1. QUAntitative RESEARCH methods
BUS-141- Dr Tamas Lestar

2. Bryman, Allan and Bell, Emma (2015). Business Research Methods, 4th Ed
Bryman, Allan and Bell, Emma (2015). Business Research Methods, 4th Ed., Oxford University

3. Quantitative data collection methods are based in mathematical calculations in various formats. Methods of quantitative data collection and analysis include questionnaires with closed-ended questions, methods of correlation and regression, mean, mode and median and others.
Quantitative methods are cheaper to apply and they can be applied within shorter duration of time compared to qualitative methods. Moreover, due to a high level of standardisation of quantitative methods, it is easy to make comparisons of findings.

4. Qualitative studies aim to ensure greater level of depth of understanding and qualitative data collection methods include interviews, questionnaires with open-ended questions, focus groups, observation, game or role-playing, case studies etc.
Your choice between quantitative or qualitative methods of data collection depends on the area of your research and the nature of research aims and objectives.

5. Thus, quantitative research can be construed as a
research strategy that emphasizes quantification in the
collection and analysis of data and that:
• entails a deductive approach to the relationship
between theory and research, in which the accent is
placed on the testing of theories;
• has incorporated the practices and norms of the natural scientific model and of positivism in particular; and
• embodies a view of social reality as an external, objective reality

6. By contrast, qualitative research can be construed as a
research strategy that usually emphasizes words rather
than quantification in the collection and analysis of data
and that:
• predominantly emphasizes an inductive approach to
the relationship between theory and research, in which
the emphasis is placed on the generation of theories;
• has rejected the practices and norms of the natural
scientific model and of positivism in particular in
preference for an emphasis on the ways in which
individuals interpret their social world; and
• embodies a view of social reality as a constantly shifting
emergent property of individuals’ creation.

7. Mixed methods
!!! It is also possible to conduct studies that use both quantitative and qualitative approaches

8. Quantitative research
Quantitative research is usually conducted as part of the following research designs (see slides to come).

9. Research Design: Cross-Sectional
Typical form. Social survey research or structured observation on a sample at a single point in time.

10. Research Design: Longitudinal
Typical form. Social survey research on a sample on more than one occasion; or may involve content analysis of documents relating to different time periods.

11. Research Design: Case Study
Typical form. Social survey research on a single case with a view to revealing important features about its nature.

12. Research Design: Comparative
Typical form. Social survey research in which there is a direct comparison between two or more cases, including cross-cultural research.

13. Research Design: EXPERIMENTAL
Typical form. Most researchers using an experimental design employ quantitative comparisons between experimental and control groups with regard to the dependent variable.
An experimental group is a group of test subjects who were selected to participate in an experiment and were chosen (either randomly or deliberately) to receive the experimental condition. The experimental group are the active participants who are being observed, using a test medication, or taking part in whatever the experiment is measuring. (The control group takes no part in the experiment!)

14. Four main Preoccupations
Measurement
Causality
Generalisation
Replication

15. FOUR main Preoccupations
Measurement (a)
In everyday usage, measurement occurs when an established index verifies the height, weight, or other feature of a physical object. How well you like a song, a painting, or the personality of a friend is also a measurement. To measure is to discover the extent, dimensions, quantity, or capacity of something, especially by comparison with a standard. We measure casually in daily life, but in research the requirements are rigorous.
Measurement in research consists of assigning numbers to empirical events, objects or properties, or activities in compliance with a set of rules. This definition implies that measurement is a three-part process:
1. Selecting observable empirical events.
2. Developing a set of mapping rules: a scheme for assigning numbers or symbols to represent aspects of the event being measured.
3. Applying the mapping rule(s) to each observation of that event.

