Doing Management Research: A Comprehensive Guide – by Thietart Raymond-Alain et al. (2001)

This book provides refreshing and powerful insights on the challenges of conducting management research from a European perspective. Particularly for someone embarking on a management research career this book will provide valuable guidelines.’ — Ian MacMillan, Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania. This comprehensive volume is distinguished by its balance and pragmatism. The authors who present the various research methods are not proponents but researchers who have applied these methods. The authors who discuss philosophical and strategic issues are not advocates but researchers who have had to confront these issues in their research’ – Bill Starbuck, New York University.

Doing Management Research is a fabulous contribution to our field. Thietart and his colleagues have put together a unique and valuable guide to help management scholars more deeply understand the issues, dynamics and contradictions of executing first class managerial research. This book will hold an important place on the researcher’s desk for years to come’ – Michael Tushman, Harvard Business School ‘This is an excellent in-depth examination of the conduct of management research. It will serve as a valuable resource for management scholars and researchers and is a must read for Ph.D. students in management.’ — Michael Hitt, Arizona State University.

This book will prove to be an excellent guide for those engaged in management research for the first time and an excellent refresher for more experienced scholars. Raymond Thietart and his colleagues should be thanked roundly for this comprehensive volume’ – Gordon Walker, Southern Methodist University, Cox Business School `This textbook makes an outstanding contribution to texts on management research. For researchers considering management research it offers an extensive guide to the research process’ – Paula Roberts, Nurse Researcher Doing Management Research, a major new textbook, provides answers to questions and problems which researchers invariably encounter when embarking on management research, be it quantitative or qualitative.

This book will carefully guide the reader through the research process from beginning to end. An excellent tool for academics and students, it enables the reader to acquire and build upon empirical evidence, and to decide what tools to use to understand and describe what is being observed, and then, which methods of analysis to adopt. There is an entire section dedicated to writing up and communicating the research findings. Written in an accessible and easy-to-use style, this book can be read from cover to cover or dipped into, to clarify particular issues during the research process. Doing Management Research results from the ‘hands-on’ experience of a large group of researchers who have all had to address the different issues raised when undertaking management research. It is anchored in real methodological problems that researchers face in their work. This work will also become one of the most useful reference tools for senior researchers who are looking for answers to epistemological or methodological problems.

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Table of contents

List of Authors ix
Introduction 1

PART I CONCEPTION 11

1 Epistemological Foundations 13
Section 1 What is Knowledge? 14
Section 2 Generating New Knowledge 19
Section 3 Validity Criteria 23
Section 4 A Plurality of Paradigms 27
Conclusion 29
2 Constructing the Research Problem 31
Section 1 What is a Research Problem? 33
Section 2 Constructing the Research Problem 41
Conclusion 49
3 Exploring and Testing 51
Section 1 Theoretical Background 52
Section 2 Exploration 59
Section 3 Testing 62
Conclusion 66
4 What Approach with Which Data? 68
Section 1 Choosing Data 69
Section 2 Choosing an Approach: Qualitative or Quantitative? 76
Conclusion 83
5 Researching Content and Researching Process 85
Section 1 Content-Based Research 87
Section 2 Process-Based Research 94
Section 3 Positioning Research 102
Conclusion 106

PART II IMPLEMENTATION 109

6 Research Design 111
Section 1 Epistemology and Research Design 112
Section 2 Planning the Research 117
Section 3 Evolution of a Design 124
Conclusion 130
7 Linking Concepts and Data 132
Section 1 The Translation Process 133
Section 2 Designing the Translation Process 140
Conclusion 145
8 Sampling 147
Section 1 Selecting Sample Elements 148
Section 2 Determining Sample Size 157
Section 3 The Sample Selection Process 166
Conclusion 170
9 Data Collection and Managing the Data Source 172
Section 1 Collecting Primary Data for Quantitative Research 173
Section 2 Collecting Primary Data for Qualitative Research 180
Section 3 Collecting Secondary Data 191
Section 4 Data-Source Confidentiality 193
Conclusion 195
10 Validity and Reliability 196
Section 1 Construct Validity 197
Section 2 Reliability and Validity of the Measuring Instrument 200
Section 3 Internal Validity 207
Section 4 Reliability 210
Section 5 External Validity 213
Conclusion 218

PART III ANALYSIS 221

11 Comparison Tests 223
Section 1 Statistical Tests 224
Section 2 Parametric Tests 233
Section 3 Practicing Non-Parametric Tests 254
Conclusion 265
12 Causal Analysis and Modeling 267
Section 1 Specifying the Phenomenon or System
to be Modeled 268
Section 2 Specifying Variables and Concepts 274
Section 3 Identifying Relationships Among
a Model’s Variables and Concepts 278
Section 4 Evaluating and Testing the Model 283
Conclusion 291
13 Classifying and Structuring 293
Section 1 Methods 293
Section 2 Application 299
Conclusion 309
14 Analyzing Social Networks 312
Section 1 General Presentation and Data Collection 312
Section 2 Analysis Methods 320
Conclusion 330
15 Longitudinal Analyses 332
Section 1 Fundamentals of Longitudinal Analyses 332
Section 2 Quantitative Longitudinal Analyses 339
Section 3 Qualitative Longitudinal Analysis 346
Conclusion 350
16 Analyzing Representations and Discourse 351
Section 1 Methods of Discourse and Representation Analysis 353
Section 2 Content Analysis 358
Section 3 Cognitive Mapping 361
Conclusion 370

PART IV PUBLICATION AND COMMUNICATION 373

17 Writing Up the Research 375
Section 1 Communication Media 376
Section 2 Research Articles 379
Section 3 The Writing Process 384
Conclusion 387
18 The Research Environment 389
Section 1 The Thesis Advisor 390
Section 2 Research Consortiums 392
Section 3 Academic Conferences 393
Section 4 The Researcher’s Relationship with the Non-Academic World 398

Bibliography 401
Index 415

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