Approaches to Developing Research Methodology in Social Media: Reflections on Business, Schemes and Mind Maps of Business

Download Approaches to Developing Research Methodology in Social Media: Reflections on Business and more Schemes and Mind Maps Business in PDF only on Docsity! Reflections on Business Research Jeff McCarthy 1 Reflections on Business Research: Working Backwards, Forwards, Sideways Abstract This reflective thought paper considers approaches to doing business research that are discussed in the extant literature. The purpose is to stimulate debate by reflecting on the process of developing a research methodology, drawing on evidence from my own experiences of conducting research into social media in football. The paper questions the ‘top-down’ linear approach encouraged by research methods texts and usually evident in the presentation of research (Theses, Journals, and Conferences). It is suggested that the developing of a research methodology can be ‘bottom-up’ and iterative, thus posing challenges for the researcher to present such work in the more common style of a post-hoc rationalisation. In doing so, the paper makes a contribution to business research methodology and invites fellow researchers to share their views and experiences, for the benefit of early career researchers. Keywords: Business research, method, methodology, interview. Introduction Researchers of all levels wrestle with the process of developing an appropriate methodology for their research problem (Bryman and Bell, 2011). It is a critical factor in both academic development (Saunders et al., 2007) and the production of robust research practice (Crotty, 1998). The question is how does this actually work in practice? The aim of this paper is to stimulate debate regarding the process of developing a research methodology. In order to encourage the research community to share experience of how their research methodology has developed, this paper presents current work in progress. The discussion is intended to open up the debate regarding how business research is done and how research methodology is communicated in Theses, Journals and Conferences. It is hoped this would be to the benefit of early career researchers in particular. This discussion is organised as follows. Firstly, context is provided by offering a summary of the pilot study. Next, the research problem is stated to provide scope of the research field. The paper then offers a reflective discussion of how the research methodology is being developed, in doing so it seeks to open up debate regarding the process of developing research method and strategy. Finally, the paper concludes with a call for opinion exchange in order for researchers to share the issues they face when developing and presenting their research methodology. Reflections on Business Research Jeff McCarthy 2 The Pilot Study Foundation The aim of the research was to explore the impact of SNS on relationship marketing activity of football clubs. Due to the lack of research and the emergent nature of SNS, an inductive approach was considered more appropriate (Flick, 2009). It was argued a deductive approach from a more positivist perspective was less suited to dynamic phenomena as it is usually focused on testing of theories (Bryman and Bell, 2007). Case study research was used to evaluate the ‘how’ and ‘why’ questions of this exploratory research (Yin, 2009). Hence, to contribute to the theoretical development of SNS research (Fuchs, 2009) multiple case research, using four football clubs, was utilised offering varied empirical evidence (Eisenhardt, 2007) and academic contribution (Eisenhardt, 1989). Key additional data sources included: Literature review; selected digital and print relationship marketing communications; key newspaper and industry websites; key industry reports. Empirical data collection was achieved through qualitative interviews. Structured, semi-structured and conversational interviews were considered. Due to the emergent nature of SNS and lack of existing research, standardisation of interview was considered problematic if using structured interviews (Bryman and Bell, 2007). Conversational interviews were discounted due to the risk of the inexperienced researcher being diverted from research objectives (Warren, 2002). Thus semi-structured interviews were selected in order to offer some structure for across-case comparison (Bryman and Bell, 2007) whilst offering some flexibility (King, 2004). Further research suggestions to further develop academic and management understanding included: (1) single or multiple case research from the club perspective; (2) case research from the fan viewpoint; (3) a blend of the two; (4) unofficial site and fan perspective. Building on the pilot study, the paper will now state the research problem, in order to provide scope of the research field, during the MPhil stage of PhD study. The ‘Research Problem’ Identifying and formulating the research problem is a critical step in the process of developing a research foundation. It is essential the appropriate level of theoretical examination is developed in the context of that research problem (Saunders et al., 2009). Moreover, that there is sufficient academically and personally interest in the topic (Bryman and Bell, 2011). Further consideration should include the capability of the researcher to acquire and analyse data within the requisite timescales (Saunders et al., 2009). The PhD research problem is identified as: The rise of social media is presenting football clubs with difficulties in realising benefits within a social context. The research context covers the social media terrain, the role of social media, plus social media communication. Given this is paper reflects on the process of developing a research