16. FOUR main Preoccupations
Measurement (b)
Variables being studied in research may be classified as objects or as properties. Objects include the concepts of ordinary experience, such as tangible items like furniture, laundry detergent, people, or automobiles.
Objects also include things that are not as concrete, such as genes, attitudes, and peer-group pressures. Properties are the characteristics of the object. A person’s physical properties may be stated in terms of weight, height, and posture, among others. Psychological properties include attitudes and intelligence. Social properties include leadership ability, class affiliation, and status. These and many other properties of an individual can be measured in a research study.

17. FOUR main Preoccupations
2. Causality
There is a very strong concern in most quantitative research with explanation. Quantitative researchers are rarely concerned merely to describe how things are, but
are keen to say why things are the way they are. This emphasis is also often taken to be a feature of the ways in which the natural sciences proceed. Thus, researchers are
often not only interested in a phenomenon like motivation to work as something to be described, for example, in terms of how motivated a certain group of employees
are, or what proportion of employees in a sample are highly motivated and what proportion are largely lacking in motivation. Rather, they are likely to want to explain
it, which means examining its causes.

18. FOUR main Preoccupations
Generalization
In quantitative research the researcher is usually concerned to be able to say that his or her findings can be generalized beyond the confines of the particular context in which the research was conducted. Thus, if a study of
motivation to work is carried out by a questionnaire with a number of people who answer the questions, we often want to say that the results can apply to individuals other than those who responded in the study. This concern reveals itself in survey research in the attention that is often
given to the question of how one can create a representative sample.

19. Four main Preoccupations
Replication
The natural sciences are often depicted as wishing to reduce to a bare minimum the contaminating influence of the scientist’s biases and values. The results of a piece of research should be unaffected by the researcher’s
special characteristics or expectations. Consequently, scientists often attempt to be highly explicit about their procedures so that an experiment is capable of replication. Likewise, quantitative researchers in the social sciences often regard replication, or more precisely the ability to replicate, as an important ingredient of their activity. It is easy to see why: the possibility of a lack of objectivity and of the intrusion of the researcher’s values would appear to be much greater when examining the social world than when the natural scientist investigates the natural order. Consequently, it is often regarded as important that the researcher spells out clearly his or her procedures so that they can be replicated by others, even if the research does not end up being replicated.

20. three main METHODS Social Survey Structured interviewing Questionnaire
2. Structured Observation
3. Content Analysis

22. Sampling: the chief concern
What is sampling?
Sampling is selecting the participants (subjects) for research.

23. SAMPLING in Social Survey research
The need to sample is one that is almost invariably encountered in quantitative research.
In social survey research, sampling constitutes a key step in the research process.

24. SAMPLING in Social Survey research
Basic terms and concepts in sampling
• Population: basically, the universe of units from which the sample is to be selected. The term ‘units’ is employed because it is not necessarily people who are being sampled—the researcher may want to sample
from a universe of nations, cities, regions, firms, etc. Thus, ‘population’ has a much broader meaning than the everyday use of the term, whereby it tends to be associated with a nation’s entire population.
• Sample: the segment of the population that is selected for investigation. It is a subset of the population.
The method of selection may be based on a probability or a non-probability approach (see below).

25. SAMPLING in Social Survey research
Basic terms and concepts in sampling
• Sampling frame: the listing of all units in the population from which the sample will be selected.
• Representative sample: a sample that reflects the population accurately so that it is a microcosm of the population.
• Sampling bias: a distortion in the representativeness of the sample that arises when some members of the population (or more precisely the sampling frame) stand little or no chance of being selected for inclusion in
the sample.

26. SAMPLING in Social Survey research
Basic terms and concepts in sampling
• Probability sample: a sample that has been selected using random selection so that each unit in the population has a known chance of being selected. It is generally assumed that a representative sample is more likely to be the outcome when this method of selection from the population is employed. The aim of probability sampling is to keep sampling error (see below) to a minimum.
• Non-probability sample: a sample that has not been selected using a random selection method. Essentially, this implies that some units in the population are more likely to be selected than others.

