Teachers

Eminent Scholar and Verizon Chair at the Pamplin College of Business Viswanath Venkates, Virginia Tech.

Overview

Mixed-methods research is an approach that combines quantitative and qualitative methods within a single inquiry to generate insights. Every method has its strengths and weaknesses. Mixed-methods research can leverage the strengths of one method while minimizing its weaknesses by using another method. This three-day course covers various facets of mixing qualitative and quantitative methods and their results. Participants will have the opportunity to design a mixed-methods study for an ongoing project. It should be noted that the aim of this workshop is NOT to teach qualitative or quantitative methods, but rather to focus on mixing. Therefore, it is important for participants to have a strong background in one type of method (qualitative or quantitative) and some familiarity with the other type of method.

The course itself is designed to help students in various social and behavioral sciences disciplines, with an emphasis on behavioral disciplines within business. Examples from various disciplines will be used, depending on the class composition.

With an eye toward an interactive, active learning environment, the enrollment will be capped as specified in the registration.

Objectives

The objectives are:

a)      To understand the value of mixed-methods research.

b)      To understand various purposes of mixed-methods research.

c)       To understand how to leverage purposes to different research situations.

d)      To position mixed-methods research within the context of one’s own research endeavors.

Structure

The format will be a combination of lecture and classroom discussion. It will be better to come prepared to discuss required readings, although being a methods course, it is understandable if you are not able to grasp all the details/nuances in the readings. The focus of the discussion will be on the conceptual foundations and the application of ideas related to mixed-methods research, illustrated with exemplars. In addition to learning the conceptual foundations, participants will develop a mixed-methods research study on a topic of their choice.

Program

Note: The sessions are not designed to be of equal length. The professor will focus especially on the purposes and illustrations of mixed-methods research. Additionally, time will be allocated to participants working (alone or jointly, depending on class size) on exercises and their own research topic/problem for which they will develop a mixed-methods study design.

Session 1:

Introduction, discussion of research interests

Overview of mixed methods

Session 2:

Paradigmatic issues in mixed-methods research

Session 3:

Nature of theory in mixed-methods research

Session 4:

Appropriateness of using a mixed-methods research approach

Session 5:

Basic strategies for mixed-methods research

Session 6:

Mixed-methods data collection and data analysis strategies [overview only]

Session 7:

Writing a mixed-methods paper

Session 8:

Meta-inferences and closing thoughts

Optional (time permitting): Discussion of peer reviewing, especially in mixed-methods research

Materials

Pre-course readings

Foundational material

Venkatesh, V., Brown, S. A., and Bala, H. 2013. “Bridging the Qualitative–Quantitative Divide: Guidelines for Conducting Mixed Methods Research in Information Systems,” MIS Quarterly (37:1), pp. 21–54. (https://doi.org/10.25300/MISQ/2013/37.1.02).

Venkatesh, V., Brown, S. A., and Sullivan, Y. W. 2016. “Guidelines for Conducting Mixed-Methods Research: An Extension and Illustration,” Journal of the Association for Information Systems (17:7), pp. 435–495. (https://doi.org/10.17705/1jais.00433).

Book [in the detailed schedule made available later, readings referring to BOOK is this book]

Venkatesh, V., Brown, S.A., and Sullivan, Y.W. Conducting Mixed-Methods Research: From Classical Social Sciences to the Age of Big Data and Analytics, VT Publishing, 2023. (downloadable for free from http://vvenkatesh.com).