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VU University Amsterdam

1.1 Business research Methods BK

Mirella Kleijnen
September 12, 2011

Lecture 2 Part I

Agenda
Formulating the research topic Literature Review Research Design Sample Selection Data Collection Data Analysis Report & Presentation
Blumberg et al. (2011)

Agenda
Part I Why literature search? Part II UBVU
How to make use of available research Library test

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Literature
Blumberg et al. (2011)
CH3 - Literature review (p. 85-109)

Van Tulder (2007)

Skill sheets: E1, A13, A14, A15

Where to start.

Literature review

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Skill sheet A15 - Internet

The Cult of the Amateur

Why?
Essentially: why reinvent the wheel? More specifically:
Refine research questions/objectives Highlight research possibilities that have been overlooked Discover explicit recommendations for further research Avoid repeating work that has been done Gaining insights into the practical relevance of your topic (market relevance) Discover insights to research approaches strategies and techniques

Fundamental basis for developing hypotheses

Saunders et al. (2009)

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A good critical review

Focussed content Be critical Structure

Saunders et al. (2009)

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Literature search process

Build information pool

Apply filter to reduce pool size Rough assessment of sources to further reduce pool size

Analyze literature in pool Refine filters or stop search

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Sources
Primary sources
Full-text publications of theoretical and empirical studies, and represent the original work

Secondary sources
Are compilations of information, either in printed or digital form

Not to be confused with: primary versus secondary DATA

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Criteria for relevance and value

Prominence of article or (book) chapter documented by citations or the source Recency of the article or (book) chapter Methodological quality of the article or (book) chapter Comparability of your arguments with the arguments put forward in the article or (book) chapter Uniqueness of the articles or (book) chapter

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How to read.

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How to write

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Meta analysis
Importance

Goldacre (2009)

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Meta analysis
Advantages
Structured approach Summarizes accumulated knowledge in an effective way Able to detect relationships that narrative summaries of a research field have been unable to uncover

Disadvantages
Can only take account of quantifiable characteristics of a study Misses information such as methodological quality of a study or social context Comparability of studies might be difficult due to different ways of defining constructs / variables

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Journals
Publish or Perish

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Popular press

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Where to publish?
What defines a good journal? Some common criteria:
Citation analysis of the journal (for example, Social Sciences Citation Index SSCI) Acceptance rate of the journal (for example Cabells Directory) Sponsorship of the journal (for example, American Marketing Association) Objectives of the journal (for example, methodological approaches and readership) Fundamentals of the journal (for example, authors, editor, review board, and their affiliations)

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Good, better, best

A (first tier) journals
Journal of Marketing Journal of Marketing Research Journal of Consumer Research Marketing Science

B (second tier) journals

Journal of Retailing Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science International Journal of Research in Marketing Journal of Consumer Psychology Journal of Interactive Marketing Journal of Service Research Journal of Product Innovation Management Journal of Business Research Journal of Economic Psychology Marketing & Psychology Marketing Letters

C (third tier) journals

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Referencing sources
References give credibility to our arguments Acknowledge other peoples work properly: Read section on referencing & plagarism carefully! (BB course documents general guidelines research assignment) References are not suppose to be a puzzle readers should be able to track your sources!

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An example
http://www.atyponlink.com/AMA/doi/abs/10.1509/jmkg.72.1.1?cookieSet=1&journalCode=jmkg What is this?!
Does not provide ANY relevant information This link is only accessible if you have a subscription to the journal! How would you refer to this reference in the text? Long, specific links are likely to become invalid FAST

The actual reference is: Sinha, R. K., & Mandel, N. (2008). Preventing Digital Music Piracy: The Carrot or the Stick?. Journal of Marketing, 72 (January), 115. The in text reference would be: (Sinha & Mandel, 2008) Note that we expect you to use APA reference style! (see course manual)

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In sum
Make a schedule for searching and studying Title provides limited info relevant articles screen abstracts of a number of

Keep track of what you are doing Safe your information systematically Update references lists immediately Check references of relevant, good articles Check if an article is cited frequently (via Web of Science citation reports / Google Scholar) Check with others that are active in your field, no need to invent the wheel twice

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VU University Amsterdam

Questions?

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Bibliography
Articles:
Sinha, Rajiv K. and Naomi Mandel (2008), Preventing Digital Music Piracy: The Carrot or the Stick?, Journal of Marketing, 72 (January), 115 Svensson, Gran, Terje Sltten , Brd Tronvoll, and Thomas Helgesson (2008), Empirical characteristics of top journals in mainstream marketing, Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 26 (2), 31-144

Books:
Blomberg, Boris, Donald R. Cooper, and Pamela S. Schindler (2008), Business Research Methods, 2nd European Edition, London: McGraw-Hill Goldacre, Ben (2009), Bad Science, 4th Edition, London: Fourth Estate Saunders, Mark, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill (2009), Research Methods for Business Students, 45h edition, Edinburgh: Person Education Limited/Prentice Hall

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