27. SAMPLING in Social Survey research
Basic terms and concepts in sampling
• Sampling error: the difference between a sample and the population from which it is selected, even though a probability sample has been selected.
• Non-sampling error: differences between the population and the sample that arise either from deficiencies in the sampling approach, such as an inadequate sampling frame or non-response (see below), or from such
problems as poor question wording, poor interviewing, or flawed processing of data.
• Non-response: a source of non-sampling error that is particularly likely to happen when individuals are being sampled. It occurs whenever some members of the sample refuse to cooperate, cannot be contacted, or for
some reason cannot supply the required data (for example, because of mental incapacity).

28. SAMPLING in Social Survey research
Basic terms and concepts in sampling
• Census: the enumeration of an entire population. Thus, if data are collected in relation to all units in a population, rather than in relation to a sample of units of that population, the data are treated as census data.
The phrase ‘the census’ typically refers to the complete enumeration of all members of the population of a nation state—that is, a national census. This form of enumeration occurs once every ten years in the UK. However,
in a statistical context, like the term population, the idea of a census has a broader meaning than this.

29. 1. How did you select your sample in your business research?
2. Discuss if it could have been better.
3. Teams will now demonstrate their research and provide FEEDBACK to each other in class.
QUESTIONS TEAMWORK ?

30. 1. Structured interviewing
1 of the 3 quantitative methods studied in this module

31. Why structured?
The goal of the structured interview is for the interviewing of respondents to be standardized so that differences between interviews in any research project are minimized. As a result, there are many guidelines about how structured interviewing should be carried out so that variation in the conduct of interviews is small.

32. Definition
A structured interview, sometimes called a standardized interview, entails the administration of an interview schedule by an interviewer. The aim is for all interviewees to be given exactly the same context of questioning. This means that each respondent receives exactly the same interview stimulus as any other. The goal of this style of interviewing is to ensure that interviewees’ replies can be aggregated, and this can be achieved reliably only if those replies are in response to identical cues. Interviewers are supposed to read out questions exactly and in the same order as they are printed on the schedule. Questions are usually very specific and very often offer the interviewee a fixed range of answers (this type of question is often called closed, closed ended, pre- coded, or fixed choice). The structured interview is the typical form of interview in social survey research.

33. How is it conducted?
Face-to-Face
Self-completed Questionnaire

34. prerequisites of structured interviewing
establishing rapport with the interviewee;
asking questions as they appear on the interview schedule; recording exactly what is said by interviewees;
ensuring there are clear instructions on the interview schedule concerning question sequencing and the recording of answers; and keeping to the question order as it appears on the schedule;

35. problems with structured interviewing
the influence of the interviewer on respondents and the possibility of systematic bias in answers (known as response sets) keeping to the question order as it appears on the schedule;
Common sources of error in survey research
There are many sources of error in survey research, in addition to those associated with sampling. This is a list of the principal sources of error:
1. a poorly worded question;
2. the way the question is asked by the interviewer;
3. misunderstanding on the part of the interviewee;
4. memory problems on the part of the interviewee;
5. the way the information is recorded by the interviewer;
6. the way the information is processed, either when answers are coded or when data are entered into the
computer.

36. Major types of interviews (not ALL quantitative!!!)
• Structured interview • Standardized interview • Semi-structured interview. This is a term that covers a wide range of instances. It typically refers to a context in which the interviewer has a series of questions that are in the general form of an interview schedule but is able to vary the sequence of questions. The questions are frequently somewhat more general in their frame of reference than that typically found in a structured interview schedule. Also, the interviewer usually has some latitude to ask further questions in response to what are seen as significant replies. • Unstructured interview. The interviewer typically has only a list of topics or issues, often called an interview guide or aide-mémoire, that are covered. The style of questioning is usually informal. The phrasing and sequencing of questions will vary from interview to interview.
• Intensive interview • Qualitative interview • In-depth interview • Focused interview • Focus group. This is the same as the focused interview, but interviewees discuss the specific issue in groups. • Group interview. • Oral history interview • Life history interview