methodology, those three elements are not discusses here. However, it should be noted that key thematic and theoretical fields to be addressed by the research will be: (i) Commercial [stakeholder, strategy]; (ii) community [brand, tribalism]; (iii) communication [relationship marketing, fandom]. Reflections on Business Research Jeff McCarthy 5 Inductive and Deductive Considerations Firstly, let us deal with the basis for continuing with the inductive approach first used in the pilot study. Due to the lack of explicit theory in the field of social media, the research problem is not focused on the deductive testing of a theory (Bryman and Bell, 2011). “Social media is a very active and fast-moving domain.” (Kaplan and Haenlein 2010:64) and a relatively unexplored phenomenon, albeit gaining increasing scholarly attention. This is not to suggest that deductive research cannot be used for this field of rapid change. Rather it is an acknowledgement that much of this recent published research in social media has utilized an inductive approach (cf. Ashworth, 2011; Gummerus et al., 2011; Sepp et al., 2011). I would therefore suggest that in order to answer my research problem, an inductive approach is once again appropriate. Therefore, rather than generalizable theory, this study aims to develop particular theory (Patton, 2002:280) in respect of relationship marketing in sport. Moreover, it is intended that a contribution to the academic fields of social media and relationship marketing in sport will be made, by exploring the domain of social media from the football club perspective. A further consideration is what form of theory my study is discussing (Bryman and Bell, 2011). Rather than analysing the data to higher levels of abstraction to develop grand theory (Saunders et al., 2007) my research will focus on middle-range theory – enquiry which seeks to bridge theory and research (Bryman and Bell, 2007). For example, linking empirical findings associated with social media strategy and communications, to relationship marketing theory in sport. I would suggest this is important for bridging the gap between theory and practice. The approach outlined above clearly indicates research of a qualitative nature. There is no gold standard or agreed definition for what qualitative research is (Symon and Cassell, 2004). This has arguably made it difficult to establish the place of qualitative inquiry in marketing in particular (Gummesson, 2005). Stakeholders in the academic research field, such as journal editors, organisations, trainers, the research community, influence what is considered good practice (Symon and Cassell, 2004). At this stage, the scaffolding provided by Crotty (1998) has proven useful. In order to provide better marketing theory, I have followed the guidance to design my own approach (Crotty, 1998:12; Gummesson, 2005). We start by considering research methods, in effect working from the bottom-up. Working Backwards: Research Method My study seeks to provide a unique thesis from the football club perspective. I began by starting with tangible procedures (Crotty, 1998). Social media represents a real- life issue that football clubs need to address. I have already explained that an inductive approach was decided upon, therefore surveys and questionnaires were not actively considered, due to not being effective for carrying out exploratory work (Robson, 2002). Potential options considered for data gathering included action research, observational methods, interviews (cf. Bryman and Bell, 2011; Robson, 2002). Reflections on Business Research Jeff McCarthy 6 Action research and observational methods often rely on qualitative methods (Gummesson, 2000). They can alleviate the disconnect of social science by linking “…praxis and social theory in social research.” (Levin, M. and Greenwood, 2011:29). Action research has the benefit of including many types of data capture (Gummesson, 2000) and the potential to achieve generalizable results (Levin, M. and Greenwood, 2011). However for my research, the major issue is the feasibility of fulfilling this effectively (Gummesson, 2000) in view of resource, timescales and emotional demands (Bryman and Bell, 2011). In addition such studies can lack intellectual focus (Levin and Greenwood, 2011) and be considered close to consultancy or journalism rather than scientific study (Gummesson, 2000). The above factors led to action research being discounted. Observational methods also depend mostly on qualitative enquiry if relying on participant observation (Gummesson, 2000) or unobtrusive observation (Robson, 2002) but can involve a quantitative style through structured observation (Robson, 2002). Participant observation is often related to ethnographical studies and allows for flexibility whilst unobtrusive observation is usually unstructured and informal whilst being “non-reactive” (Robson, 2002:310). Data gathered can be dovetailed with information from many other techniques (Robson, 2002) and may give an insight into the real world (Bryman and Bell, 2011) whilst avoiding the contrived setting of other observation techniques (Robson, 2002). Observation is also very time consuming (Bryman and Bell, 2007). Scientifically, how can the researcher know if participant behaviour would have been different had there been no observation (Robson, 2002)? Given my research focuses predominantly on the football club perspective, it was not considered feasible to engage in observational methods. These organisations often operate with low numbers of marketing and commercial resource, thus any observational presence may be noticeable. The interview is very widely used for data collection in social science research (Robson, 2002) and can be located on the spectrum anywhere from qualitative and unstructured to quantitative and survey-based (Bryman and Bell, 2011; Gummesson, 2000; Robson, 2002). Kvale (1983:174) suggests the purpose of the qualitative research interview is: “…to gather descriptions of the life-world of the interviewee with respect to interpretation of the meaning of the described phenomena.”