Management and business research / Mark Easterby-Smith, Richard Thorpe, Paul R. Jackson.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Machine generated contents note: 1. Getting started and writing the research proposal -- The landscape of management and business research -- Elements of a research proposal -- Clear research questions and research objectives -- Explanation of how the research relates to previous work in the field -- Concise description of the research design and methods -- The impact and engagement agenda -- Conclusion -- Further reading -- 2. Reviewing the literature -- What is a literature review and what are its main purposes? -- Preparing a literature review: finding and recording relevant literature -- Finding relevant literature -- Evaluating literature -- Writing a literature review -- Conclusion -- Further reading -- 3. The philosophy of management and business research -- The philosophical debates -- Ontology: from realism to nominalism -- Epistemology: positivism vs social constructionism -- Strengths and weaknesses of the main traditions -- Paradigms and research approaches.

Note continued: Conclusion -- Further reading -- 4. Designing management and business research -- The essence of research design -- Positivist research designs -- Experimental methods -- Survey research -- Constructionist research designs -- Case method and grounded theory -- Mixed methods -- Common design dilemmas -- Contributing to theory -- Contrasting views on validity and reliability -- Research design template -- Conclusion -- Further reading -- 5. Politics, access and ethics -- Politics and power in research -- Political influences on research -- Politics of access -- Ethics -- Conclusion -- Further reading -- 6. Crafting qualitative data through language and text -- Crafting qualitative data -- Textual data -- Qualitative interviews -- Preparing for data collection -- Conducting interviews -- Interview-based mapping techniques -- Conclusion -- Further reading -- 7. Crafting qualitative data through observation and interaction -- Visual data.

Note continued: Observational research -- Interactive and participatory methods -- General concerns related to the creation of qualitative data -- Conclusion -- Further reading -- 8. Framing and interpreting qualitative data -- Preparing and managing qualitative data -- Framing and interpreting qualitative data: seven approaches -- Computer-aided analysis -- Quality in qualitative research -- Conclusion -- Further reading -- 9. Crafting quantitative data -- Sources of quantitative data -- Question design -- Measurement models -- Conclusion -- Further reading -- 10. Summarizing and making inferences from quantitative data -- Summarizing and describing data -- Going beyond a sample -- Conclusion -- Further reading -- 11. Multivariate analysis -- The domain of multivariate analysis -- Multivariate analysis of causal models -- Conclusion -- Further reading -- 12. Writing management and business research -- The skills of writing -- The content of reports and dissertations.

Note continued: Writing up the literature review -- Outputs and evaluation -- Plagiarism -- Dissemination strategies -- Conclusion -- Further reading.