Full Description
This book suggests that business research, in the collection, analysis, and communication of evidence, will benefit from explicit acceptance of research as argumentation. Argumentation is the process of compiling an argument through selection and organization of the relevant evidence.
Recently, business research methods books have placed too much emphasis on the scientific method as brute empiricism, using only large sample statistical testing and demanding prediction through retesting old theories. Especially with regard to the study of human activity, there is now much evidence that there is not one special scientific method.
This book argues that all types of empirical data, including statistics and personal experiences, be accepted as data, but that it is essential that these observations be explained. This book will provide researchers and postgraduate business students with a strategy for conducting research that encourages thought, provides a way of critically perceiving previous research, as well as suggesting a logical structure for communicating their research.
Contents
Chp.1: Against Personal Objectivity.- Objectivity.- Some History.- Self - deception.- Appendix from Broad and Wane.- Objectivity and Group Argument.- Conclusion.- Chp.2: People Ain't Molecules.- The Impact of the Observer.- Argument vs Observation.- Against the Dominance of Statistics.- Interpretive or Qualitative Methods.- Eclectic Methods.- Conclusion.- Chp.3: Argument.- Limits of Proof.- Argument for Objectivity.- Definition of Theory.- Commitment.- Bias Ethics.- Scientific Thinking.- Perelman & Olbrechts-Tyteca.- Source of Argument?.- Conclusion.- Chp.4: Argument Structure.- Specific vs General.- Motivation for the Study.- Parts of the Structure.- Unwanted Attributes?.- Conclusion.- Chp.5: Commentaries.- A: The Business Suit Theory.- B: The Lego Assignment.- C: The Austrian Experience.- Chp.6: Evidence from Interviews.- Who to Interview.- Intentions vs Opinions.- Concerned Persons.- Best Experts.- Unlearning and Anchoring.- Optimism.- Interaction Effects.- The Interview.- Problems with Human Judgment.- Chp.7: Evidence from Questionnaires.- Organization.- Data Types.- Annual Profit Questionale.- Questionnaire.- Tests.- Internal and External Validity.- Reference.