. The interview offers a flexible approach whereby the researcher can explore arising themes in more depth (Robson, 2002) however, they have to be carefully handled to ensure interview time is managed efficiently (Bryman and Bell, 2007) in order to ensure the interview remains focused on the research objectives (Warren, 2002). To achieve this it is essential that preparation is made for both the process of the interview, in addition to what equipment will be used to gather data (Bryman and Bell, 2011; Robson, 2002). Building on the pilot study, specific interview techniques again considered were structured, semi-structured and conversational. Semi-structured interviews provide the flexibility that benefits the qualitative interview (King, 2005) whilst offering sufficient structure for multiple-case comparison (Bryman and Bell, 2007) within case study methodology (Robson 2002). Based on this rationale and the previous pilot study which generated rich qualitative data (McCarthy et al., 2011), I again considered this an appropriate method for achieving the research objectives. Reflections on Business Research Jeff McCarthy 7 Predominantly, my study is investigating social media from the club perspective. However, as the research is iterative there are other methods still being considered for future data gathering, post interview phase. These include focus groups and netnography. The latter because e-tribes are continually forming around specific consumption related communities (Kozinets 2006) and the importance of the internet and fan voice has been identified (Auty 2002). Analysing online data from football communities may offer a useful counter view to the football club perspective. Contribution to the thematic fields of this study [commercial, community and communication] could be achieved. Finally, it is envisaged that particular topics and themes will be generated from the interviews, hence the focus group is also being considered in order to explore these in depth (Bryman and Bell, 2011). Working Backwards: Research Strategy (Methodology) Due to word limit restrictions, discussion now centres on the specific methodology identified and how this developed within the context of the research process. Given this discussion introduced the four elements of Crotty’s (1998) framework, the first question may ask why case study is located within methodology rather than method? For Crotty, case research is indeed classified as a method (:4). However his framework is intended to offer “...scaffolding, not an edifice” (:2) which should be fashioned to suit the particular research purposes. Crotty is admittedly discussing his entire research framework here rather than selected methods individually, however his ethos is not to be prescriptive as to the precise nature of study for the individual researcher. Case study is indeed considered a research strategy by other scholars (cf. Bryman and Bell, 2011; Denzin and Lincoln, 2008; Flyvbjerg, 2011; Hartley, 2004; Saunders et al., 2007; Stake, 1995; 2005; Yin, 2009). The next question naturally concerns single or multiple case research. Types of cases include those seeking to generate specific conclusions unique to cases and those making general conclusions across multiple cases, though it should be noted that both can achieve results of general interest (Gummesson, 2000). Case research is becoming more common in football-related studies investigating relationship marketing. However the tendency is single case (cf. Adamson et al., 2005; Bauer et al., 2005; Tapp, 2004; Tapp and Clowes, 2002). Only recently has multiple-case research been used to extend the understanding of relationship marketing theory in sport (Stavros and Westberg, 2009). Case research is not without criticisms which Yin (2009) summarises as follows: 1. The researcher should follow systematic procedures and must endeavour to present any evidence fairly, being aware of potential bias when conducting data collection, discussing findings and conclusions. 2. Secondly, generalizing to theoretical propositions rather than populations can lead to limited basis for scientific generalization. 3. Thirdly, they can take too long and result in large unreadable documents. 4. Finally, they can be considered randomized experiments that seek to identify causal relationships. Reflections on Business Research Jeff McCarthy 10  Listening to some of my taped interviews with a focus on your performance as an interviewer. Finally, it is important I obtain a range of views on the research topic (Rapley, 2004). Interviewees will therefore be selected to offer multiple perspectives, for example from the marketing manager, commercial director and head of ticketing. Interviewee recruitment may happen by chance as well as careful planning, hence notes on the recruitment process will be taken and aligned with the research outcomes (Rapley, 2004). Moving on from tangible techniques, the next step in the process involved the research strategy. Data Analysis The development of qualitative coding cannot be completely divorced from the approach taken (Kelle, 2004). I have already discussed the inductive approach to research interviews which should allow findings to emerge from the data whilst I maintain awareness of extant literature (Suddaby, 2006), rather than potentially missing key themes through a deductive approach (Thomas, 2003). As there is more than one case, I must beware of “thin description resulting from less focus on the uniqueness and complexities of a single