Business and Management INK

What Really Drives the Research Design?

January 3, 2013 1032

Kwok, Linchi (In press). “Exploratory-triangulation design in mixed methods studies:  A case of examining graduating seniors who meet hospitality recruiters’ selection criteria.” Tourism and Hospitality Research.

Qualitative vs. quantitative: which method is better? If they are equally valuable in social science, will the mixed methods approach (employing both qualitative and quantitative techniques) prove to be superior to a single method approach?

There is an on-going discussion surrounding the use of qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods in research studies. The biggest strength of the qualitative approach lies in its ability to yield descriptive, in-depth, and insightful data. As a result, frequency counts and numbers do not appear to be important in a qualitative study. Quantitative researchers, however, must rely on numbers to Untitleddraw conclusions. Mixed methods researchers suggest that research approaches should be mixed in the ways that offer the best opportunity to answer complex research questions.

While I agree there are many advantages of utilizing mixed methods in tourism and hospitality research, I argue that scholars should forget their research paradigms and allow the research question(s) to drive their research design. When designing a mixed methods study, researchers should think “outside the box” and be creative in collaborating qualitative and quantitative methods in different stages of the research process.

In this article, I introduce the exploratory-triangulation mixed methods approach to hospitality and tourism research by illustrating a specific empirical example of using such a design to answer tthrhree different but complementary questions on the same topic. Using the exploratory-triangulation mixed methods approach, hospitality recruiters’ selection criteria for entry-level managerial positions in college recruiting settings were explored and triangulated with the attributes of hospitality graduating seniors who receive job offers. It appears the exploratory-triangulation mixed methods approach allows researchers to examine a complex issue with different perspectives and thus provides a broader and a more complete picture of a phenomenon. The conclusions drawn from this exploratory-triangulation mixed method investigation also yielded stronger conclusions as compared to the qualitative or the quantitative results when reported separately.

I hoplinchi-kwok-2011_21e this paper will encourage more researchers to consider adopting the mixed methods approach in future studies and open up a discussion of using a variety of mixed methods designs in research. Researchers need not follow a typical research design. Rather, they need to be creative and let the research question(s) drive the research design.

***

Click here to read the paper in Tourism and Hospitality Research.

Linchi Kwok is an assistant professor of Hospitality Management in the David B. Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics at Syracuse University and a contributor to Management INK.

Business and Management INK puts the spotlight on research published in our more than 100 management and business journals. We feature an inside view of the research that’s being published in top-tier SAGE journals by the authors themselves.

View all posts by Business & Management INK

Related Articles

Boards and Internationalization Speed
Business and Management INK
November 18, 2024

Boards and Internationalization Speed

Read Now
How Managers Can Enhance Trust
Business and Management INK
November 11, 2024

How Managers Can Enhance Trust

Read Now
The Role of Place in Sustainability
Business and Management INK
October 28, 2024

The Role of Place in Sustainability

Read Now
Turning to Glitter in Management Studies – Why We Should Take ‘Unserious’ Glitter Serious to Understand New Management Practices
Business and Management INK
October 24, 2024

Turning to Glitter in Management Studies – Why We Should Take ‘Unserious’ Glitter Serious to Understand New Management Practices

Read Now
Utilizing Academic-Practitioner Partnering for Societal Impact

Utilizing Academic-Practitioner Partnering for Societal Impact

In this article, co-authors Natalie Slawinski, Bruna Brito, Jennifer Brenton, and Wendy Smith reflect on the inspiration behind their research article, “Reflections on deep academic–practitioner partnering for generative societal impact,” published in Strategic Organization.

Read Now
Trippin’ Forward: Management Research and the Development of Psychedelics

Trippin’ Forward: Management Research and the Development of Psychedelics

Charlie Smith reflects on his interest in psychedelic research, the topic of his research article, “Psychedelics, Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy and Employees’ Wellbeing,” published in Journal of Management Inquiry.

Read Now
Using Ethnography to Explore Entrepreneurial Extracurricular Activities

Using Ethnography to Explore Entrepreneurial Extracurricular Activities

Co-authors Birgitte Wraae and Nicolai Nybye reflect on the inspiration behind their research article, “Learning to Be “Me,” “the Team,” and “the Company” Through Entrepreneurial Extracurricular Activities: An Ethnographic Approach,” published in Entrepreneurship Education and Pedagogy.

Read Now
0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

0 Comments
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments