31 Jan In the SLPs, you will take a

DOC670 Applied Statistics for Research

Module 1 Case

ASSESSMENT OF DATA SOURCES FOR THE RESEARCH PROBLEM

Assignment Overview

You will be working from the statement of intent about your project and the introduction that you originally prepared in DOC650 along with the literature review that you prepared in DOC660. By now, you should have a pretty good idea of the structure of your project, what you hope to accomplish with it, who you will be working with on it, and what you will actually be doing. The purpose of this methodology statement is to describe systematically what you will be doing in your research and how you will be doing it.

In the Case for this module, you will be reviewing numerous readings relating to different kinds of studies and how they are structured, the relationship between research questions and study design, and the constraints on research posed by different kinds of designs. You will then be asked to review your study and your research questions in light of this material, and to select and describe an appropriate study design that you believe will help you answer the research questions you have posed. This will constitute the first section of your project methodology.

As the course progresses, you will be making a series of decisions in which you will increasingly specify the structure of your project. These decisions build on each other in critical ways. However, you are not locked into previous decisions if you subsequently decide you need to change direction. In each subsequent module, as you build up your methodology, you will have an opportunity to go back and revise and/or extend the sections completed in previous modules. Case grades given for the first four modules will be advisory rather than final. Your ultimate grade will be based on the completed methodology at the end of the course.

Case Assignment

Prepare a 5- to 7-page paper in accordance with the Assignment Expectations below, describing the basic research design for your project, in accordance with the following outline:

Restate your research question(s), simply and directly.

Describe your basic assumptions about the project, the research site, and the participants, as well as the role that you hope to play.

Describe the goal(s) you hope your project will achieve.

Describe the general methodology you chose for your study, in terms of the various categories of research described in the module readings:

Relative mix of quantitative and qualitative data

Exploratory vs. descriptive

Other categories

Explain why this method is the best for your purposes.

Identify your research partner(s) and the role they will play in the project.

List any specific deliverables that you will provide to your research partner(s) at the end of the project.

DOC670 Applied Statistics for Research

Module 1 SLP

ASSESSMENT OF DATA SOURCES FOR THE RESEARCH PROBLEM

In this SLP you will begin the process of collecting and analyzing background information on the firm for your dissertation. You received this firm’s commitment via the Letter of Intent in DOC650. In the SLPs, you will analyze secondary data on your chosen firm. (In the Cases, you will design how you will conduct your primary research at the firm.) Secondary data are records that are publicly available while primary data for most of you will involve interviews and observations at the firm.

In the SLPs, you will take a deep dive into the context of the firm for your dissertation. For some of you this may be a for-profit corporation that has stockholders and publishes an Annual Report with articles about the firm in Forbes, Fortune, CNNMoney, and other sources. For others, this may be a non-profit or volunteer organization. Some may have selected a small business that is privately owned, or you may have selected a government agency for your dissertation. You could be researching an educational institution at any level. Bear in mind that before you can start collecting primary data from the firm, you will need to submit a proposal on your research to Trident’s Institutional Review Board, one of whose rules is that research subjects must be at least 18 years of age.

In this SLP, you will describe the organization where you will conduct your dissertation research, describing the organization in detail and why it is relevant for your research question. Here in SLP 1, you will build a quantitative case to supplement your qualitative rationale for selecting this firm.

Below is a list of data sources that may be helpful in finding background information for your firm. You may have other sources, and you can certainly use them as long as you provide the source for the information you use in justifying the context for your dissertation research.

Data Sources

Pew http://www.pewresearch.org/download-datasets/

http://money.cnn.com/quote/financials/financials.html?symb=UA

https://www.usa.gov/statistics