student is severely socially isolated. My suggestions to socially isolated students are as follows:
1. Formulate a research project that makes more sophisticated employment of observational research (notably covert observation). The precondition is for the student to spend more learning effort on observational research.
2. The student could also explore the possibility to conduct research interview on "strangers"; some of the students' classmates may still be willing to participate in the student's research interview.
For my MBA students, a research topic theme that is feasible to be studied this way is "to evaluate the quality of servicescape of XXX and YYY shopping malls from the shoppers' perspective". This is just one example for illustration purpose.
In terms of the agile literature review approach (ALRA), the core-focus-domain avoids management-concerns items in zone 2 (organizational capabilities) and zone 3b (solutions related).
The condition of social exclusion does not directly affect research students' ability to take up secondary research.
In short, it is still possible for socially excluded students to participate in dissertation project works; for them, the dissertation project can be done.
The agile literature review approach (ALRA) way on research conceptualization: a note
The first time a research student takes up a research project to do, he/she has little idea of how to come up with a preliminary project proposal topic. Very often, it is not clear how to identify and firm up on the research project title, research objectives, and research questions, etc..
The university requires research students to fill in an research project application form in around 300 words and then a project proposal in 1,500 words. It sounds like a small task to draft something in 300 words, but it is fundamentally not clear what the dissertation project topic should be? And initial attempts to do so very often receive the project supervisor's feedback on the proposal as "too complicated", "too messy", "inappropriate" and/ or "without adequate justification of the proposal ideas", etc.
The conventional advice mainly comes from the topic of research conceptualization. Those advice could only be understood with certain intellectual competence gained via certain level of learning effort on the underlying subject of research methods and subject areas (e.g. various business management subjects for the MBA students). Otherwise, those advice remains quite abstract and vague to research project students. Additional help is available from the research practice guidelines from the agile literature review approach (ALRA). As such, the ALRA can be considered as a recent knowledge domain on research conceptualization. It is not clear when the ALRA is more widely recognized in the academic community as a valuable sub-knowledge domain in research conceptualization study.
On the academic literature review tree on theoretical framework-A (ALRT) in the ALRA (academic-oriented project)
In order to provide a concrete visual output of the literature review in the agile literature review approach ((academic-oriented project), I now propose the diagram called the academic literature review tree on theoretical framework-A (ALRT). As a revision, an example of theoretical framework-A is presented as follows:
The the academic literature review tree on theoretical framework-A adds a few tree branches with hanging academic ideas. The academic ideas are identified via the literature review of the researcher; these ideas are attached to the tree branches of research gap items of theoretical framework-A. As such, specific clusters of academic ideas are explicitly indicated as relevant for investigation on particular research gaps of the framework. This is portrayed in the following diagram of the academic literature review tree on theoretical framework-A (ALRT):
Regarding the ALRT diagram, there are two main research gaps (i.e. research gaps 1 and 2) and 1 minor research gap (i.e. research gap 3). Each research gap has its own tree branch and attached academic ideas. Specifically, the tree branch on research gap 1 is called tree branch 1; the three branch on research gap 2 is tree branch 2; lastly,tree branch 3 is attached on research gap 3. The diagram of the ALRT is inserted in Chapter 2 (literature review) of the dissertation report, so that research-gap focused literature review discussion can be discussed as related to each of the research gaps one by one in the chapter.
