Social Surveys as the Most Appropriate Way of Researching Social Life - Essay Example

Doctorate of Social Science Unit 3: Quantitative Methods and Analysis – Assignment Section A 4. Social surveys are the most appropriate way of researching social life. Critically discuss this statement in relation to your own research question. Social surveys are the most appropriate way of researching social life. Referring to research questions raised in my thesis proposal, this assertion, I believe, is right. However, there must be caution taken for choosing appropriate survey method for my research design. The following essay critically discuss in support of argument to the social surveys. “Survey” is used to refer to a research method in which certain information are collected from individuals who represent as “sample”, a fraction of the entire population. The social surveys have received much attention from the researchers in the field of social sciences. It becomes a standard research method inquiry the social life. It is evident in the studies of McClosky (1967), Glock (1967) and Sniderman and Grob (1996). Over the last thirty years the public opinion survey as a technique for social research has been institutionalized on a large scale. The General Social Survey (GSS) has been established in sociology, and the National Election Studies (NES) in political science, to produce standard data sets for their respective disciplines. Both have made possible fundamental contributions to survey-based social research, and each has promoted innovation, both methodological and conceptual, at the margin. Yet the chief obligation of the GSS and the NES is to extend a time series, requiring repetition of the same questions in the same way. Perhaps inevitably, given their primary missions, both have tended to promote the routinization of the public opinion survey as a method of social research (Sniderman and Grob, 1996). There are three common methods of survey which are classified by data collection methods. They are namely (1) mail, (2) telephone interview, and (3) in-person interview. First, mail surveys are regarded as relatively low in expenses. The disadvantage associated with the mail survey is that when cooperation is low from the respondents. It is effective, when sending the mails to members of associations, or newspapers, and magazines. Second, telephone surveys are widely used nowadays. This method of survey is best when the timeliness and the length of survey is limited. Third, in-person interviews are also used in survey research method. Interviewer must meet in-person to collect information on particular issues. This method requires spending more expenses. Combination of the above survey methods can be used. For example, a researcher may use telephone to locate a person who is suitable for survey. Then he may make appointment with that person for personal interview. There are four main research questions I have raised in my initial research proposal. They can be re-stated as follows: 1. What is the current knowledge management design, tools and implementation process in Greece’s MNCs such as call centres (customer service), consulting firms, airline industry, banking industry and IT firms? 2. What is the prevailing culture within the departments and across the industries? 3. What is the relationship between the success of KM design, tools and implementation with the culture of Greece? 4. What kind of KM design, tools and implementation process would be effective in maximizing the KM of Greece MNCs? First, in order to answer my research questions, I have thoroughly examined what research methods have been used in the study of knowledge management process. In the study of Eunni, Kasuganti, and Kos (2006), they first carried out a survey of empirical research studies on knowledge management processes in international business alliances published during the years 1990-2003, and organized them using two dimensions: the process focus of a study - knowledge creation/transfer, and the research objective— theory testing/theory building. They had then examined the research approaches employed to conduct these studies, and categorized the latter using the dimensions: the type of data - cross-sectional /longitudinal, and the method of analysis - qualitative/quantitative. The specific research questions that their study sought to address are as follows: 1. What were the broad issues and themes that academics have focused on while conducting empirical research on learning processes? To International Journal of Management Vol. 23 No. t March 2006 35 what extent, have these studies succeeded in testing existing theory of knowledge management in general, and what, if any, are their contributions to enriching and building new theoretical perspectives in this field? (Eunni, Kasuganti, and Kos, 2006) 2. What methodological approaches were adopted to carry out empirical research on knowledge management? What were the methods of data collection and analysis? Have the researchers relied upon cross-sectional or longitudinal data? Were the techniques of analysis quantitative or qualitative? What are the relative merits and shortcomings of the alternative approaches in the context of studies to investigate the learning processes in international alliances? (Eunni, Kasuganti, and Kos, 2006) The range of issues covered in empirical research on knowledge management in international alliances thus far is doubtless wide and impressive. However, the focus of these empirical studies has generally tended to be on the validation of theoretical postulations concerning knowledge transfer derived from mainstream knowledge management literature (Table 1) (Eunni, Kasuganti, and Kos, 2006). Whereas the goals of a research study frequently drive the choice of the research design, the converse may also be true; the methodological approach adopted for a study may constrain the objectives of the research project, and may even occasionally lead to their modification. Two key dimensions in the design of an empirical research study are the type of data used in the study, and the method of analysis relied upon to arrive at the findings. The type of data could either be cross-sectional or longitudinal; the method of analysis could be quantitative or qualitative. While cross-sectional studies provide perspectives, longitudinal studies contribute to gaining insights on a phenomenon studied. Whereas quantitative methods offer rigorous statistical testing of theory, qualitative methods are well suited to building theories, and writing rich descriptions of a phenomenon observed (Sutton, 1997). With this understanding, we carefully reviewed the empirical studies on knowledge management processes from the perspective of the type of data and the methods of analysis, and categorized the studies along both these dimensions. The results of this exercise are presented in Table 2 (Eunni, Kasuganti, and Kos, 2006). Generally, empirical research in social sciences relies more often up on cross-sectional data than longitudinal data, and research on knowledge management in international alliances is no exception. As could be seen from Table 2, an overwhelming majority of the studies thus far have set store on cross-sectional data and quantitative analysis. Kogut & Zander (1993) and Zander & Kogut (1995) used the questionnaire method to collect data on the attributes of technology transferred by Swedish MNEs, and computed logit estimations of their effect on choice of wholly owned subsidiaries. Mowery, Oxley & Silverman (1996) investigated inter-firm knowledge transfers in strategic alliances using cross-citation rates of patents by the partner firms. Si & Bruton (1999) estimated the importance of knowledge acquisition goals by the partners in Sino-Western international joint ventures (IJVs) using a 5-point Liker-type scale. Similarly, Lyles & Salk (1996)'s modeled knowledge acquisition from foreign parents in IJVs in the Hungarian context, and employed multiple regressions to analyze the responses from managers on a seven-item Likert-type scale. Beamish & Berdrow (2003)'s study on International Journal of Management Vol. 23 No. t March 2006 39 learning in IJVs surveyed senior managers of the IJVs parented by Canadian and US multinational companies, and used factor analysis to estimate motivations for participation in the joint venture. Simonin (1999a, 1999b), Birkinshaw, Nobel & Riderstrale (2002), andTsang (2002) employed structural equations modeling to analyze various knowledge-based relationships derived from cross-sectional data obtained through questionnaire surveys. In short, the dominant trend in empirical studies on knowledge related issues in international alliances is clearly the use of quantitative methods to analyze cross-sectional data (Eunni, Kasuganti, and Kos, 2006). Even where longitudinal studies with the potential to gain insights into the processes of knowledge management in international alliances had been carried out, a majority of these studies too tended to rely upon quantitative methods of analysis (Powell, Koput, & Smith-Doerr, 1996; Bierly & Chakrabarty, 