Course description

https://sisu.jyu.fi/student/courseunit/otm-4cd93bcf-c0af-4d6f-a056-b07f844069f5/brochure

Instructor: Eminent Scholar and Verizon Chair, Virginia Tech, Viswanath Venkatesh

This course is designed as an introduction to scientific inquiry for students in the social and behavioral sciences, with a particular interest and emphasis on business research. Being a scientist and using rigorous scientific approaches, whether in academic or applied research, requires the ability to create credible new knowledge. Such new knowledge creation starts with a deep reflection on what philosophical approach(es) one would/could take to a research inquiry, how one might plan and structure research over a period of time, develop deep, rich explanations for the phenomenon being investigated, and effectively communicate these ideas both in written and oral forms. Such knowledge creation must necessarily be grounded in the prior literature on the topic. Creating new knowledge thus requires a series of activities, from identifying an important problem worth pursuing to devising explanations related to the problem and its solution. These will together form the core subject matter of this course, which will be further housed within a systematic approach to solving related problems over time, and about which one can write for either scientific or practitioner journals/communities or both. At the heart of such a problem-solving approach is the development of theory and the making of substantive scientific and practical contributions. Such contributions are essential to the successful publication of papers in journals in the social and behavioral sciences. Recognizing that this involves both art and science, we will explore both in this course. In turn, this emphasis on theory will be situated within the elements of an empirical journal article.

The format will be a combination of lecture, dialog, healthy debate, classroom discussion, thought exercises, and group discussion. Students must come prepared to discuss all required readings, although being a course that discusses a breadth of topics including the core of what it means to be a social scientist, a business researcher, a researcher in academia, a researcher who does impactful research and what it means to do science, it is understandable if you are not able to grasp all the details/nuances in the readings. The instructor may also assign videos to watch prior to class to allow for time for discussion.

Attendance:

Attendance at all sessions is mandatory. Students who miss class are encouraged to seek support from classmates to obtain notes and materials. Assignments must still be completed by the posted deadlines, unless the instructor approves an extension.

Pre-course assignment

Students must read the Venkatesh (2021) book. Specifically, chapters 2 and 4 are required, along with a deep reflection on their research program; other chapters are recommended readings. The students will be expected to discuss their thoughts on their research program, in line with chapter 2. When students work on their paper for the course and their presentation, they will be expected to follow the template in chapter 4. The pre-course reading and discussion is marked pass/fail, while the deeper reflection and its implications will have an impact on the course grade.

Workload

Course time requirement (4 ECTS = 108 hours)
Pre-course assignment (incl. reading the book): 24 hours
Class participation: 24 hours
Class preparation: 24 hours
Paper & presentation preparation: 36 hours
TOTAL time: 108 hours

Deliverables and grading

The course uses a mastery [rather than performance] orientation as the underlying philosophy. The course deliverables are designed to help students learn and master the content, and to apply the concepts through exercises. Participating in classroom discussions, classroom activities, and assignments aims to facilitate learning. All assignments (deliverables) are expected to be submitted on time. Feedback will be provided with an eye toward improving the work; individual assignments will not be assigned a grade that contributes to the final evaluation, but indicative grades will be provided to give students an understanding of their progress. However, each late submission or missed assignment will result in a 5% penalty to the overall grade (i.e., missing one assignment will reduce the maximum course score from 100 to 95). But all assignments, even if late, must be submitted and graded to be satisfactory.

Paper and presentation:
The final paper and associated presentation will be graded and are the only two graded deliverables in this course. Additionally, although not graded, each student will be required to review and provide feedback on a few (no more than 3) peer presentations—failure to do so results in a 10% grade penalty. The paper, the presentation, and the peer review are individual assignments.

The paper is the front end of a typical empirical journal article—i.e., introduction, literature review, model development, and an abbreviated discussion section. In this type of paper, you will conduct preliminary research (focused on practical motivation, scientific motivation, literature review, and model development) on a problem of interest to you and write this in a traditional journal article format. This paper can be written under the supervision of another professor, for instance, with whom you are working, but they need to be made aware of the work being used as a course deliverable and should thus keep at arm’s length during the course. Nonetheless, this course instructor’s decisions on all matters, including the quality and direction, are binding and final.

The recommended length is a maximum of 20 pages double-spaced (Times New Roman, 12-pt, 1” margins), not including tables, figures, and references. A longer paper is permitted but will be subject to a length-to-contribution ratio assessment (do not load up important content into tables/figures to make the paper conform to the length requirements). The paper should include appropriate references and a complete and formatted bibliography, or the deliverable will NOT be graded and an F (grade) will be assigned. Note that writing a paper that conforms to length guidelines is important, given that several journals strictly enforce length guidelines. The paper must conform to the formatting guidelines of the American Psychological Association (APA). If a paper does not conform to the guidelines, it will be docked at least one letter grade. Beyond the journal format for the bibliography, including DOI links at the end of each reference is required, even if it is not part of the current APA bibliography format.

Absent exceptional circumstances, late submissions will be scored as a 0.

Grading of the paper is subjective. Exceeding expectations earns an A, and meeting expectations earns a B. As noted earlier, working on various assignments and receiving and responding to feedback will be critical to earning a better grade.

In general, time is better spent using the feedback to learn than arguing about the assigned grade. Nonetheless, students can appeal their grades, and all such appeals must be submitted to the instructor in writing within 7 days of receiving the grade and will result in the entire deliverable in question being regraded, which may in turn result in no change, a change up, or even a change down. Independent grade appeals to the instructor; students can, of course, appeal grades on deliverables or their final grades in compliance with VT policy on grade appeals.

Students must submit 20-minute video presentation of their paper. Presentations longer than 20 minutes will not be reviewed and will receive a score of 0. The presentation must adhere to the highest professional standards and be compliant with the Executive PhD branding.
Details on the structure, format, and other aspects of the paper (both types) and the presentation will be discussed later in class.

Course objective

The objectives of this course are:
a) Learn the basics of theory development.
b) Learn how to do effective literature reviews.
c) Learn hypothesis development techniques and become familiar with various alternative techniques to theory development.
d) Learn different approaches to problem definition.
e) Learn contextualized, indigenous theory development, and opportunities for research in different contexts.
f) Learn how to write a paper.