case (Stake, 2005). Boundaries for each case and the overall multiple case analysis must therefore be set in advance, for example if the interviewee is being asked to respond from a personal or organisational perspective, time per interview; social media scope. Within-case analysis will precede across-case analysis (Patton, 2002; Perry, 1998) in order to identify emergent themes, content and key issues related to the research objectives. When analyzing across-case, it is recommended that categories or dimensions are selected, prior to looking for similarities or differences (Eisenhardt, 1989). This foundation will be subsequently revisited with cases thought of as a whole in order to “... allow commonalities to emerge.” (Stavros and Westberg, 2009:312). The aim of this process is to facilitate analytic generalization rather than statistical generalization (Yin, 2009), in order to contribute to the fields of social media and relationship marketing in sport. Hence, the research will examine impact at a higher level than initial data analysis (McLellan et al., 2003) to develop middle- range theory. In order to achieve the above effectively it is necessary to ensure robust data collection techniques (Kelle, 2004). Interview data preparation will therefore need careful consideration (McLellan et al., 2003), therefore it is considered that analysis will be best supported by transcription rather than researcher notes (Patton, 2002). Field notes will also be utilised in order to document the general feel of the interview and main points arising (Riege 2003) and some awareness of the wider significance (Hartley, 2004). Interview transcripts will be emailed to interviewees for approval, to achieve credibility of findings (Riege, 2003; Stavros and Westberg, 2009) and validity of findings (Perry, 1998). Feedback is also very important from an ethical and risk viewpoint (Stake, 2005) and is likely to increase ongoing cooperation in the research. A transcription protocol will also be developed (McLellan et al., 2003). Reflections on Business Research Jeff McCarthy 11 I may occasionally feel overload with the sheer volume of rich qualitative data (Bryman and Bell, 2011; Kelle, 2004). I will therefore ask three questions (King, 2004), namely: (i) Is the data aligned to the original aim of the study and if not is it raising new topics to investigate? (ii) How does extant literature discuss such issues being tackled? (iii) Can I gain from experience of fellow qualitative researchers outside of the immediate research environment? Finally, data collection and analysis will be iterative (Seidel, 1998) in order to identify where next (Hartley, 2004). This will also require iterative review of the most appropriate method, thus further navigation sideways, backwards and forwards. Conclusion In order to open the debate regarding the process of developing a research methodology, this paper has shared a reflective discussion of how my research is developing. It is suggested that the social science research community, and the early career business researcher in particular, would benefit considerably from researchers of all levels sharing their experiences of how their research has actually evolved. Rather than reporting their inductive work in a linear fashion, which is written as a post-hoc rationalisation, I would contend that reporting the story of how the methodology developed and the rationale at each stage would be of considerable value to the research community. After all scholarly study is often a long journey, during which we researchers must frequently look in all directions in order to be confident the outcome of our selected methodology and methods is accepted as sound, respectable research (Crotty, 1998). Admittedly, the theoretical perspective and epistemology have been neglected in this paper as they are under consideration and ongoing development. However, at one level the theoretical perspective will be influenced by the theory of relationship marketing and the assumptions this holds. The growth of integrated conceptual frameworks of enquiry from 1986 led to relationship marketing as a body of literature (Dwyer et al., 1987; Kerin, 1996). As this field developed, the role of trust (Moorman et al., 1993) and commitment and trust (Morgan and Hunt, 1994) became central constructs in the shift towards an emphasis on developing and managing relationships between buyer and seller (Grönroos, 1994). The irony appears to be that whilst internet usage suggests fans want to engage in dialogue with their club (Auty, 2002; SportsWise, 2010; Universal McCann, 2010) and develop a relationship, clubs have not delivered this (Adamson et al., 2005) and have in fact been to some extent resistant (McCarthy et al., 2011; Supporters Direct and Substance, 2010). The research will investigate the role social media may play in aligning these ideals (if at all), hence the role of ‘social’ in relationship marketing theory. For me, further work will explore the prescriptions in the extant literature, regarding how to progress through the methodology chapter. The intention will be to challenge the apparent orthodoxy of the post-hoc rationalisation of research methodology. Taking the example of the PhD Thesis, a more transparent, critical discussion of the journey could detail and justify the decisions taken and the underpinning rationale at each stage of this research. Admittedly, such an approach may cause real Reflections on Business Research Jeff McCarthy 12 challenges for the publication of such studies, nevertheless I would hope such discussion would prove informative for early career researchers. Hopefully fellow academics will share their experiences and views. Bibliography Adamson, G., Jones, W. & Tapp, A. 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