1996; Steensma & Lyles, 2000). In a similar vein, studies that relied upon qualitative methods, with the potential to conduct exploratory research and advance theoretical understanding of the knowledge management processes in international alliances were to a certain extent handicapped by the data collected, which tended to be of the cross-sectional type, and therefore failed to account for changes in the characteristics over time (Child & Markoczy, 1993; Inkpen & Crosnan, 1995; Powell, 1998; Moore & Birkinshaw, 2000); Ranft & Lord, 2002; Berdrow & Lane, 2003). This is especially apparent from the limited progress made in theoretical understanding of the knowledge creation process in international alliances, which would not be possible without observing the process over a period of time (Eunni, Kasuganti, and Kos, 2006). Table 1. A Typology of Empirical Studies on Knowledge Management Theory Testing Theory Building Knowledge Transfer Kogut & Zander (1993) Child &Markoczy (1993) Zander & Kogut (1995) Inkpen &Crosnan (1995) Lyles & Salk (1996) Powell (1998) Mowery, Oxley & Silverman (1996) Bresnan, Birkinshaw & Nobel Park &RUSSO (1996) (1999) Powell, Koput, & Smith-Doerr (1996) Ranft & Lord (2002) Simonin (1997); Simonin (1999a,b) Si & Bruton (1999) Moore & Birkinshaw (2000)Steensma & Lyles (2000) Birkinshaw, Nobel & Ridderstrale (2002) Beamish & Berdrow (2003) Berdrow & Lane (2003) Knowledge Creation Almeida, Song & Grant (2002) Bierly & Chakrabarty (1996) Tsang (2002) Inkpen &Dinur (1998) Source: Adopted from (Eunni, Kasuganti, and Kos, 2006) Thus, the literature suggests that in knowledge management studies, the quantitative research method is mostly applied with an aim of theory testing. My dissertation is centered at theory testing and empirical data collection is necessary. The protocol for conduct of the survey generally involves several stages, including: 1. Design of the survey questionnaire itself 2. Determination of appropriate targeted organizations to contact and request completion of the data collection survey 3. Selection of a suitable survey and distribution methodology, based on factors hat include anticipated response rate, cost of distribution and subsequent collection of results, timeliness of the data collection process, etc. 4. Collection of results submitted by respondents, and 5. Analysis of the collected data, generally by statistical techniques (Bonometti and Tang, 2006). Table 2. Analysis of Research Methodologies in Empirical Studies Type of Data/ Cross-sectional Data Longitudinal Data Method of Analysis Quantitative Analysis Kogut & Zander (1993) Beamish & Berdrow (2003) Zander & Kogut (1995) Powell, Koput, & Mowery, Oxley & Silverman (1996) Smith-Doerr (1996) Lyles & Salk (1996) Bierly & Chakrabarty (1996) Park & Russo (1996) Steensma & Lyles (2000) Simonin (1997); Simonin (1999a, b) Bresnan, Birkinshaw Si & Bruton (1999) &Nobel(1999) Almeida, Song & Grant (2002) Birkinshaw, Nobel & Ridderstrale (2002) Tsang(2002) Qualitative Analysis Child & Markoczy (1993) Inkpen & Dinur (1998) Inkpen & Crosnan (1995) Powell (1998) Moore & Birikinshaw (2000) Ranft & Lord (2002) Berdrow & Lane (2003) Source: Adopted from (Eunni, Kasuganti, and Kos, 2006) In order to collect primary data from the MNCs in Greece, the appropriate method is survey method. The advantage of the mail survey method is that it associates with low costs. Since I have limited budget for collecting data, this method can meet my limitation. Second, it is necessary to increase cooperation of respondents. Response rates and inducement techniques are the focus of this mail survey. In analogous fashion, survey researchers work to maximize response rates, given limited survey administration budgets (see Figure 1). Figure 1. Mail survey research trade-off Low response rates, and non-response bias, are certainly ongoing concems in conducting mail surveys (Greer Chuchinprakam and SeshadH 2000). According to Jobber, Birro and Sanderson (1988), low mail survey response rates have compelled some researchers to use telephone surveys instead. Griffis Goldsby and Cooper (2003) suggest that communication via mail is often impersonal and noncommittal. Walton (1997) advocates telephone as an alternative to mail for survey research, since phone offers a means to combat non-response bias. She also concludes that "the telephone survey method is most appropriate for meeting the challenge of the Seven Rs of logistics research" (p. 229-230). The Seven R’s describe "the challenge of contacting the right person with the right information at the right time in