37. Introducing the research
Prospective respondents have to be provided with a credible rationale for the research in which they are being asked to participate and for giving up their valuable time. This aspect of conducting interview research is of particular significance at a time when response rates to social survey research appear to be declining

38. Important factors
Interviewers should be prepared to keep calling back if interviewees are out or unavailable.
• Be self-assured; you may get a better response if you presume that people will agree to be interviewed rather than that they will refuse.
• Reassure people that you are not a salesperson.
• Dress in a way that will be acceptable to a wide spectrum of people.
• Make it clear that you will be happy to find a time to suit the respondent.
It is frequently suggested that it is important for the interviewer to achieve rapport with the respondent.
Recording answers
Interviewers should write down respondents’ replies as exactly as possible. Not to do so can result in interviewers distorting respondents’ answers and hence introducing error.

39. 1.b. Self–completion questionnaires
Similar to what is used in structured interviews.
May arrive through post, , internet, or personally.
No interviewer, and as such it has to be very easy to follow.
As such, they have fewer open questions. They are short! Easy to follow!
ADVANTAGES:
They are cheaper. Quicker to administer.
The interviewer absence may be helpful as there is no unwanted influence.
May be more convenient to respondents.

40. Self–completion questionnaires
DISADVANTAGES:
Cannot prompt.
Difficulty to ask other types of (or more) questions.
Respondents may read (postal or ) questionnaire as a whole (but not internet-based)
Others may answer instead addressee
Not appropriate to all
Risk of missing data if respondents decide not to answer all questions
Lower response rates

41. Designing your questionnaires
Do not cramp the presentation to make it look shorter. Instead, make it attractive.
Be clear, easy on the eye
Often vertical format is better than horizontal if possible (see below)
For example:
What do you think of the CEO’s performance in
his job since he took over the running of this
company? (Please tick the appropriate response)
Very ____ Good ____ Fair ____ Poor ____ Very ____
good poor

42. Formating a Likert scale
In the next set of questions, you are presented with a statement. You are being asked to indicate your level of agreement or disagreement with each statement by indicating whether you: Strongly Agree (SA), Agree (A), are Undecided (U), Disagree (D), or Strongly Disagree (SD).
Please indicate your level of agreement by circling the appropriate response.
23. My job is like a hobby to me.
SA A U D SD
24. My job is usually interesting enough to keep me from getting bored.
SA A U D SD
25. It seems that my friends are more interested in their jobs.
SA A U D SD
Easy to code. Convenient. BUT!!! The coding of Q25 has to be reversed!!!

43. Open or closed questions?
Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of both in class!!!

44. Examples of response format
Binary response format
My job is usually interesting enough to keep me from getting bored
Agree ____ Disagree ____
(This format is sometimes elaborated to include a ‘don’t know’ response.)
Numerical response format
(where 5 means Strongly agree and 1 means Strongly disagree)
Verbal format
Strongly agree ____ Agree ____ Undecided ____ Disagree ____ Strongly disagree ____
Bipolar numerical response format
I love my job I hate my job
Frequency format
All of the time ____ Often ____ Fairly often ____ Occasionally ____ None of the time ____

45. General rules for designing questions
Always bear in mind your research questions
What do you want to know?
How would you answer it? (for example: Have you driven the car this week?)
Avoid ambiguous terms in questions
Avoid long questions
Avoid very general questions
Avoid double-barrelled questions (for example: How satisfied are you with pay and conditions in
your job?)
Avoid leading questions
Avoid questions that include negatives
For more information (Bryman, , )

46. General rules for designing questions Example
How often do you usually visit the cinema?
Very often ____
Quite often ____
Not very often ____
Not at all ____
This suffers from the problem that, with the exception of ‘not at all’, the terms in the response categories are ambiguous.
Instead, try to ask about actual frequency, such as:
How frequently do you usually visit the cinema?
(Please tick whichever category comes closest to the
number of times you visit the cinema.)
More than once a week ____
Once a week ____
Two or three times a month ____
Once a month ____
A few times a year ____
Once a year ____
Less than once a year ____

47. Piloting and pre-testing questions
It is always desirable, if at all possible, to conduct a pilot study before administering a self-completion questionnaire or structured interview schedule to your sample. In fact, the desirability of piloting such instruments is not solely to do with trying to ensure that survey questions operate well.

