This week’s topic was quantitative,
as well as qualitative studies. After having been reflecting on the meaning of
these theory-types, I now understand that I had wrongly categorized the article
that I had chosen for the ‘Research and Theory’-week as a qualitative study (Wells, Valacich, Hess
(2011): “What Signals Are You Sending? How Website Quality Influences
Perceptions of Product Quality and Purchase Intentions”, published in MIS
Quarterly). I now realize that this was clearly a quantitative study,
and that I guess is proof that I have learnt something about different types of
theories during the course of these few weeks.
During the first seminar we
discussed the articles that we had read, and we made a flow chart of the main
variables in the theory. It was interesting to see how you can break down a
study into concrete statements and dependents. We had a good discussion in our
little study group, and it is again interesting to hear about the great variety
of studies that have been chosen.
The most rewarding part of this
week was the second seminar with Olle Bälter. He gave some good advice and
pointers on how to conduct survey questions, for example: ‘never use NOT in
your questions’, ‘make sure to avoid ambiguous questions’ and most of all ‘pilot
your questions before sending them out!’. His game-session was a great way to get the
discussion going. It made us all think hard about quantitative vs. qualitative
studies, as well as good and bad aspects of online vs paper surveys.
Olle Bälter mentioned that he had done a
study (about 5 years ago) on the cost-effectiveness on paper vs. web questionnaire,
and it surprised me to hear that up to 3000 surveys are more cost-effective to
be distributed on paper (by post) rather than over the web.
The medium on which you distribute
your survey will affect how it is perceived, and it will affect the
response-rate. It is important to note that it is not possible to say that one distribution
type is preferable over the other, as it depends on the context and the topic
of the survey. How you phrase your questions will affect the answers you get,
and if you are conducting an interview – be sure to realize that the
interviewer is affecting the outcome of the answers.
To sum this all up, we have learned
this week that it is very difficult to perform a study that does not affect the
outcome of the answers. It is important to think twice (or three times) about
how to conduct your study in the least disruptive way.
Hi Jenny, i have reflected on this on the other blogs and i agree with you that the seminar with Olle, and especially the advice he gave with how to develop a questionnaire, was the most giving part of this weeks theme. Although i thought that the Boggle competition format brought up a bit too long discussions that felt unnecessary, it was interesting when you learned the point system because then you started thinking of advantages/disadvantages that was a bit uncommon and what you didn't think the other groups would thought of. At least i did this and i think it was good because you feel that you know the most common examples, for instance that quantitative methods is good because they give big statistical data. These ones you know well so it was interesting to hear other examples of advantages and disadvantages with the different methods.
SvaraRaderaYes, the Boggle competition was a very clever way to make us think a little bit extra hard on benefits and disadvantages of the quantitative and qualitative studies. Well designed seminar.However, I also agree with you that some of the discussions were a bit too detailed-focused and long.
SvaraRadera