order to ask the right questions using the right instrument for the collection of the right data at the right cost" (p. 221) (Larson, 2005). Content analysis of the methodology sections of all 153 mail survey articles yielded data on 169 mail surveys (several articles reported results of multiple surveys). Authors of the IJPD&LM articles sent 166.351 questionnaires to SCM and logistics professionals to support their research, i.e. 11,090 questionnaires per year, from 1989 to 2003. Recipients responded to about 21.1%, or 35,064 of these questionnaires. Across the 169 mail surveys, tbe number of questionnaires mailed out ranged from 30 to 21.596 and averaged 1.039.7. Response rates ranged from only 2.5% to 97.7%. Table 3 shows analysis of variance (ANOVA) results for four response inducement methods (association support, follow-ups, monetary incentives, and recipient pre-qualification) on response rates reported in IJPD&LM. Number of surveys mailed out is in the model as a covariate. Support of associations usually came in the form of access to membership mailing lists. The Council of Logistics Management (CLM) was by far the association most often providing survey support, having supported 31 of these published studies. The Institute of Supply Management (ISM), formerly the National Association of Purchasing Management (NAPM). supported another 12 studies. No other group supported more than two studies. While association support has no effect, follow ups. Monetary incentives, and recipient pre-qualification all have significant effects on response rates, at alpha < 0.01. Average response rates were 31% with association support and 32%; without it. Response rates averaged 59% with monetary incentive and 31 % with no monetary incentive. Average response rates were 45% with recipient pre-qualification, compared to 28% without pre-qualification. Finally, response rates averaged 38% with follow-up and 28% with no follow-up. Thus the effects of incentives, pre-qualification, and follow-ups on response rates are positive. (Larson, 2005). Table 3. ANOVA Results: IJP&LM Content Analysis Source of Variation Sum or Squares d.f. Mean Square F-stat. p-value Pre-qualification 0.511 1 0.511 21.53 0.000 Monetary Incentive 0.308 1 0.308 12.98 0.000 Association Support 0.001 1 0.001 0.05 0.417 Follow-up Contact 0.167 1 0.167 7.03 0.009 Number of Surveys Sent 0.299 1 0.299 12.60 0.001 Error 3.582 151 0.024 Dependent Variable: Response Rate Adjusted R-squared = 0.272 Source: Larson (2005) Larson (2005) points out that while interest in collecting data using mail surveys is rising among researchers, response rates are declining. Thus, it is important that researchers use best practices in conducting mail surveys. The IJPD&LM and JBL content analyses confirm the effectiveness of certain techniques for inducing mail survey response. The following techniques increase the rate of response and pre-quantification of survey recipients, monetary incentives, and follow-up mailings, if the budget permits. Researchers should use these tools during mail survey administration. Researchers should also report full details regarding their mail survey administration practices, including total costs and response rates. This will enable the research community to make better total cost/response rate trade-off decisions. Larson (2005) finds that survey researchers should carefully consider the relationship between the number of questionnaires sent out and response rate. Do some researchers compensate for a low expected response rate by sending out a large number of questionnaires? This "shotgun" approach may be easier and less costly to administer, due to lack of follow-up mailings, monetary incentives, and personalized cover letters. A large enough initial mail-out may generate a sufficient number of responses for application of multivariate statistical methods, such as factor analysis or structural equation modeling - despite a very low response rate. Figure 2 depicts two strategic options used by mail survey researchers. A "sharpshooter" strategy involves using the limited survey administration budget to gain the highest response rate possible. Sharpshooters start with development of a well-targeted mailing list and design of a clear, concise questionnaire. They also implement response inducement tools in making the total cost/response rate trade-off. Dilltnan's "Tailored Design Method" (2000) is a sharpshooter approach (Larson, 2005). Figure 2. Mail Research Strategies In conclusion, the survey method provides the most appropriate method for social life study. However there are issues associated with survey method which need careful attention of researchers. Section B 5. Answer “a” and “b”. a) What specific advantages can non-parametric statistical techniques lend to research in organizational matters? In the study of Whitley and Ball (2002), the advantages and disadvantages of non-parametric method are stated as follows: Advantages of nonparametric methods 1. Nonparametric methods require no or very limited assumptions to be made about the format of the data, and they may therefore be preferable when the assumptions required for parametric methods are not valid. 