COMMERCE 4037 - Research Methodology (H)

North Terrace Campus - Semester 1 - 2015

This course is designed for students to fulfil the following learning objectives: Understand the philosophies, concepts and elements of designing a research inquiry; Appreciate alternative approaches to research in commerce and the social sciences, with emphasis on deductive empirical research; Have knowledge of methods of collecting, measuring and in a broad structural sense, analysing, quantitative and qualitative data; Be familiar with designing and administering field surveys, laboratory experiments, case study, archival analysis and action-based approaches to research. Topics covered in this will include: Science, research and theory; The research process and the research proposal; Deductive empirical research; Constructs, variables, hypotheses and empirical schema; Deductive empirical research: measurement and sampling; Inductive qualitative research: Design issues, concept formulation, methods of analysis; Field surveys and questionnaires; Experimental designs; Observational studies: case studies and interviews; Non-reactive research: content analysis and secondary data mining; Other research methods: Historical-comparative research, action research; Presentation of a research proposal. Students will engage in interactive discussion of set questions and presentations of reviews of methodologies in selected research articles. A full research proposal for their dissertation will be presented at an academic staff seminar; students will use feedback from this seminar in the final write-up of their proposal.

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