806153


Course
Qualitative Research Methods Seminar

Faculty
Michel Avital, Department of IT Managment
Chee-Wee Tan, Department of IT Management
Dorte Lønsmann, Department of International Business Communication 
Anna Linda Musacchio Adorisio, Department of International Business Communication 
Torkil Clemmensen, Departmen of IT Management
Ravi Vatrapu, Department of IT Management

Course Coordinator
Michel Avital

Prerequisites

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 student forum in Learn no later than 10 days prior to the first class (3 October 2016).


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

Course content
The course is designed as a sequence of 3 two-day blocks to allow sufficient time for in-depth reading and reflection. Overall, the course provides 6 extensive seminars, each covering a key topic on qualitative research methods in social sciences. The meetings are in the form of participatory seminars that comprise class presentations, directed discussions and practical workshops. In addition to an appreciative and/or critical review of extant literature on qualitative research methods, the seminars seek to encourage constructive dialogue aimed at helping students to tackle research questions in a qualitative fashion, which builds on and extends contemporary knowledge.

Given the aforementioned learning objectives, the course is designed with a heavy reading load. Reading the materials beforehand and participating actively in class assignments and dialogues are essential for getting a firm grasp of the course content. For each seminar, students should read the assigned articles or books, and be prepared to answer questions and discuss any other issues pertaining to the assigned reading material. Furthermore, for select seminars, students will be expected to prepare a take-home assignment that will be discussed in the next class.

Conversation Starters

In preparation for the designated sessions (#2-6), 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 which can spark a debate related to the readings. The conversation starters should be posted in the course student forum in Learn by the end of weekend prior to the residency. The conversation starters are mandatory.

Coding Exercise

The coding exercise involves the analysis of primary and/or secondary data with NVivo (or qualitative analysis software of your choice). Further information about the coding exercise will be provided in the class on 4th November 2016.


 

Teaching style
Please see the Course content

Lecture plan

Block#

Time*

Description

Instructor

 

1

Week 42

Thu

13 Oct

2016

  1. Introduction to the course and to Qualitative research Methods

Michel Avital

  1. Secondary Data Collection (e.g., meeting minutes, news articles, press releases and social media)

Michel Avital
Chee-Wee Tan

Fri

14 Oct

  1. Ethnography, Netnography and Fieldwork

*Assignment: conversation starter

Dorte Lønsmann

 

2

Week 46

Thu

3 Nov

  1. Interpretive Research: Narrative Interviews and Narrative Methods

Anna Linda Musacchio Adorisio

Fri

4 Nov

  1. Discourse and Thematic Analysis – Part 1 : Coding, Recursive Abstraction

Torkil Clemmensen

3

Week 49

Thu

24 nov

  1. Interpretive Visual Analytics

Ravi Vatrapu

Fri

25 nov

  1. Discourse and Thematic Analysis – Part 2:   Abstraction and Communication of Findings

Torkil Clemmensen


* Light breakfast will be served at 8:30

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

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 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

Exam
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 social sciences. The paper should incorporate the following elements:

  • Selected topic to be investigated via qualitative research models (in brief)
  • 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 collectio
    • 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.



A Pass/Fail grade will be based on individual take-home 5 pages written exam. Passing grade on four individual one page conversation starters and a coding exercise assignment are a prerequisite for taking the exam.


Other
N/A

Start date
13/10/2016

End date
25/11/2016

Level
PhD

ECTS
6

Language
English

Course Literature
Mandatory Readings:See reading list in course plan. Please plan ahead and obtain the reading materials, especially the books, ahead of time. Check in Learn for further information. Additional articles and resources may be provided on a need-to basis.Books:Blommaert, Jan & Jie Dong. (2010). Ethnographic Fieldwork. A Beginner’s Guide. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.Dahler-Larsen, P. (2008). Displaying Qualitative Data. University Press of Southern Denmark.Musacchio Adorisio, A.L. (2009) Storytelling in Organizations. London: Palgrave.

Fee
DKK 7.800

Minimum number of participants
12

Maximum number of participants
18

Location

Copenhagen Business School
Howitzvej 60, room:TBA
2000 Frederiksberg

Contact information

For further enquiries about the course please send mail to Blazenka B. Kvistbo, bbk.research@cbs.dk

Registration deadline
22/09/2016


Please note that your registration is binding after the registration deadline.


Please note that late registration is possible.

For late registration please contact Blazenka B. Kvistbo, bbk.research@cbs.dk
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