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The Quantitative Research Methods course is designed for doctoral students who are interested in pursuing quantitative 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 quantitative research in social sciences with an emphasis on management as well as LIMAC related fields. Participants will gain foundational knowledge of quantitative research methods and the considerations that go into the design of empirical studies employing such methods.

The course is designed as a sequence of four-hour meetings, each covering a key topic on quantitative 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 quantitative research methods, the seminars seek to encourage constructive dialogue aimed at helping students to tackle research questions in a quantitative fashion, which builds on and extends contemporary knowledge. Meetings are held on a weekly basis to allow sufficient time for in-depth reading and reflection.

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 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.

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 quantitative studies
• Develop instruments for quantitative data collection
• Identify and assess data sources and data collection methods for quantitative studies
• Assess the reliability and validity of measures
• Demonstrate understanding of quantitative data analysis techniques
• Interpret analytical results from quantitative studies
• Articulate in writing a formal description of quantitative research design and analysis

Exam will take the form of an individual take-home 15 pages written exam that is designed to foster deep reflections on the quantitative research methods covered in the course. The exam involves data analytical procedures in SPSS and SmartPLS (or another structural equation modeling software of your choice). All work must be original material that is produced individually. The exam will be distributed after the last class of the course and will be due in one week. Re-take exam, if necessary, will be administered about a month later.

Evaluation

Individual take-home 15 pages written exam together with a research proposal presentation will form the basis for evaluating students’ performance. The written exam and the presentation will have equal weightage in the course grade. Grading is based on the standard 7-step scale. Passing grade on three individual 5 pages written homework assignments is a prerequisite for taking the exam.

Homework Assignments

Three mandatory individual 5 pages written homework assignments are designed to reinforce key analytical technics and provide an opportunity for deeper learning and reflection. The assignments cover hypotheses development, exploratory factor analysis, and structural equation modeling.

Research Proposal Presentation [Week 14 – Friday, March 30^th, 2017]

For the last session of the course, each student will be expected to prepare a presentation that outlines the design of a quantitative empirical study for investigating their domain of interest or any other contemporary or emerging topic in social sciences. The purpose of the presentation is to familiarize students with the practical steps involved in conducting quantitative empirical studies. The presentation should incorporate the following elements:

• Selected topic to be investigated via quantitative research models
• Significance of the selected topic
• Prior research on the selected topic
• Research question(s) to be answered based on the selected topic
• Theoretical model and hypotheses for answering the research question(s)
• Quantitative research strategy being adopted to validate the theoretical model and hypotheses

1. Instruments for data collection
2. Possible data source(s)
3. Proposed data analytical technique(s) to be utilized

• Potential contributions to theory and practice