Research Methodology

Recommended Prerequisites

NA

Teaching Methods

Given the nature of this course unit, both expositive and participatory teaching approaches are used. In particular, students’ participation is encouraged when some data collection and data analysis techniques are illustrated. In such occasions, students are challenged to discuss in class how the methods and tools studied can be applied in their own research projects. 

Learning Outcomes

This course unit aims to provide the students with the necessary competencies and skills to identify and justify the relevance of a research problem, derive some research questions and select appropriate research methods to address them.

As a result of the learning process students should be able to:

(a)        Recognise different research paradigms and approaches

(b)        Provide the theoretical foundation of a basic research project, namely by identifying relevant bibliographic references and correctly citing them;

(c)        Understand the potentialities and limitations of different research strategies;

(d)        Build and validate some data collection instruments;

(e)        Identify and start using some data analysis tools, either quantitative or qualitative.

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

1.         Introduction. Fundamentals of scientific knowledge generation. The research process: main stages. Ethical concerns when conducting a research project.

2.         Research design: qualitative and quantitative approaches. Types of data.

3.         Primary and secondary data sources: identification and use.

4.         Literature review: purposes and guidelines. Citations and bibliographic references.

5.         Data collection methods: interviews and survey questionnaires

6.         Sampling processes.

7.         Scales properties and validation procedures.

8.         Data analysis: qualitative and quantitative methods. Introduction to the SPSS and MAXQDA software.

Head Lecturer(s)

Maria Paula Abreu Pereira da Silva

Assessment Methods

Assessment
Periodic or by final exam as given in the course information: 100.0%

Bibliography

BRYMAN, Alan ; BELL, Emma — Business research methods. 2nd ed. Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2007.

CRESWELL, J.; CRESWELL, D. - Research Design: qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods approaches, 5^th edition, Sage, 2017.

HART, Chris -  Doing a literature review: releasing the social science research imagination, Sage Publications: London, 2009.

HILL, Manuela Magalhães ; HILL, Andrew – Investigação por questionário. 2ª ed. rev. e corr.. Lisboa : Edições Sílabo, 2002.

MARÔCO, João -  Análise estatística com utilização do SPSS. Pero Pinheiro: ReportNumber, 2018.

REIS, Felipa Lopes dos - Como elaborar uma dissertação de Mestrado, Lisboa, Pactor, 2010.

SAUDERS, Mark ; LEWIS, Philip ; THORNHILL, Adrian — Research methods for business students. 8th ed. Pearson Education, 2019.