1070025

Professor Michel Avital
Associate Professor Daniel Souleles
Associate Professor  Thomas Frandsen
Associate Professor  Jawwad Raja
Professor Torkil Clemmensen

Pre-course Assignment 

In preparation for the seminar, please provide one page that describes your academic background and research interests. Please describe your guiding research questions, data sources, and research methodologies to the best of your ability, and add contact information and web address if available.  
Please upload your profile page in the designated Assignment section in Canvas no later than two weeks prior to the first class (24 February 2020).

The Qualitative Research Methods course is designed for doctoral students who are interested in pursuing qualitative research projects in the social sciences. A primary objective of the course is helping participants to acquire the necessary skills that will enable them to design, execute, report and critically review qualitative research in social sciences with an emphasis on business and management-related fields. Participants will gain foundational knowledge of qualitative research methods and discuss the considerations that go into the design of empirical studies employing such methods.

Conversation Starters

Each student should prepare and distribute prior to each session a one-page “conversation starter” that synthesizes the assigned readings and integrates personal insights thereof. The conversation starters are also an opportunity for students to position themselves in relation to the assigned readings and to raise issues and questions that can spark a debate related to the readings.

The conversation starters should be posted in the designated Assignment section in Canvas as prior to the session as indicated in the schedule. The conversation starters are mandatory assignments.

Coding Exercise

The coding exercise involves the analysis of primary and secondary data with NVivo (or qualitative analysis software of your choice). Further information about the coding exercise will provided in the class on 18 March 2020.  

Learning Objectives

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

• Discuss the theories and methods that were presented in class and covered by the readings
• Design theoretically valid and methodologically rigorous qualitative studies
• Develop protocols for qualitative data collection
• Identify and assess data sources and data collection methods for qualitative studies
• Demonstrate an understanding of qualitative data analysis techniques
• Interpret analytical results from qualitative studies
• Assess the quality of qualitative studies
• Articulate in writing a formal description of qualitative research design and analysis

Written Exam

The exam will take the form of an individual take-home 5 pages written exam that is designed to foster the application of the qualitative research methods covered in the course.

The paper should emulate the research design section of a doctorate thesis. Accordingly, the paper should outline the design of a qualitative empirical study for investigating one's domain of interest or any other contemporary or emerging topic in the social sciences. The paper should incorporate the following elements:

• Selected topic to be investigated via qualitative research models (in brief)
• The significance of the selected topic (in brief)
• Prior research on the selected topic (in brief)
• Research question(s) to be answered based on the selected topic
• Theoretical lens to guide data collection and analysis (in details)
• Qualitative research strategy being adopted to answer the research question(s) (in details)       
  • Protocols for data collection
  • Possible data source(s)
  • Proposed data analytical technique(s) to be utilized
    
    
• Potential contributions to theory and practice (in brief)

All work must be original material that is produced individually. The paper is due two weeks following the last session of the course. Re-take exam, if necessary, will be administered about a month later.

Required Text

Mandatory Readings:

See the reading list in the course plan. Please plan ahead and obtain the reading materials, especially the books, ahead of time. See further information in Canvas. Additional articles and resources may be provided on a need-to basis.

Required Books:

George Lakoff and Mark Johnsen (2003) Metaphors we live by. London: The University of Chicago Press.

Yin, R. K. (2017). Case study research and applications: Design and methods. Sage publications.

Self-select a good general reference book. We recommend one of the following:

Patton, M. Q. (2015). Qualitative research and evaluation methods. Sage.

Symon, G., & Cassell, C. (Eds.). (2012). Qualitative organizational research: core methods and current challenges. Sage.

Crotty, M. (1998). The foundations of social research: Meaning and perspective in the research process.

Required Background

If you have no background in philosophy of science, please read at least one of the following:

Kuhn, T (1970). The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

Hollis, M. (1994) The Philosophy of Social Science. Cambridge University Press

Latour, B. (1987). Science in action: How to follow scientists and engineers through society. Harvard university press.

Copenhagen Business School

Location:

Week 11

Monday 9 March 2020
Kilevej 14A, room 143 (1 floor)

Tuesday 10 March 2020
Howitzvej 60, Room: 5.23

Wednesday 11 March 2020
Howitzvej 60, Room: 5.23


Week 12

Tuesday 17 March 2020
Howitzvej 60, Room 2.00

Wednesday 18 March 2020
Howitzvej 60, Room: 5.23

Thursday 19 March 2020
TBA

Time:
All daily sessions are 9:00 – 12:00 and 13:00 – 16:00 unless noted otherwise.

There will be refreshments in the morning and in the afternoon (coffee, tea, water). Please note that the lunch is not included and you will have to provide it yourself.