Measurement in social research: some misunderstandings

The concept of numerical measurement based on the manipulation of objects has impoverished and distorted the meaning of magnitude and scale. This article aims to contribute to a concept of the most fruitful measurement for the development of the social sciences, with reference to specific aspects indicating the differences from the natural one and regarding, in particular, the non-numeric.     

Extending monitoring methods to textual data: a research agenda

Textual data has become increasingly common in business analytic data sets. While concept-based text mining offers a method of extracting meaningful information from text data, methods for monitoring of customer perceptions of business processes and products that are discussed in customer-generated documents are not immediately available. We explore the results of two text-mining algorithms and review issues observed in the data that affect uploading the results onto a newly proposed methodological monitoring platform analogous to statistical process control charts. Finally, we discuss several topics for future research in text mining.     

Special issue: Qualitative and quantitative methods in tourism research

Quality & Quantity -     

Qualitative methodology and its pitfalls in educational research

There is considerable controversy in educational research with respect to the use of qualitative and quantitative data and as to what constitutes scientific research. The objective of this study is to explore the degree to which in-service teachers understand the difference between qualitative/quantitative data and methods, validity/authenticity, generalization and how these can be used to solve problems faced by the teachers. The study is based on 84 participants who had registered for a 10-week course on Methodology of Investigation in Education, as part of their Master’s degree program. The course is based on 11 readings drawing on a history and philosophy of science perspective (positivism, constructivism, Popper, Kuhn, Lakatos). Course activities included written reports, class room discussions based on participants’ presentations, and written exams. Based on the results obtained it is concluded: (a) Most participants understood that the problem to be investigated precedes the method and determines the methodology to be used; (b) As all observations are theory-laden, it is preferable that interpretations based on both qualitative and quantitative data be allowed to compete in order to provide validity to our research findings; (c) The difference between validity and authenticity was controversial and most participants considered the need for interpreting data and hence favored authenticity; (d) Discussions led to the idea of ‘degrees of validity’ as both validity in the quantitative sense and authenticity in the qualitative sense, ultimately depend on critical appraisals of the community; (e) Generalizability of results obtained from qualitative studies was a controversial topic and most participants agreed that it is not desirable to generalize; (f) Discussions suggested an alternative: In both qualitative and quantitative research generalizability is possible, provided we are willing to grant that our conceptions/theories are not entirely grounded in empirical evidence but rather on the degree to which the community can uphold such a consensus; (g) Most teachers considered the use of participant observation in qualitative research as non-controversial. Class discussions led to the understanding that emphasizing observations may lead us to the Aristotelian ideal of empirical science; (h) Formulation of hypotheses, manipulation of variables, and the quest for causal variables was considered by many teachers to be equivalent to the scientific method. Discussions facilitated the understanding that this led to idealization and thus helped to reduce the complexity of a problem.     

A textual analysis of Bank of England growth forecasts

The Bank of England publishes a quarterly Inflation Report that provides numerical forecasts and a text discussion of its assessment of the UK economy. Previous research has evaluated the quantitative forecasts that are included in these reports, but we focus on the qualitative discussion of output growth, by using an in-sample textual analysis procedure to convert these qualitative assessments into a score for each report over the period 2005–2014. We also construct out-of-sample scores for reports before and after this period. We then compare the scores both to real-time output growth data and to the corresponding quantitative projections published by the bank. We find that overall developments in the UK economy were represented accurately in the text of the Inflation Report. Furthermore, efficiency regressions suggest that there is information in the text that could improve the Bank of England’s quantitative nowcasts and one-quarter-ahead forecasts.     

The case for psychology in human resource management research

A recent literature has developed criticising the growing influence of a psychological perspective within research on human resource management (HRM). This paper addresses and rebuts the various criticisms and outlines the positive contribution of work and organisational psychology to HRM research. In looking to the future and the continuing development of HRM research, we argue that there is a need to engage in research that is multidisciplinary, multilevel, multistakeholder, and multimethod. We propose a number of research topics that meet these criteria and to which work and organisational psychology can offer a distinctive contribution. We call for other disciplines to make a more positive contribution to ensure that HRM research continues to flourish.     

