Session 7
I – Methods for data collection
Research strategy : qualitative or quantitative research ?
Research design : the strategy you will employ to demonstrate or investigate your argument, it specifies
the evidence you need to investigate and describes how it will be collected and analyzed.
A research design provides a framework for the collection and analysis of data, a plan that
guides the choice of methods and the choice of research design reflects decisions about the priority
being given to:
– Whether or not to focus on causal connections
– Whether or not to aim at generalization to larger groups than those included in the research
– Whether or not to focus on understanding behavior of people in their context
Research methods : sets of codified insights on how to make credible knowledge claims in a scientific
debate and ways to collect data.
The research design and the collection of data are guided by specific research questions that
derive from theoretical concerns.
Theoretical concerns > Research question > Research design > Research methods
> (often) Qualitative research strategy > Inductive reasoning
> (often) Quantitative research strategy > Deductive reasoning
Theory help determining or sensitizing concepts and to the hypothesis (relation between
concepts or phenomena) : operationalisation. Then comes the data collection and the data analysis.
Either an inductive reasoning (formulation of research question/concepts) or deductive reasoning
(hypothesis testing to adapt the theory) will be adopted.
For making causal inferences, many cases have to be used to achieve representativeness with a
random selection. When aiming for generalization, the population is made of all the cases (units) that
your claim is said to apply to, the sample will be a subset of the population that is investigated and its
size is the number of cases in the sample.
For exploring some issue in-depth, few cases will be selected for a specific reason with a
purposive selection. The cases are selected by the personal judgment of the researcher who estimates
which cases will best enable them to answer their research questions; the sample is not representative
for the population. A technique for finding ‘cases’ is the ‘snow-balling’ : ‘who else should I talk with?’.
There is a critical distinction between a large “N” (population under study) which leads to
breadth and a small “N” that leads to depth.
When the predominant strategy is qualitative, a case study tends to take an inductive approach
to the relationship between theory and research; if a predominantly quantitative strategy is taken, it
tends to be deductive.
Mixed method : research in which the investigator collects and analyzes data, integrates
findings and draws inferences using both qualitative and quantitative approaches in a single study or a
program of inquiry.
II – Interviewing as a research activity: the why and what
Structured interviews:
, Closed questions and pre-determined answer options (surveys); questionnaire fully developed in
advance (questions starting with an interrogative pronoun: what, who, when, where …).
Semi-structured interviews:
Focus is pre-determined, leaving room for additional items as volunteered by the interviewee;
properly prepared Interview Guide (questions starting with a verb: Tell me..., Did you..., Were you…).
Unstructured interviews:
Focus is left open within the confines of the interview’s topic and objectives; properly prepared
Interview Guide as a topic list.
> Group discussions : intend to identify the beliefs and opinions of a selected group of people on a
specific topic.
> Interviews : one-on-one discussions designed to provide a detailed picture of an individual
participant’s views about the area of interest.
In-depth interviewing help obtaining data that is inaccessible from other sources when the
expertise of the interviewee is complementary with the ‘knowledge gap’, but it can also be relevant to
see the world through the interviewee’s eyes. Gives access to observations that you cannot make
yourself, including people’s thoughts about those observations, that are equally relevant for your
research and enables one to describe a phenomenon from various angles and on an aggregate level
(‘holistically’), but also enables one to describe processes (e.g. how lobbying ‘works’).
Its purpose is to explore, verify or falsify and understand the data previously collected.
The objective is to gain something from the interaction and have relatively little to offer in
return. The interviewee does most of the talking, yet you remain ‘in charge’ of the focus and topics, and
even of the duration of the exchange.
You are a partner in the conversation: you ask questions, you listen, you react and you are in
charge of the direction and focus of the exchange: you monitor the exchange from the perspective of
your research aim, using your Interview Guide as a compass and check list. Keep constantly in mind
what is it you want to have gained from the exchange by the time you walk out of the door.
III – Interviewing as a social event: the how
Qualitative research: studying phenomena in their natural settings focusing on how these phenomena
are understood by those who report on them to you.
How to avoid bias?
Interviewees are ‘in charge’ of their responses, they are not restricted by the options provided by
the research. Combining ‘emic’ views with your ‘etic’ view via respondent checks.
['Etic' refers to research that studies cross-cultural differences, whereas 'emic' refers to research
that fully studies one culture with no (or only a secondary) cross-cultural focus.]
Snowballing, when to stop finding new interviewees?
> ‘Theoretical saturation’: When no new concepts emerge from the data.
Interview Guide :
A schedule rather than a list of questions that is part of the documentation of your research
process, connecting research objectives to actual research activities. It helps to focus the interview onto
key issues and ensures consistency between interviews, while allowing you to be flexible.
Questions :
Have to be open (avoid leading questions), singular (each question has only 1 subjective focus),
responsive (use the wording of your interviewee to phrase an issue) and concrete (help your
interviewee to be as specific as possible) :
I – Methods for data collection
Research strategy : qualitative or quantitative research ?
