ECON 330 - Survey of Research Methods for Information Systems and Business

5 Credits

1. Research formulation and design
   1. Research mindset - critical thinking, triangulation
   2. Research focus - academic, decision-making, advocacy
   3. Research questions - big and small
   4. Choosing a research design
      1. Descriptive
      2. Correlational
      3. Semi-experimental, including action research
      4. Experimental
      5. Meta-analysis
   5. Choosing a research method
      1. Quantitative
      2. Qualitative
      3. Mixed method
   6. Research theory
      1. Interpretive
      2. Positivist
   7. Managing the research process
      1. Metadata
      2. Pilot testing
2. Research ethics
   1. Citing sources
   2. Informed consent, confidentiality and privacy
   3. Transparency with participants and audience, conflicts of interest, abuse of position
   4. Scope and sample
   5. Statistics use
      1. Numbers and percentages
      2. Statistical significance
   6. Positionality
   7. Limitations
      1. Generalizability
      2. Causality
   8. Negative results
   9. Replicability
      1. Validity
      2. Reliability
   10. Acknowledging contributions
3. Literature Review
   1. Purpose and scope of the search
      1. Models - process and theory
      2. Similar questions
      3. Similar populations
   2. Coverage
      1. What’s been done before
      2. What’s not there
   3. Evaluating sources - academic, government, popular, Web, experts
   4. Summary and synthesis
4. Sampling
   1. Population and sample - Representative sample
   2. Sampling mechanics - techniques and size
   3. Bias - self-selection, method, modality
   4. Evaluating a sample - based on the research design
5. Quantitative research
   1. Strengths and limitations
   2. Research objectives
   3. Data structures - population, sample, observations, variables, values, census, time series, cross-section, panel, continuous, discrete, categorical
   4. Levels of measurement - nominal, ordinal, interval, ratio
   5. Collecting data - design and administration
      1. Questionnaires
      2. Observation - including system process data, A-B testing
      3. Secondary data, including Census, big data
   6. Categorization and coding
      1. Distributions vs. thresholds
      2. Aggregation
   7. Common analysis software - Excel, R
   8. Descriptive statistics
      1. Choosing descriptive statistics for univariate, bivariate and multivariate data - data type and purpose
      2. Common data charts
   9. Inferential statistics interpretation, significance, and limitations
      1. Hypothesis testing
      2. Two-group comparisons
      3. Regression results - correlation vs. causality
      4. Other common tests - e.g. Chi-square tests
6. Qualitative research
   1. Strengths and limitations
   2. Research objectives
   3. Subject selection - individuals, locations, websites, organizations
   4. Collecting data - processes, considerations, tools
      1. Documents or system records
      2. Interviews
      3. Focus groups
      4. Observations - direct and participant, including ethnography
   5. Content analysis, coding and synthesizing
      1. Interpretive analysis - “thick description”
      2. Theoretical lens
      3. Grounded theory
   6. Analysis software
7. Reporting research results
   1. Audience - academic, internal, professional, legal
   2. Purpose - confirmatory, exploratory, strategic planning, audit
   3. Report structure - Executive summary, background, results, limitations, conclusions
   4. Presenting data
      1. Tables
      2. Data visualization
      3. Talking about data
   5. Oral presentation

 

Student Learning Outcomes
Identify different research designs and research methods and their strengths and limitations.

Demonstrate knowledge of research ethics in evaluating, designing, executing, and reporting research.

Produce a literature review that evaluates and synthesizes multiple types of sources.

Design, conduct, and report on a small-scale quantitative research study that adheres to standard research practices.

Design, conduct, and report on a small-scale qualitative research study that adheres to standard research practices.