The psychology of talent management: A review and research agenda

Across six different streams of the literature (i.e., HRM; I/O psychology; educational psychology; vocational psychology; positive psychology; social psychology) we identify a number of discrepancies (i.e., between practitioner and academic interest; between talent management discourse and practice), theoretical perspectives (i.e., talent as capital; talent as individual difference; talent as giftedness; talent as identity; talent as strength; and talent as the perception of talent), tensions (i.e., object–subject; inclusive–exclusive; innate–acquired; input–output; transferable–context-dependent), and assumptions (i.e., about intuition versus data; about the effects of being labeled ‘talented’; about the effects of differential treatment) which we argue can serve as a basis for theory building, methodological advances, and new empirical work. With this review, we hope to join a growing group of talent management scholars pushing to make the transition from a growing into a mature field of study, characterized by widely accepted theoretical frameworks and research designs, and supported by the scholarly community.     

Qualitative multiple criteria choice analysis

In recent years an avalanche of literature has been published in the field of multiple criteria analysis. This methodology for decision-making and evaluation serves to find the best compromise solutions among alternative choice options, taking into account the existence of conflicting judgment criteria.The present paper focuses attention on one particular class of multiple criteria methods, viz. those in which the available information (impacts and policy priorities) is measured in an ordinal sense. This low level of measurement precludes the application of standard numerical methods. For this problem a new method, the so-called regime analysis, is devised in the paper.     

我国企业购并过程中的若干误区

我国企业购并的规模经济动机常常与实际效果不相一致，这在很大程度上是与企业购并过程中存在的若干认识与行动误区有关的。本文对企业购并中存在的七种误区进行了深入分析。     

Qualitative comparative analysis (QCA): an application for the industry

This article examines the management in Colombian industrial sectors using qualitative comparative analysis (QCA). This method conceptualizes cases as combinations of attributes and use Boolean algebra to derive simplified expressions of combinations that lead to a specific outcome. In this analysis, we show the value of this method for studying the management in the industrial from different approaches.     

浅析现代汽车电子控制系统的维修误区

随着汽车技术和电子技术的迅速发展,电子控制系统在现代汽车上得到广泛的应用,因此在对带有电子控制系统汽车的维修中出现了新的问题,但由于长期受传统修理方式的影响,以致在对汽车电子控制系统维修时常会出现一定的误区。     

On the reliability of unitizing textual continua: Further developments

This paper builds on an agreement coefficient proposed by Krippendorff (Content analysis: an introduction to its methodology, 2013) for measuring the reliability of unitizing and coding continuous phenomena, for example, of texts, videos, or sound recordings. It serves three purposes: It modifies Krippendorff’s definition which turned out to behave not as expected when applied to more than two observers, coders, or annotators. It extends this reliability measure to a family of four coefficients able to assess the reliabilities of diverse properties of unitized continua. It adds a way to obtain the confidence intervals of these coefficients as well as the probability of failing to reach targeted reliability levels. And it describes and provides access to free software that calculates all values of this family of reliability coefficients.     

Motivators and barriers to sustainable food consumption: Qualitative inquiry about organic food consumers in a developing nation

The present research attempts to qualitatively explore the motivators and barriers of organic food consumption in the Indian context. The data were collected using semistructured in‐depth interviews and analyzed using grounded theory. The theoretical sampling technique was used to interview 34 consumers who have purchased organic food in the past. The findings reported health consciousness, environmental consciousness, social identity, consumer ethnocentrism, and concern for farmers as the factors that motivate organic food purchase among consumers. The factors such as high prices of organic food, unavailability, trust issues, and limited marketing communications from the firms were identified as major barriers to organic food purchase and consumption. The study is one of the initial attempts to qualitatively explore the consumers' motivation for organic food consumption in the Indian context. The findings will help policymakers to devise suitable strategies so that they can effectively target the organic food choices by understanding the motivators/barriers, and promote the sustainable lifestyle in the society, as food consumption plays a crucial role in achieving environmental sustainability.     

关于实证会计研究的认识与思考

实证法是实证会计理论的研究方法,实证会计理论和规范会计理论是两种基本的会计理论。正确认识实证法、实证会计理论和规范会计理论的关系,对于完善我国的会计理论体系具有重要意义,本文对此进行了分析与探讨。     

浅议科研项目经济效益的静态分析

为了使计算简便、快捷,并减少调查研究的工作量,文章采用静态分析法对科研项目的经济效益进行了分析,并提出了进一步完善分析的方法。     

Qualitative and quantitative research in the humanities and social sciences: how natural language processing (NLP) can help

Quality & Quantity - The paper describes computational tools that can be of great help to both qualitative and quantitative scholars in the humanities and social sciences who deal with words as...