(obligatory, max 20 points)

 

Step 1: Drafting a research idea

 

A) Organise an overview of a study you would like to conduct (approx. 1 page). In your overview, include (a) the problem or phenomenon you plan to study, (b) the research objective, (c) the type of data that would be useful. At this point, you need not be concerned about the specific approach to inquiry, but rather consider whether your phenomenon can be answered with a qualitative, quantitative or mixed-method research design.

B) Briefly explain how and why your research idea aims at either theory-testing or theory-building (200 words maximum).

 

Step 2: Checking the academic literature

 

A) Select 1 area of entrepreneurship research (e.g. social entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship education, business modelling) that relates to your idea formulated in Step 1, and read at least 2 articles of the relevant literature. Select only empirical articles (that use either qualitative or quantitative data)!

B) Give a short summary (approximately 200 words each) of the articles, including the topic, the data-collection methods used and the analytical approach. Do not copy and paste the abstract!

C) Then formulate three interesting research questions that are linked to that body of literature. 

 

Step 3: Collecting Data

 

As a next step we will collect and reflect upon two different types of data, observation and interview data. Maybe in step 1 and 2, you have already chosen in qualitative design, in which case you can apply your own topic in the following tasks.

A) Find and describe a place where people are enterprising or demonstrating entrepreneurial behaviour. First, focus your detailed description on what you see andsense, instead of providing an interpretation (approx. 2 pages).

B) Observe the actors and activities in this place for at least 15 minutes. Describe in detail three activities (of one or multiple actors) at this place. The actor(s) should demonstrate enterprising / entrepreneurial behaviour. As in exercise part A, provide a detailed description of your observation. Please consider ethical issues, such as privacy (make people unidentifiable, so do not publish names and other similar information).

C) Prepare a short interview guide (3 relevant questions) to ask about the enterprising / entrepreneurial behaviour you observed (think about rapport and topic/question order).

D) Interview someone for about 5 min at the place where you collected observation data. Record the interview using an audio device (e.g. a recording App on your cell phone). Transcribe the audio recording, which takes maximum half an hour (transcript needs to be attached!). 

NOTE: If you take or have taken the course "Doing Qualitative Research", make sure that you do not submit the same interview transcript! (If you submit the same answer as in any other course, TurnitIn will detect this as a case of plagiarism!)

 

Step 4: Reflecting on your data collection

 

A) Reflect upon the benefits and shortcoming of observation data versus interview data to address your research idea and research question.

B) Evaluate your interview technique (500-1000 words). Include a specific instance (including transcribed data) to reflect on person-oriented and task-oriented interviewer behaviour.


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