Research methods to use for research students who are socially excluded: a note

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.