2. Nonparametric methods can be useful for dealing with unexpected, outlying observations that might be problematic with a parametric approach. 3. Nonparametric methods are intuitive and are simple to carry out by hand, for small samples at least. 4. Nonparametric methods are often useful in the analysis of ordered categorical data in which assignation of scores to individual categories may be inappropriate. For example, non-parametric methods can be used to analyse alcohol consumption directly using the categories never, a few times per year, monthly, weekly, a few times per week, daily and a few times per day. In contrast, parametric methods require scores (i.e. 1–7) to be assigned to each category, with the implicit assumption that the effect of moving from one category to the next is fixed. One important assumption of statistical inference is “Normal distribution”. In most statistical test, normal distribution assumption is necessary to derive test statistics. The shape of normal distribution is called “bell curve” which is characterized by two parameters, (1) mean, and (2) standard deviation. A normal distribution has 68% of all of its observations lie within a range of ±1 standard deviation from the mean, and a range of ±2 standard deviations includes 95% of the scores. b) Table 3 contains 15 members of staff from 3 organisations (5 each). They have given their rating on the relevancy of a local Business Excellence Award - a scale from 0 to 100. Organisation 1 is a typical high street retailer. Organisation 2 is a voluntary agency and the third is a small-medium sized company. Table 3: Rating on the Relevancy of a Business Excellence Award Organisation 1 Organisation 2 Organisation 3 95 90 75 92 80 74 85 80 74 82 70 55 74 65 52 Your tasks are: i) Suggest a non-parametric method to assess whether the rating is likely to be linked to the type of organisation; ii) Specify your null hypothesis, show all calculation by hand and explain your conclusion based upon your statistical results; iii) Repeat (ii) via SPSS; show all SPSS output. Solution: The ANOVA analysis required populations be normally distributed with equal variances. If these requirements are not met or unknown, the parametric ANOVA test of several means is replaced with the nonparametric Kruskal-Wallis H test of several medians. This test complements the Mann Whitney test of 2 medians. This test requires that data from independent random samples be at least ordinal in nature. Data is ranked. Ties are assigned the average of their ranks. A true null hypothesis means average group ranks are approximately equal. With scores of Business Excellent Award, n = 5, will be tested for equality of medians at the .05 level of significance. We will not assume normal distributions and use the Kruskal Wallis test. Weekly sales data is ranked with this chart. For the above problem, Kruskal-Wallis test can be used. H0: All populations are identical Ha: Not all populations are identical Where: H is the designated statistic. k is the number of samples. N is the number of observations. n, is a sample's size. R, is a sample's rank total. df = k -1 = 3 -1 = 2 , 2=5.99 Organisation 1 Rank  Organisation 2 Rank Organisation 3 Rank 95 14 90 12 75 7 92 13 80 8.5 74 6.5 85 11 80 8.5 74 6.5 82 10 70 4 55 2 74 5.5 65 3 52 1 R 53.50 36.00 23.00 R2 2,862.25 1,296.00 529.00 = 12/{15x (15+1)} + {(2,862/5) + (1,296/5)+ (529/5)}- 3 (15+1) = - 1.13, which is < 5.99 Therefore, H0 is not rejected. It means that the rating of Business Excellence Award are not significantly different among the respondents’ rating in the three organizations. Kruskal-Wallis Test Since the Asymp. Sig. value is significant or greater than 0.01alpha value, the null hypothesis is rejected. When the mean of each group differ from one another, the correlation between type of organization and the rating on business excellence can be tested. 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