48. Piloting and pre-testing questions
If the main study is going to employ mainly closed questions, open questions can be asked in the pilot to generate the fixed-choice answers.
Piloting an interview schedule can provide interviewers with some experience of using it and can infuse them with a greater sense of confidence.
If everyone (or virtually everyone) who answers a question replies in the same way, the resulting data are unlikely to be of interest because they do not form a variable. A pilot study allows such a question to be identified.
In interview surveys, it may be possible to identify questions that make respondents feel uncomfortable and to detect any tendency for respondents’ interest to be lost at certain junctures.
Questions that seem not to be understood (more likely to be realized in an interview than in a self-completion questionnaire context) or questions that are often not answered should become apparent.

49. Piloting and pre-testing questions
Pilot studies allow the researcher to determine the adequacy of instructions to interviewers, or to respondents completing a self-completion questionnaire.
It may be possible to consider how well the questions flow and whether it is necessary to move some of them around to improve this feature.
CHECKLIST to create your own questionnaire (Bryman, : 265)
You can use

50. 2. structured observation
Structured observation, often also called systematic observation, is a technique in which the researcher employs explicitly formulated rules for the observation and recording of behaviour. The rules inform observers about what they should look for and how they should record behaviour. Each person who is part of the research (we will call these people ‘participants’) is observed for a predetermined period of time using the same rules.
These rules are articulated in what is usually referred to as an observation schedule, which bears many similarities to a structured interview schedule with closed questions. The aim of the observation schedule is to ensure that each participant’s behaviour is systematically recorded so that it is possible to aggregate the behaviour of all those in the sample in respect of each type of behaviour being recorded.

51. 2. structured observation
The rules that constitute the observation schedule are as specific as possible in order to direct observers to exactly what aspects of behaviour they are supposed to be looking for. The resulting data resemble questionnaire data considerably, in that the procedure generates information on different aspects of behaviour that can be treated as variables. Moreover, structured observation research is typically underpinned by a cross-sectional research design.
Rarely used but may be useful if accompanied by other methods.
Example!!!

52. The observation schedule
Devising a schedule for the recording of observations is
clearly a crucial step in the structured observation project.
The considerations that go into this phase are very similar
to those involved in producing a structured interview
schedule. The following considerations are worth taking
into account.

53. The observation schedule
1. A clear focus is necessary. There are two aspects to this
point. First, it should be clear to the observer exactly
who or what (and possibly both) is to be observed.
For example, if people are the focus of attention, the
observer needs to know precisely who is to be observed.
Also, the observer needs to know which if any aspects
of the setting are to be observed and hence recorded.
The second sense in which a clear focus is necessary is
that the research problem needs to be clearly stated so
that the observer knows which of the many things
going on in any setting are to be recorded.
2. The recording system must be easy to operate.

54. the mystery shopper: Example for structured observation
This popular technique used in consumer research to evaluate the effectiveness of retail staff is the ‘mystery shopper’ technique. This typically involves sending people into a shop to buy products. After the interaction, the shoppers typically fill out a rating sheet detailing the nature of the interaction and service they received. This information is then fed back via
the consumer research organization to the firm concerned so that it can make any necessary improvements to front-line service. More recent developments have included supplying mystery shoppers with wireless hidden cameras that can be concealed in their cap, button, or cell phone in order to record the transactions and interaction between the customer and
the assistant.
The mystery shopper technique is a type of field stimulation, because it involves the researcher entering the shop (a natural setting) and intervening in order to see what happens. In addition, the retail staff are not aware that they are being studied.
However, because this involves observing people without their informed consent, the mystery shopper technique does raise ethical issues, particularly if the encounter is recorded in some way, as this has even greater potential to violate their privacy, also thereby potentially raising legal considerations.

