Management and business research / Mark Easterby-Smith; Richard Thorpe; Paul R. Jackson

Now in its Fifth Edition, this much-loved text offers theoretical and philosophical depth as well as insights into practice. The text covers the entire research process in an accessible way and provides critical, thoughtful treatment of important issues like ethics and politics, making it an invaluable companion for any business and management student.

1.Getting started and writing the research proposal -- The landscape of management and business research -- Elements of a research proposal -- Clear research questions and research objectives -- Explanation of how the research relates to previous work in the field -- Concise description of the research design and methods -- The impact and engagement agenda -- Conclusion -- Further reading -- 2.Reviewing the literature -- What is a literature review and what are its main purposes? -- Preparing a literature review: finding and recording relevant literature -- Finding relevant literature -- Evaluating literature -- Writing a literature review -- Conclusion -- Further reading -- 3.The philosophy of management and business research -- The philosophical debates -- Ontology: from realism to nominalism -- Epistemology: positivism vs social constructionism -- Strengths and weaknesses of the main traditions -- Paradigms and research approaches -- Note continued: Conclusion -- Further reading -- 4.Designing management and business research -- The essence of research design -- Positivist research designs -- Experimental methods -- Survey research -- Constructionist research designs -- Case method and grounded theory -- Mixed methods -- Common design dilemmas -- Contributing to theory -- Contrasting views on validity and reliability -- Research design template -- Conclusion -- Further reading -- 5.Politics, access and ethics -- Politics and power in research -- Political influences on research -- Politics of access -- Ethics -- Conclusion -- Further reading -- 6.Crafting qualitative data through language and text -- Crafting qualitative data -- Textual data -- Qualitative interviews -- Preparing for data collection -- Conducting interviews -- Interview-based mapping techniques -- Conclusion -- Further reading -- 7.Crafting qualitative data through observation and interaction -- Visual data -- Note continued: Observational research -- Interactive and participatory methods -- General concerns related to the creation of qualitative data -- Conclusion -- Further reading -- 8.Framing and interpreting qualitative data -- Preparing and managing qualitative data -- Framing and interpreting qualitative data: seven approaches -- Computer-aided analysis -- Quality in qualitative research -- Conclusion -- Further reading -- 9.Crafting quantitative data -- Sources of quantitative data -- Question design -- Measurement models -- Conclusion -- Further reading -- 10.Summarizing and making inferences from quantitative data -- Summarizing and describing data -- Going beyond a sample -- Conclusion -- Further reading -- 11.Multivariate analysis -- The domain of multivariate analysis -- Multivariate analysis of causal models -- Conclusion -- Further reading -- 12.Writing management and business research -- The skills of writing -- The content of reports and dissertations -- Note continued: Writing up the literature review -- Outputs and evaluation -- Plagiarism -- Dissemination strategies -- Conclusion -- Further reading.