Syllabus

LEARNING OUTCOMES

Upon successful completion of this course, a student will:

• Be better able to interpret and critically assess the execution of empirical business/management studies from a methodological standpoint
• Collect, analyze/model and interpret quantitative data
• Understand the uses and limitations of common quantitative data analysis techniques
• Be prepared to undertake a Master's thesis adopting a quantitative approach

Credits: 3

Schedule: 22.10.2024 - 29.11.2024

Teacher in charge (valid for whole curriculum period):

Teacher in charge (applies in this implementation): Anastasia Koulouri

Contact information for the course (applies in this implementation):

Email: anastasia.koulouri@aalto.fi

Office: Business School, Department of Management Studies

Office hours: By appointment, please email

CEFR level (valid for whole curriculum period):

Language of instruction and studies (applies in this implementation):

Teaching language: English. Languages of study attainment: English

CONTENT, ASSESSMENT AND WORKLOAD

Content

• valid for whole curriculum period:

  This course is designed to introduce students studying in various areas of business to the principles and practice of quantitative research. The course covers: the fundamentals of the research process, an introduction to quantitative data collection methods, the statistical analysis and modeling of data; all with a focus on issues specific to business/management studies and an emphasis on hands-on experience. 

  Topics covered in the course include: hypotheses formulation and data collection; survey and questionnaire design; preparation of survey data, such as importation into SPSS, variable transformations, and reliability assessment of multi-item measurement scales; descriptive statistics, such as means, standard deviations, and correlations; and hypotheses tests, such as t-Tests, ANOVA, non-parametric tests, and linear regression.

Assessment Methods and Criteria

• valid for whole curriculum period:

  Based on attendance and successful completion of assignments.

• applies in this implementation

  The course assessment will be based on the following components:

  Assignment 1: Article based analysis (20%)

  Assignment 2: Data analysis exercise 1 (40%)

  Assignment 3: Data analysis exercise 2 (40%)

  All assignments are to be conducted individually.

  All assignments must be submitted and achieve a passing grade to pass the course. This means that for assignment 1 you need to achieve at least 10%, and for assignments 2 and 3 at least 20% in each.

  No late submissions are accepted unless there is a valid reason supported by evidence (e.g. doctor’s certificate which should be sent to confidential@aalto.fi). In such a case, please contact the Responsible Teacher to inform of the situation and discuss alternative arrangements-please do not email your certificate!

  
  

Workload

• valid for whole curriculum period:

  Lectures introducing theoretical concepts and techniques, and providing the opportunity to apply them in practice using SPSS.

  In first week (Period II or IV), there are two lectures, the first one is an introductory lecture organized together with the course MNGT-E1011 Qualitative Methods.

  Mandatory attendance to 5 out of 7 lectures.

  Assessment based on individual assignments.

• applies in this implementation

  Class contact, mandatory lectorials	21h
  Self-study, directed/undirected	14h
  Assignments	45h
  Total	80h (3 ECTS)

  
  

DETAILS

Study Material

• valid for whole curriculum period:

  Course materials (including slides, SPSS practice notes, exercises and associated commentary, datasets) as well as videos, books and journal articles.

Substitutes for Courses

• valid for whole curriculum period:

  Substitutes for Courses

Prerequisites

• valid for whole curriculum period:

  Prerequisites

FURTHER INFORMATION

Further Information

• valid for whole curriculum period:

  Teaching Language: English

  Teaching Period: 2024-2025 Autumn II
  2024-2025 Spring IV
  2025-2026 Autumn II
  2025-2026 Spring IV

  Registration:

  Students are admitted to the course in the following priority order 1) People Management and Organizational Development / Creative Sustainability / Global Management students, 2) other Master's students of Department of Management. This course is offered only for Master's students of Department of Management.

Details on the schedule

• applies in this implementation

  Session	Input: Date, Time	Indicative topic(s) covered	Deliverable
  1a	Lectorial: Tuesday 22.10.24 14:15-17:00	Introduction to the course   The scientific method, introduction to qualitative and quantitative research
  1b	Lectorial: Friday 25.10.24 09:15-11:45	Fundamentals of quantitative research. Quantitative data collection. Introducing SPSS.	Assessment 1: Issued on 25.10.24 Due 15.11.24, 23:00
  2	Lectorial: Friday 01.11.24 09:15-11:45   Drop-in: Wed 30.10.24 12:15-13:00	Fundamentals of quantitative research (cont.) Descriptive statistics Analyzing construct scales
  3	Lectorial: Friday 08.11.24 09:15-11:45   Drop-in: Wed 06.11.24 12:15-13:00	Hypothesis testing. Independent Samples t-Test. Analysis of Variance ANOVA Test	Assessment 2: Issued on 08.11.24 Due 29.11.24, 23:00
  4	Lectorial: Friday 15.11.24 09:15-11:45   Drop-in: Wed 13.11.24 12:15-13:00	Non-parametric tests	Assessment 3: Issued on 15.11.24 Due 05.12.24, 23:00
  5	Lectorial: Friday 22.11.24 09:15-11:45   Drop-in: Wed 20.11.24 12:15-13:00	Simple and Multiple linear regression
  6	Lectorial: Friday 29.11.24 09:15-11:45   Drop-in: Wed 27.11.24 12:15-13:00	Simple and Multiple linear regression (cont.) Research incubator.

  
  

Description