55. 3. What is content analysis?
DEFINITION
An approach to the analysis of documents and texts that seeks to quantify content in terms of predetermined categories and in a systematic and replicable manner.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
As with most quantitative research, it is necessary to specify the research questions precisely, as these will guide both the selection of the media to be content analysed and the coding schedule. If the research questions
are not clearly articulated, there is a risk that inappropriate media will be analysed or that the coding schedule will miss out key dimensions.

56. What is content analysis?
EXAMPLE
Most content analysis is likely to entail several research questions. For example, the aim of Harris’s (2001) study was to investigate the
way the word ‘courage’ was used in the business community.
• What tools, if any, are said to have helped people show courage?
• Are obstacles identified in accounts of courage, and, if so, what are they?
• Are aspects of the accounts linked to specific professions
or sectors of activity?
• Is courage used to describe dispositions, actions, or a
virtue?

57. What is content analysis?
EXAMPLE
Another kind of issue that is frequently encountered in content analysis is:
How far does the amount of coverage of the issue change over time?
This kind of research question or problem is particularly asked by researchers who are keen to note trends in coverage to demonstrate ebbs and flows in interest.

58. Sampling
There are several phases in the selection of a sample for content analysis. It is a method that can be applied to many kinds of document.
FOR EXAMLPLE: mass media
Will it be newspapers or television or radio or magazines, or whatever? And, if
newspapers, will it be all newspapers or tabloids or broadsheets? And, if both tabloids and broadsheets, will it be all of them and will it include Sunday papers? If it will be a sample of newspapers, including Sunday ones,
will these be national or local or both? And will it include free newspapers? And if newspapers, will all news items be candidates for analysis—for example, would feature articles and letters to the editor be included? And if newspapers, will newspapers from more than one country be included?

59. RESEARCH EXAMPLE
A content analysis of courage and managerial decision making. The aim of Harris’s (2001) study was to investigate the way the word ‘courage’ was used in the business community and to compare this with a theoretical definition of the construct defined prior to data collection— based on a selective review of the literature. The content analysis procedure that followed relied on searching
through the 1996 editions of four daily newspapers—the Australian Financial Review, the Guardian (UK), the Los Angeles Times, and the South China Morning Post. These newspapers were selected because they all had
substantial coverage of business and commerce, they covered a wide geographical spread, and they could provide information about the way that courage was perceived in the business community.
Using a searchable database, Harris included items where the word ‘courage’, or derivatives such as ‘courageous’, appeared in the text.
…. continued

60. RESEARCH EXAMPLE
This gave him a total population of 610 items. Each of the items was coded by the researcher using a specially designed form that allowed for inclusion of information about the nature of the article, the characteristics of the individual who was described as courageous, and the features of the courage
that was being described. A coding ‘dictionary’ was devised that showed the coding rules, so that more than one coder could be involved in the classifi cation and thereby increase validity. Findings showed that the newspaper
stories about courage confirmed the theoretical definition of the construct that had been developed during the first stage of the study.

61. What is to be counted? Significant actors Subjects and themes
Dispositions
Images

62. Advantages of content analysis
Content analysis offers an important method for the cultural study of organizations because it enables researchers to analyse organizational values, traces of which can be observed in organizational documents. Moreover, by measuring the frequency with which values occur, researchers are able to discern their importance.
Content analysis is a very transparent research method. The coding scheme and the sampling procedures can be clearly set out so that replications and follow-up studies are feasible. It is this transparency that often causes content analysis to be referred to as an objective method of analysis.
It can allow a certain amount of longitudinal analysis with relative ease.
It is a highly flexible method.
Content analysis can allow information to be generated about social groups that are difficult to gain access to.

63. READING Reading and discussing examples in groups (Bryman 306-308)
For example one study was conducted to cover thirty-six years
(print or a copy of the article by Antal Miklos)