Research design : the strategy you will employ to demonstrate or investigate your argument, it specifies
the evidence you need to investigate and describes how it will be collected and analyzed.
A research design provides a framework for the collection and analysis of data, a plan that
guides the choice of methods and the choice of research design reflects decisions about the priority
being given to:
– Whether or not to focus on causal connections
– Whether or not to aim at generalization to larger groups than those included in the research
– Whether or not to focus on understanding behavior of people in their context
Research methods : sets of codified insights on how to make credible knowledge claims in a scientific
debate and ways to collect data.
The research design and the collection of data are guided by specific research questions that
derive from theoretical concerns.
Theoretical concerns > Research question > Research design > Research methods
> (often) Qualitative research strategy > Inductive reasoning
> (often) Quantitative research strategy > Deductive reasoning
Theory help determining or sensitizing concepts and to the hypothesis (relation between
concepts or phenomena) : operationalisation. Then comes the data collection and the data analysis.
Either an inductive reasoning (formulation of research question/concepts) or deductive reasoning
(hypothesis testing to adapt the theory) will be adopted.
For making causal inferences, many cases have to be used to achieve representativeness with a
random selection. When aiming for generalization, the population is made of all the cases (units) that
your claim is said to apply to, the sample will be a subset of the population that is investigated and its
size is the number of cases in the sample.
For exploring some issue in-depth, few cases will be selected for a specific reason with a
purposive selection. The cases are selected by the personal judgment of the researcher who estimates
which cases will best enable them to answer their research questions; the sample is not representative
for the population. A technique for finding ‘cases’ is the ‘snow-balling’ : ‘who else should I talk with?’.
There is a critical distinction between a large “N” (population under study) which leads to
breadth and a small “N” that leads to depth.
When the predominant strategy is qualitative, a case study tends to take an inductive approach
to the relationship between theory and research; if a predominantly quantitative strategy is taken, it
tends to be deductive.
Mixed method : research in which the investigator collects and analyzes data, integrates
findings and draws inferences using both qualitative and quantitative approaches in a single study or a
program of inquiry.
II – Interviewing as a research activity: the why and what
Structured interviews:
, Closed questions and pre-determined answer options (surveys); questionnaire fully developed in
advance (questions starting with an interrogative pronoun: what, who, when, where …).
Semi-structured interviews:
Focus is pre-determined, leaving room for additional items as volunteered by the interviewee;
properly prepared Interview Guide (questions starting with a verb: Tell me..., Did you..., Were you…).
Unstructured interviews:
Focus is left open within the confines of the interview’s topic and objectives; properly prepared
Interview Guide as a topic list.
> Group discussions : intend to identify the beliefs and opinions of a selected group of people on a
specific topic.
> Interviews : one-on-one discussions designed to provide a detailed picture of an individual
participant’s views about the area of interest.
In-depth interviewing help obtaining data that is inaccessible from other sources when the
expertise of the interviewee is complementary with the ‘knowledge gap’, but it can also be relevant to
see the world through the interviewee’s eyes. Gives access to observations that you cannot make
yourself, including people’s thoughts about those observations, that are equally relevant for your
research and enables one to describe a phenomenon from various angles and on an aggregate level
(‘holistically’), but also enables one to describe processes (e.g. how lobbying ‘works’).
Its purpose is to explore, verify or falsify and understand the data previously collected.
The objective is to gain something from the interaction and have relatively little to offer in
return. The interviewee does most of the talking, yet you remain ‘in charge’ of the focus and topics, and
even of the duration of the exchange.
You are a partner in the conversation: you ask questions, you listen, you react and you are in
charge of the direction and focus of the exchange: you monitor the exchange from the perspective of
your research aim, using your Interview Guide as a compass and check list. Keep constantly in mind
what is it you want to have gained from the exchange by the time you walk out of the door.
III – Interviewing as a social event: the how
Qualitative research: studying phenomena in their natural settings focusing on how these phenomena
are understood by those who report on them to you.
How to avoid bias?
Interviewees are ‘in charge’ of their responses, they are not restricted by the options provided by
the research. Combining ‘emic’ views with your ‘etic’ view via respondent checks.
['Etic' refers to research that studies cross-cultural differences, whereas 'emic' refers to research
that fully studies one culture with no (or only a secondary) cross-cultural focus.]
Snowballing, when to stop finding new interviewees?
> ‘Theoretical saturation’: When no new concepts emerge from the data.
Interview Guide :
A schedule rather than a list of questions that is part of the documentation of your research
process, connecting research objectives to actual research activities. It helps to focus the interview onto
key issues and ensures consistency between interviews, while allowing you to be flexible.
Questions :
Have to be open (avoid leading questions), singular (each question has only 1 subjective focus),
responsive (use the wording of your interviewee to phrase an issue) and concrete (help your
interviewee to be as specific as possible) :
